Policing the plains : $b being the real-life record of the famous Royal North-West Mounted PoliceMacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)
History
Policing the plains : $b being the real-life record of the famous Royal North-West Mounted Police
MacBeth, R. G. (Roderick George)
Northwest, Canadian -- History; Royal Canadian Mounted Police
closer, backed their ponies against the troop-horses and made every
effort to get the Police to start trouble, the idea being to let them
take the offensive and be wiped out. But the Police were never to be
drawn that way. In this case the two scarlet tuniced men sat coolly on
their horses, which stood at the door of Pie-a-Pot's tent. And when the
time was up the sergeant, throwing the lines to the constable, sprang
off his horse, leaped past the surly Chief, entered the tepee and kicked
out the centre pole, thus bringing the wigwam down nearly on the head of
the defiant Indian. Without waiting, the sergeant moved to the next tent
and repeated the operation with great precision, and then said to the
chief and his men, "Now move and move quick." The chief was very angry,
but he was no fool, and so in a very short time he and his whole outfit
were on the trek to their reserve. The engineers went on with the
transcontinental, and the two athletes in scarlet and gold, whose names
were not even given out, rode back to their post, having made one more
unadvertised contribution from the Police to the making of the West.
Now let us instance a case in which the Police had to deal with
turbulent navvies on the railway who went on strike and threatened to
destroy the company's property. The Police have never acted in any sense
as strike-breakers, nor have they interfered between the parties. They
simply saw fair play, took care that the country's lawful business was
carried on and provided against destruction of human life and property.
This was the position for instance at the Beaver in the mountains while
the Canadian Pacific was under construction. For the time being it was a
terminus, and all manner of lawless, desperate and disorderly characters
were there to prey upon the navvies, many of whom were foreigners and a
good many of whom were just as reckless and offensive as could be
imagined. To keep these rough men in order, and there were several
hundreds of them mostly armed, there were only eight Mounted Police, but
they were under the leadership of the redoubtable Superintendent, Sam B.
Steele, who had as his non-commissioned assistant Sergeant Fury, a
short, heavy set, bull-dog type of a man, whom I remember well, quiet,
determined and undemonstrative, but who could, while keeping cool, at
the same time be everything his name suggested if occasion required.
When the strike was starting, Steele did not interfere, but warned the
strikers that they must keep the peace and not commit any acts of
violence or he would punish them to the full extent of the law. When the
strike did start, Steele was in bed with mountain fever and Sergeant
Fury had only six men. One of them, Constable Kerr, who had gone for a
bottle of medicine for the Inspector, found on his way back a riotous
crowd with a desperate character, well known to the Police, inciting the
mob to violence and especially to an attack on the barracks. Kerr, who
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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