Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-05-11
GOOD WORDS FOR LITTLE.
Kansas Lieutenant Colonel as a Cool
and Daring Officer.

Topeka, May Ex-Governor Stanle
will wait until he hears official
from the commanding officers in tn
Philippine islands before he will is
sue commission to the successor 0
Colonel Funston. He says that h
will act upon the recommendations 0
the officers in command.
Many papers and politicians of tn
State have been asking: "Whil
Funston was swimming that river
where was Ed Littlep" They hav
gone further and charged that Littl
could explain more about the acct
dent in which he shot himself thai
anyone can ever get him to admit
Lieutenant Harry Seeker of Compan.
c, Twentieth Kansas regiment, wa
in Topeka Monday, and protested
against these insinuations abou
Little.
"There is not man Of more nerve
than Little. He was cool at times
when many of us were showing sign.
of shakiness. haven't any AK tc
grind with him, for shall be out Of
the service in three weeks, and owe
him nothing that would prompt me
to defend him. Little was in the
front of the fight the night that things
broke loose. We were all expecting
it, it is true, but | believe that Little
knew before most of us that trouble
was coming. The first alarm brought
him out of his quarters and his bat.
talon was in arms before the other
two. Little showed nerve that night,
when we did not know from what
side that attack was coming. He had
lots of endurance, too, and would moi
give up for want of sleep, or because
of the sun, until there was nothing
for him to do, 1t was a good ex'
ample, both for the officers and the
men under him. As long as he was
on the firing line all the men were
talking about his bravery.
"Little has a lot of natural military
genius, though he knew nothing at al
about army affairs of that sort unit
went into the Twentieth. We wert
on outpost duty together for few
days. We had been trying to form 8
a chain guard, form of picket duty
so that every piece OF ground about
the camps would be in sight all the
time. 1t isn't very easy thing to
do, because the number of guards are
limited and it takes good deal of ar
rangement to get the pickets to so
time their beats that opportunity
cannot be given an enemy to sneak
on guard and quietly stab him in
the back with a kuife. The Filipinos
had been doing this right along, and
vet there had never been a perfect
chain guard till Little was put in
charge. He went about it in his
own way and arranged a line that
was really perfect
"He showed more nerve while out
on outpost than any man ever saw
The enemy was shooting at us from
blinds all time and Little would lead
a detachment of men into the bush
and dislodge the sharpshooters. 1t
was not pleasant thing to do, at
night, especially, when one did not
know but that he had been enticed
into an ambush.
"When Little was wounded by the
discharge of his revolver, he was just
over one OF these bad nights on the
outpost. The holster Of his revolver
had been slipped to the front Of his
belt so that it could be more easily
reached. When he picked up the
belt in the morning, catching it by
both ends, the revolver slipped out.
The hammer struck the ground and
discharged the revolver. The shot
struck Little in the thigh and made a
wound that couldn't heal in weeks.
Yet he rode out to the firing line a
few days after when every move
ment Of his horse brought him
agony"