ained alone all night on the open prairie
to watch them and protect them from the cayotes, till the Police team
came next day to take them to town." Mathewson had a lonely and
dangerous vigil on the blizzard-swept plain, but it was characteristic
of these big men to stand guard in such pathetic cases.

The same fine touch comes out in a brief medical import in 1892 from
that able man Senior Surgeon Jukes at the Regina headquarters. It had
been a time of stress in the hospital work, and Dr. Haultain, the
assistant surgeon, had been laid completely aside by illness. So Dr.
Jukes cut out the office work and let reports go in order to devote
himself to the sick. Then Assistant Surgeon Fraser arrived from Calgary
to help, and Dr. Jukes has time to send in a brief note before the time
for having reports in the printer's hands expires. And he says at the
end of it, "I am assured by the comptroller that in consideration of the
enormous amount of work which has been thrown on me for the last three
months, no censure can possibly be passed on me for having devoted the
whole of my time to the sick under my charge and other professional
duties, in preference to the writing of an annual report." Well spoken,
Dr. Jukes, and the authorities saw the point at once. Reports could
wait, but the sick had to be looked after at once. That, too, is a
police tradition. Take care of the casualties now and report later.

That the Mounted Police Force was continuously progressive to ever
higher efficiency was due in no small measure to the fact that officers
and men were encouraged to be on the look out for improved methods and
to feel free to suggest these to those in command. Superintendent Perry
had been the means of bringing about a system of districts and
sub-districts with constables scattered over many points rather than
concentrated at headquarters, qualified only by the suggestion that
changes be often made so as to keep all in touch with regimental duties.
And I find that Inspector Constantine, a man of quite unusual gifts and
powers, as we shall see later, makes a striking recommendation in his
report from Moosomin in 1893. He says that the farther division of
districts into groups in charge of a non-commissioned officer has
increased the self-respect of these men and developed their interest and
initiative. He says men are more to be trusted than regulations. "Get
good men forward, give more power to individuals, create a confidence