The Portland daily press., 1899-05-06
COLONEL FRED FUNSTON.
Incidents in the Career of the
Man Who Fights So Well.
lie was aLamentabic Failure at school
and College.
New York Sun.

In the entire army there is probably no
portion to his age than Col. Fred Funs-
tor. He Is born soldier and has gen.
orally coutriyed to be in the vicinity
where bullets were flying thickest, and
although he has boen wounded u number
of times he has always escaped serious
injury. His friends say that this IL partly
because there is so little Of him to hit,
for he is only five feet, five inches tall and
his top weight is about lis pounds His
latest exploit, when he took his Kansaus
across the Rio Grande del a Pampanga on
a raft hastily constructed for the purpose,
under a heavy fire from the Filipinos,
| formed them on the other side and took
the Notifications ut the charge, added one
more heroic service to record already
long.
From his boy hood days Fred Funston
has been fighter. He was born in Ohio
in 1866, but his father, K. II. Funston,
soon moved to Kansas, where he became
n congressman and was known as Foghorn
Funston. His first public appearance
/
old, at political meeting at Fort Scott.
Kan. The political meeting happened
to be opposed to.his fathers candidacy,
but that made no difference to young
Fred. In fact, it was the reason for his
being there. After all the speaking was
over and Foghorn Funston had been
pretty we'll torn to pieces the young
fellow got up, took the stage and said
that he had few remarks to make. He
proceeded to make them in the face OF
strenuous opposition but. when the Judi
ence presently discovered that he was tell
ing good story on his father 1T quietsd
down. He finished that story and then
another, and then began to tell what kind
of q man Foghorn Funston. who had
been the butt of so much ridicule, really
was. In vain did the organizers Of the
meeting howl for adjournment, the boy
now had his audience with him. and by
the time he had finished a brief but well
nut statement of the political situation 1t
was Funston audience, and the effect of
his oratory was very evident on election
day.
| Two years later Fred Funston entered
the Kansas State University. where he
was a classmate of William Henry White.
who made himself famous by his inquiry,
whats the matter with kausasf"
White says that If 1t hadn't been for him
self Funston would have stood at the foot
of the class, and even rs 1t was 1t was a
close race. He tells this story OF the
young fellows college career:
HE is not afraid of anything that can
walk. Once the towns bad coon tried
to run over Funston. The darby weighed
pretty nearly zoo pounds and was q
'scrapper with a razor record. Funston
was five feet three and weighed about
ninety five. He 'bluffed' the co ored
brother to a 'standstill' and went for a
warrant and marched the boss bully
through the main streets Of Lawrence a
the point of a gum"
EXPERIENCE AS EDITOR.
Owing to difficulty which he expert
enced with some of the textbooks HI
didn't graduate, but in 1887 became city
editor of the Fort Smith Tribune, 3
stanoh upholder of the local Democracy
| A few days before the election the editor
in chief went away, leaving the paper II
Funstons' hands. Ho had been getting
pretty weary of the Democrats, who hat
been conducting their campaign on u
basis Of bribery and intimidation. ano
his first act when he was put In contro
was to write m editorial stating his opin
ions with degrss of frankness which
left no room for misunderstanding. Ihi
engaging open-mindedness did not appea
to the worthy citizens of Fort Smith, wht
set about showing the young editor the
error of his ways by burning down the
Tribune building. Funston gathered his
staff about him and prepared to defend
the place but the editor-in- chief hastily
returned in answer to urgent tele graphic
summons from his friends and appsased
the wrath of the Democrats by hasty
ISSUE explaining editoria.ly what had
happened. Naturally, young Funston
old not etain his job. There was talk
o. tarring and feathering him befors he
could get away from town, but he didn't
evince any haste in leaving. Instead, he
wandered around the place with his nose
! in the all, looking for some of the alleged
ripgleadsrs In the proposed scheme.
When he did finally leave three were no
feathers attached to him except the feather
| in his cap at having blutfed practically
| the whole town. When friend asked
him why he had so foolishly thrown away
his situation by printing such an editorial
the young man said briefly;
II was tired of the rotten politics and
tired of the rotten town and tirsd of the
rotten sheet and ready to go anyway; so
thought l might just as well wake the
place up and let EN- know was alive
before l left. ;"
For time Funston was out OF a job.
Then he drifted into tho railroad bust
ness and became a conductor on the Santa
Fee line. One day a cowboy full of rum
became rampageous in his car and lying
down on his back in the aisle began &c