BRINGING IN :
MY FIRST PRISONER

vious article, that in 1902 I was
hired as a Special in the Atlin
Detachment B.C. Police.

I HAVE MENTIONED in my pre-

One evening Mr. Graham, the Gold
Commissioner (who had himself been
a member of the police for 17 years,
prior to his being promoted to
Mining Recorder and finally_to Gold
Commissioner), came into the police
office and asked if any of the other
men were around.

When finding they were not, he
said: “Word has just come up from
down town that “Paddy” is causing a
disturbance, I guess you will have to
go down and pick him up and bring
him in. He is not a dangerous
character but you better take a billy
along. Don’t lose your head, and for
God’s sake don’t go calling on every-
body for assistance—if the Mounties
have a name to keep up—so have we.”

I was nineteen at the time, weighed
somewhere between 125 and 130. Also
this was my first assignment on town
duty, and having seen Paddy around
a few times I guessed I might have my
hands full. Paddy was really a Scots-
man, and when sober was not a bad
fellow. We had previously had a few
chats together and I found out that
he had once been in the 42nd Black
Watch. After serving seven years with
the colors he had seemingly drifted.
He was now a recent arrival from
Dawson, Y.T., where he had taken
part in some middleweight bouts
without much success. The Mounties
had finally run him out of Yukon
Territory because he was more or less
a vagrant. On his arrival in Atlin he
spent much of his time on the small
dock, from which he used to fall into
the lake quite often. The lake was
icy cold and Paddy could not swim a
stroke, but for some reason or another
he always floated until he was rescued.

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The local people promptly desig-
nated him “Paddy the Pig.”

I found him on Pearl Street with
quite a crowd gathered around him,
and he was very busy yelling out that
he was willing to take on all comers;
but he was almost too drunk to stand
up straight. As he weighed at least
35 pounds heavier than myself, I
think the crowd thought there was
going to be some fun. As I got close
to him, suddenly an inspiration struck
me, and I shouted in stentorian tones:
“All right, fall in the BLACK
WATCH — party shun — left turn,
quick march.” Like an old war horse,
he snapped to attention, and side by
side we marched up to the jail.

When opposite the door I gave one
more “command” and said: ‘Party
right wheel,” and through the door
we went. One of the other constables
had in the meantime returned, and
together we searched Paddy, then
locked him up.

Next morning he asked me how he
got there, and holding out a dollar
bill he begged me to go down town
and bring him up a bracer. He had
hidden the money in his sock.

The following day it was my duty
to buy a steamboat ticket for him and
escort him across the lake on the old
sternwheeler “Scotia.” When we
reached the portage on the other side
of the lake I handed Paddy $5.00
which had been given me by Mr.
Graham to turn over to him with in-
structions that he keep going.

Five days later Paddy was back. He
had worked (?) his way across the lake
on the sternwheeler.

This time he did not linger in the
town of Atlin but headed for the
mining town of Discovery, seven miles
distant. He kept out of the way of the
police, but there were others who
noted that whilst they never saw him

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*

By
Guy LAWRENCE

take a drink yet he always seemed well
lit up. For quite a while this mystery
was never solved until one morning a
saloon keeper went into his back
storage room where he kept small
barrels of whisky. He found Paddy
seated beside a barrel quietly reading
a periodical. Promptly the saloon
keeper ordered _him out, and doubtless
Paddy was quite willing to go but he
found this rather difficult, with the
saloon keeper eyeing him because at
the moment he was attached to the
barrel of whisky by a small rubber
hose which was connected, one end
to the bung of the barrel, and the
other end to a small flask in his hip
pocket. Paddy got 14 days this time,
after which we never saw him again
and concluded he had given up
“mining” in Atlin and left the district
for good. * *

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*
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Page Fifty-one

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