CHAPTER III 



THE FIRST SHOT is FIRED 



Let us have faith that Right makes Might, 

 and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as 

 we understand it. Abraham Lincoln. 



THE eighteenth of December, 1901, was a memor- 

 able day in the little prairie town of Indian 

 Head. Strangers from East and West had begun 

 to arrive the night before and early in the day the 

 accommodations were taxed to the limit while the 

 livery stables were overflowing with the teams of 

 farmers from every direction. All forenoon the trails 

 were dotted with incoming sleighs and the groups 

 which began to congregate on Main Street grew rapidly 

 in size and number. The shop-keepers had stayed up 

 half the night to put the final touches to their holiday 

 decorations and make their final preparations for the 

 promised rush of Christmas buying. 



Many prominent men would grace the town with 

 their presence before nightfall. ^The Premier of the 

 North-West Territories, Hon. F. W. G. Haultain, would 

 be on hand, as well as Hon. G. H. V. Bulyea and Senator 

 William D. Perley; coming to meet them here would 

 be Premier R. P. Roblin and other gentlemen of 

 Manitoba. )>Certain boundary matters, involving the 

 addition of a part of Assiniboia to the Province of 

 Manitoba, were to be discussed at a public meeting in 

 the Town Hall at night. 



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