| Captain Harper was appointed stipendiary magistrate after his return from upriver. He replaced Captain Starnes who took the position of quarter master and pay master and the occasional duty in civil cases.(("Police Court Items." //Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 8 October 1898.)) | Captain Harper was appointed stipendiary magistrate after his return from upriver. He replaced Captain Starnes who took the position of quarter master and pay master and the occasional duty in civil cases.(("Police Court Items." //Klondike Nugget// (Dawson), 8 October 1898.)) |
| Harper had a wife and children in the North-West Territories when, in the spring of 1899, he fell in love with a dance hall girl, Diamond Tooth Gertie [Gertie Lovejoy]. He appeared with her in pubic, spent his wages on her, and then began to neglect his duties and fail to show up for work. His commanding officer, Sam Steele, reprimanded him, reported him to Ottawa, and sent him on a lengthy inspection tour of the police posts along the Yukon River. After Harper returned, he was fine for a bit and then started missing work again. In September, Steele was informed that Harper was short $5,000 in his Sheriff’s account and was not to be found. Steele lamented the fate of a fool who loved wine and women.((Rod Macleod, //Sam Steele: A Biography.// University of Alberta Press, 2018: 186-187.)) | Harper had a wife and children in the North-West Territories when, in the spring of 1899, he fell in love with a dance hall girl, Diamond Tooth Gertie [Mary Isabel Lovejoy]. He appeared with her in pubic, spent his wages on her, and then began to neglect his duties and fail to show up for work. His commanding officer, Sam Steele, reprimanded him, reported him to Ottawa, and sent him on a lengthy inspection tour of the police posts along the Yukon River. After Harper returned, he was fine for a bit and then started missing work again. In September, Steele was informed that Harper was short $5,000 in his Sheriff’s account and was not to be found. Steele lamented the fate of a fool who loved wine and women.((Rod Macleod, //Sam Steele: A Biography.// University of Alberta Press, 2018: 186-187.)) |
