The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-05-27

entered the Cuban army under Garcia.
He was with Dana osgood when he
fell. and was promoted to Osgood's
place and rank and made commaHdant
OF Cuban artillery. Now Funston didn't
know anything about artillery when he
| began. but he kept his ignorance to
himself. He looked over the guns as n
farm boy looks over cultivator. and
pulled them apart and put them to-
gether again. and then went out to
fight. Then they brought him dyna-
mite gun-the first one that had ever
been used in actual warfare. This Is
his story of 1t:
well, looked her over and prodded
around her for day or two until
found from the printed directions that
came with her which end was the shoot
ing end. didn't let the Cubans know
that was scared. but was We got
Into little mlx-up one day. and the
old man sent for the dynamite. waltz
ed her out, kept the directions In my
head as well as I could and loaded her
up. When the order came sighted
| her and let her go. For second she
| seemed to wheeze: It's all uo,'
| thought; the Cubans ran: but didn't
dare to; It was only q second, and then
she coushed. and the air In the Span
ish fort was filled with misft logs and
debris, and l knew that 1t was all
| right, turned around and grlnned
like the cut that swallowed the canary,
and no one knew that I had finished
making four or five kinds OF fool OF
myself. After they had set EN- up in
the other alley We rolled EN- again."
| Tnrctpp uro -,
Cuba, once through an arm, once
through the lungs, and once his horse
fell upon him, fracturlng his thigh.
From this wound he was lame when he
left Kansas with the Twentieth last
spring. He came home from Cuba on
sick leave; he had an order from Gar
ella to the president OF the Cuban repup-
lie for his parole. but he was captured
by the Spaniards while making his way
across country to get the order honored,
His quick wit and good nerve saved
him. While he was explaining to his
Spanish captors that he was coming In
TO surrender. he seemed to be hopping
his face with his handkerchief, but
really was slipping the order for the
parole from the handkerchief Into his
mouth. The Spaniards did not discover
the trick. Funston stuck TO his story
OF surrender and the court rtial re-
leased him. General Fitzhugh Lee f1t-
ted him out with his passage money
and suit OF hand-me-down. clothes,
and Funston struck New York in the
winter of 1898. racked with fever,
broken in body and discouraged In mind.
This Is briefly the Funston that they
knew out west, when the war broke
| S1 NIB. !
| politics for Governor LeedY to make
Funston Il colonel He did not apply
for the place, and did not accept It at
once. He feared that he did not have
military training-thouGh he had e1-
| periencc-enougn to DO the work. But
when he took his regiment into camp,
he took up the gentle art Of numbering,
and lea:ned It's theory as well as one
can In the few months during which
the Kansas boys were kept In the Uni
| ted States. In the dull time, he met a
pretty California g!rl-Eda Blanket
and at the end OF six weeks acQuaint-
ancc married her. His wedding trim
was walk around the block. and n few
hours later he sailed away With his
regiment. y month later his wife fol-
lowed him on Hong Kong steamer,
and the interrupted honeymoon began
in the Philippines. Just before the bat
tie. The Kansas boys who write home
say that Funston sleeps and eats with
them on the firing line. that he has not
been In his tent since the outbreak be-
gan last February. He Is their idol.
| His lame leg does not keep him from
! limping ahead of them when they
charge. He was with them when they
charged into Caloocan. He was the
first white soldier to enter Malolos. He
was the first American officer to cross
the river at Calumpit
The people of the Missouri Valley
knew he was hero before the world
| found II. out. And it will be q happy
| day when the young man comes home
with the stars on his shoulders-back to
| GrigsbF's Station. where he used to
be SO happS and so pcor"-and II the
stars are not on his shoulders the laur-
els will be on his brown. and Kansas,
| although a prohibition state. will drink
stone bl!nd-when Johnny comes
marching home.