Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-08-10
BRAVE LITTLE FUNSTON.
- g .-sss 'kP
CAREER OF TIE KANSAS COLONEL
NOW FIGHTING The FiLlPlNos.
His Romantic story Told by HIS Dearest

y eifiy tIe ErroT ny Seaaaf Frs
Earth Over for Adveuturo-won ame.
The following account of the roman
tic career of Colonel Frederic Fun
ston. the brightest figure in the Phil
ippine war, the hero of every engage
ment around Manila aud the bra 'est
and most daring leader the late war
has developed, was given to the New
York World correspondent by the SOL
dier's dearest friend, William Allen
White of Kansas, the man who won
fame by what he termed his 'fool"
editorial, whats the Matter With
Kansas?"
'Balzac has written story called
THE Duchess de Langeais. The hero
of that story is NJ Armand de MONTH";
deau. who has done marvellous things;
he was all that d hero should be; he
suffered long and came into his re-
ward and has been IN measure the
worlds ideal Of heroic man o. arms.
"Yet the things Fred Funston has
done in truth are as wonderful as the
things Montrideau did in fiction; in
this age of the commonplace it is hard
to fancy such character as Funston
''To realize his chara ter one must
remember that the world is like a
three OIL four ringed circus, aud that
while the performance is going on in
the nineteenth century ling on
Broadway and in Wall street,
there is an eighteenth century
ring giving an eighteenth cen
fury performance in the noun
tains of Tennessee and in the back
woods of Arkansas, and a seventeenth
century performance is going on
around Cri pple Greek, while at the
uttermo3t parts OF the earth, whore
boundaries of nations are swaying
upon the map, there is q sixteenth
century performance, and the per-
formers are just as truly of that age
and time as though they wore armor
and fired blunderbusses.
Erred Funston was a sixteentAs 81
fury knight, born three centuries too
late. He did the best ne could to
rectify the error OF his birth by prauc-
ing up and down the frontiers OF the
world hunting adventure.
Gle got as good an education as
the schools of his township and coun
ty and state could give him, and in
1889 set out for the jousts OF the tour
ney.
HE began his career as a Santa Fe
train collector and half a dozen cow
boys in New Mexico aud Colorado
AMI we tern Kansas who laughed at
the little toy collector, as they called
him, put their faces in court plaster
and bought new guns. One of his
favorite pastimes was to disarm burly
cowboys no insisted on shooting
holes through the roof of the smoker.
" This sport grew tiresome and
Funston went back and took a years
schooling on the proceeds Of his saw
ings, after which, having passed the
civil service examination, he got a
place in the agricultural department
at Washington as a botanist, and went
into Dakota and Montana collecting
grasses for the collection in the gov
eminent museum.
ga year later Funston was assigned
to the Death Valley expedition which
was sent to survey that fearful alkali
waste in southern California, where
the temperature ranges above 90 de-
grees Fahrenheit all the year round
1t was fearful trip--a journey across
the desert of Sahara would have been
a Sunday school picnic in comparison.
Every man who went in that expedi-
ton except Funston is either dead or
insane.
One day Funston started across the
desert 125 miles after the mail. He
got lost, the canister of water gave
out, his horse fell under him and for
food or water with the thermometer
registering 10 and the sun bearing
down upon him.
''He dared not lie down and rest
and his mind began to deceive him,
but he found the road and kept
straight in spite of the calling voices
in the air, the booming of imaginary
, cannon and the gurgle of deooitful
water.
"Two days afterward he wrote me q
| letter and devoted less than three lines
, to the incident, and it was only by
prodding and questioning that L ever
| got the truth from him.
"After coming back from DeathV Val
| ley, Funston went to Alaska, still
, working for the government, collect
in botanical specimens After fifteen
Q months he returned home and equip
ped himself for another expedition
0 which today is a record breaker for all
/ Alaskan travellers.
: In April, 1893, Funston left Chill
ooot inlet, and with party of miners
went over the divide to the he d Of
the Y '<on river. Two Indian guides
= took Ii n down to the mouth of the
! Porcupine river. He tac. ed his boat,
q t Nancy Hanks, up the Porcupine
to f ampart House, an abandoned Hud-
g son Bay company trading post. There
he and missionary started to spend
t the ar Jtic winter
The monotony of the thing palled
e on Funston, and with single Indiar