Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-05-23
Misfellaneous Rraain9.
WHEN PLAINS RIDERS DIE.
Members of Royal Northwest Mounted
Police Always True to Tradition OF
Their Famous Corps.

Their Famous Corps.
Another tragedy of the Royal North
west Mounted Police has been chroni-
icled in the frozen wilds where red
| coated constables are the physical
manifestation of British law. The
bodies of four men, constituting the
regular winter patrol from FIT. Nc
Pherson to Dawson in the Yukon ter
ritory, were found the other day by
a relief party sent out from Dawson
after two months had elapsed without
word from the riders. Two Of them,
| Constables Kinney and Taylor, were
discovered 35 miles from Mcpherson.
The others, Inspector Fitzgerald and
Constable Carter, were ten miles fur
ther on the road. Carter, who had
been married only a few months, had
summoned every ounce Of energy to
aid him in the fight to reach safety.
AS for Fitzgerald, he had only obeyed
the common initiative Of his corps, the
initiative that demands that an off,
Ger must think of his men before him.
self. He had pushed on in a desper-
ate attempt to find relief.
| According to the diaries of the four
men, kept up to the last minutes of
their lives, they had been unable to
locate the Peel River Pass through the
Rockies and had blundered around In
the snow for some days until most of
their provisions were gone. Then they
had turned and headed back for Ft.
Mcpherson, $50 miles to the rear,
When the little food left to them had
given out they began to kill their
dogs and after fifteen malamutes had
been sacrificed they even chewed
buckskin thongs and harness. 1t was
hunger that mastered them in the end
not lack of grit. And 1t Is interesting
| to note that the two men who lasted
longest were the man who had family
/ ties and the man who felt responsible
for his detachment.
Possibly the most pathetic note In
the tragedy Is the fact that all four
men had been picked for the detach-
ment which will represent the Riders
Of the Plains" in the coronation parade
In London. AS 1t Is, four other red
coats will be detached from duty at
various little isolated logcabin posts
scattered over prairie and mountain
Gus terrain and sent to ride after the
unknown master whose word they
carry into the Businesses Of his vast
territory up beyond the place where
the frozen fifties dip to the north"
There will be no particular amount
| of mourning over the men who died.
| Their names may be read out In the
barrack square at Regina, after the
pitifully brief report from the district
| commander has been filed with the
| commissioner A record will be en-
tered against their names-"starved to
| death on patrol" Inspector Fitzgerald
and Constables Kinney, Taylor and
Carter viii have joined the long roll
Of the mounted police who have per-
ished doing their duty.
From this II will be seen that the
coming Of civilization has not banish-
ed danger from the work Of the force
OF course, 1t would be foolish to at
/ tempt to hold that the work Of the
constables Is as dangerous as 1t was
in the days, say, from 1868, when
they had Sitting Bulls great war band
of Sioux on their hands, or before
i Louis Riers second rebellion, in 1885
had been got under control. Never
theless the lot of constable Is not an
easy one. There are troublous hall
breeds and Indians, not to speak OF
white desperadoes, still to be found
in the snow wastes of the north, while
the patrolling Of the trails as a pre-
caution and safeguard for travellers Is
/ In itself no light task. Indeed, Fftz-
geralds party were engaged upon JUS,
such a task when they met their doom
The Royal Northwest mounted po-
lice were organized In 1873, in response
to an urgent need for an efficient
body Of a semi military character to
patrol the enormous area Of the north
western territories, at that time be-
ginning to attract settlement, with al
its attending train Of troubles brought
by whisky traders, trappers, stock
raisers, bad Indians and the like
They started with a force of about
300 men, mobilized In six divisions, A
B, C. D. E and F, and by the summer
of 1874 they were already in action.
tn M
work they did Suffice it to say thai
within a year they had made the name
of their corps feared and respected
throughout the country. A rising oi
Blackfeet. Cree and Assiniboine In
dians had been much feared by the
Canadian authorities prior to the ad-
vent of the police; but before the con-
stables had been in the field many
months the immediate danger was
averted.
Up to their coming 1t had been i'm
possible for small parties of white
men to travel through the Blackfeet
country, but by the end of the year
trappers reported that woman coulo
ride alone wherever she wished. They
were always just with the Indians
This was one reason for their au-
thority and ability to grip tense sit
uations. The personal element, the
makeup of individual men, must have
had a great deal to do with their ef-
!. ficiency, too. Consider the inspector
who sent an urgent dispatch to the
commissioner at Regina, saying that
inasmuch as he had a band Of 5000
Sioux braves to watch, he thought his
command should be Increased to al
least so mem"
The makeup of the corps, cos:"o-
politan and varied in the extreme, has
been one of it's distinctive features II
was no common police force. The
possibilities of excitement and adVen-
ture, and, more than this, the roman
tic nature of the work, with its ad-
!, mixture of dare deviltry, chances toi
. primitive diplomacy and state craft
i L Il, :