ithout note or comment indicates pretty clearly his opinion of
the intelligence of that jury. It recalls the case of the famous
frontier judge, Sir Mathew Begbie, of British Columbia, who is said to
have been much disgusted and amazed when a jury acquitted a prisoner
whom the evidence clearly indicated had sand-bagged an innocent citizen.
The judge had no option but to discharge the notorious character whom
the jury of his peers had exonerated. "You may go," said the indignant
judge, "but it seems to me that you would be doing good service to this
country if you sand-bagged every man on that jury."

[Illustration: SUPT. CONSTANTINE IN WINTER UNIFORM ON THE YUKON.]

[Illustration: PIEGAN INDIANS AT SUN-DANCE.]

While the gold-rush of which we have been writing was at its height in
the Yukon there were rumblings of conflict on the dark continent where
Paul Kruger, the grim old President of the Boer Republic, was getting
ready to launch a war which he said would "stagger humanity." The
trouble had been brewing for some years. Many thousands of British men
were in the Transvaal, developing its resources, adding to its wealth
and doing everything for its upbuilding but without the privileges of
citizenship. And these British men were agitating for representation in
addition to the taxation they already enjoyed for the benefit of the
Boers. It is doubtful whether Canadians generally took much trouble to
investigate these questions of franchise and suzerainty, which have
always had two sides up for discussion. Canada was willing to trust the
judgment of British statesmen on the subject, and when Britain is at war
Canada is not disposed to stand back. Conan Doyle probably sensed the
situation when he wrote the stirring lines:

"Who's that calling?
The old sea-mother calls
In her pride at the children that she bore
'Oh, noble hearts and true
There is work for us to do,
And we'll do it as we've done it oft before
Under the flag,
Under the flag our fathers bore.'"

There had been a swift sting, too, in a certain telegram sent by the
Kaiser of Germany congratulating Kruger on the failure of the raid under
Doctor Jamieson, for "Doctor Jim" was a popular idol. And the rather
crude but strong lines of a music-hall song had percolated to the
outposts of Empire:

"Hands off, Germany; hands off, all.
Kruger boasts and Kaiser brags.
Britons, hear the call.
It's back to b