Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-04-16

p OMANCE and tragedy, as we'll as COM
~ edy, have always accompanied the evo-
luton of the boundary line between States
and countries. This is a banal remark, |
admit; for it would hardly be paradox to
assert that the story of the boundary sums
up the story of man. To tell why and by
what means, violent or voluble, this river
or that mountain chain has come to mark
the confines first of one country and then of
another, why and how purely imaginary
line has shifted from north to south and
from east to west in accordance with the
claims of rival nations, is simply to retell the
history of bloody war or wordy diplomacy.
The fates of empires and of dynasties have
been involved in the struggle for boundaries.
The Pigment that the Rhine was the natural
frontier of France ended in the downfall of
the Bonapartes and the exatation of the
Hohenzollerns, thus rearing the neo-German
Empire upon the ruins of the upStart French
Empire.
In our own country the cry of Fifty four
forty or Fight" held threat of the mighty
conflict that eventually proved irrepreSsl-
BILE. And in Our own day the dispute over
the Venezuelan boundary nearly precipi-
tated a war between the two greatest nations
of the earth. These al matters too large,
however, for our presen. aim.
1t was startling figure of speech, that of
the Western orator who, mounting higher
and higher to a climax of buncombe, de-
scribed the United States as bounded on the
east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by
the Aurora Borealis, on the west by the set
ting sun, and on the south by the gates of
hell. Still, it was only a figure of speech.
Canada lies between us and the boreal Au-
rora. The Latin-American States to the
south hardly deserve the internal compar
son. AS to the oceans to the east and the
west of us, they may be left to themselves.
Not mine the task of determining what the
wild waves are saying.
Stalking Out a Boundary
THE Canadian boundary presents its lido
syncrases and eccentricities. The east
ern part of it follows naturally and spontane-
ously the regular water line formed by the
Great Lakes and their outlets Thence from
the Lake of the Woods on the north of Mime
sofa a more direct course, man made and
mechanical, is taken through the wilder
ness and over the mountains of the west to
the Pacific Coast. Nor has this course been
suffered to remain mere imaginary line.
Man, having made it, has marked 1t well.
Between the Lake of the Woods and the Red
River castiron pillars have been placed one
mile apart alternately by the English and the
American Governments. These are hollow
castings in pyramidal form, eight feet high,
with base eight inches square, an octagon
lange one inch thick, and a top four inches
square surmounted by solid cap.
Into these hollow posts are fitted well sea-
soned cedar joists, with spikes driven through
holes made in the casting. The pillars are
firmly embedded in the ground. Inscrip-
tions in raised letters face north and south.
The north side reads, Convention of Lon
don," the other, " October Goth, 1873" Be-
yond the Red River the boundary line is
generally denoted by earth mounds and
Stone cairns seven feet by eight, though
these are occasionally diversified by wooden
posts, of the same height as the iron pillars
and painted red above ground. Through
forests clearings have been made rod wide.
Where bodies of water are crossed monu-
ments of stone rise several feet above high
tide Over the mountains shafts of granite
supersede the pillars, mounds, and cairns.
Long Way to Cross Room
IN ordinary circumstances the existence of
L this boundary line gives little trouble even
to the American and the Canadian whose
property adjoins or mayhap straddles it;
but extraordinary circumstances OCCASION
ally arise. For example, the little village of