Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-01-03

ing out of the situation is that of the
murder OF two priests, Father LeRouX
and Rouvier. at Bloody Falls, on the
Coppermine River, in 1913.
The two missionaries had been
missing for two years, when Inspector
| La Nauze, in charge of q small detail,
was sent to make an Investigation.
After q search extending over almost
year, he found ,undoubted evidence
| that the priests had been slain by two
Eskimos. He ascertained the identity
of the slayers and finally apprehended
/ them-one on Victoria Island, even
beyond the northernmost boundary of
the Canadian mainland Then COM
menccd the long "mush' back to civi-
liZation with the two prisoners. They
were brought TO Calgary, Alberta. tried
and found guilty. But after n short
period of Imprisonment they were
pardoned, as it was felt thGt laws
framed for civilized people should not
he enforced literally against such
primitive people as the Eskinos. The
police had ther to make the long trip
back to the Arctic with the liberated
Eskimos to return them to their rela-
tives, for the climate Of the temperate
zone is not suited TO these children of
the midnight sun. These cases cost
the police q great deal of trouble and
l. l,l, ,,t ENolr MI OF
learn what the plains Indians long ago
learned-that the laws of the land
must be respected; and also that what
the Mounted Police set themselves to
do they carry ont.
A volume could be written about the
exploits Of this unique body of men.
Many have served as the basis of in
Vulnerable works of fiction. In fact,
many stories in which the Northwest
Mounted Police figure are conspicuous
more for the wildness. of the authors
imagination than a knowledge OF con-
ditions under which the police live,
work ard have their being. Many a
real tale Of patient heroism and hard
ship is to be unearthed only by delving
into dusty reports.
The Dominion Police, with which
the Northwest Mounted have been
amalgamated, formerly comprised
comparatively small body OF men en-
gagged chiefly as guardians of the par
liamentary and administrative build
ings at Ottawa, and of federal build
irgs, such as customs offices in var
ious other parts of the Dominion. To
this has now been added the duties
formerly performed by the Northwest
Mounted; the enforcement Of federal
laws and regulations; the assistance
TO provincial authorities. in the pre-
seryation of law and order. Secret
service work in connection with the
activities of alleged radicals and the
prevention of possible disorder during
labor disturbances also are within the
jurisdiction OF the arnalgamated force.
The war, with its attendant Ger
man spy and general alarmist psy-
choiogy, was responsible for an In
crease in the personnel of, the, new
force, so that it row, numbers half as
many meE again assdid the Northwest
Mounted Police in the year of the Riel
rebellion. It's Jurisdiction, too, has
been extended from coast to coast.
The frontiers have tbeen pushed up
to within measurable distance of the
Pole. There is still work in that re-
gion for the men Of the Northwest
Mounted but much Of the .stool pig
con- work which they are now called
on TO undertake in the cities Ill COM
ports with the traditions Of force,
whose habit was for almost half a. CEN
tury to ride up to their quarry with
out cover or concealment Of any kind
and to enforce respect for the laws,
rather by means of moral suasion than
by the application of force. That type
of man will not long remain content
to perform duties such as those which
the present organization is often call
ed on TO undertake.. Men of differ
ent type from those who were at
tracted to the old Northwest Mounted
are being recruited into the ranks to-
day.
There are many who knew the
Scarlet Riders" of the plains in the
old days who think that they should
have been asked only to continue their
task of policing the newer lands; and,
that with the narrowing Of the from
tier they should have been suffered to
follow the sunset trail with the buffalo
and the Indian, their true contem-
porares, into the limbo of the past;
and thus pass from the stage with
their laurels thick about them, rather
than that the luster Of their fame
should become tarnished, as 1t must
be, through contact with the sordid
materialiSm and filth of cities.