The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-21

Philippines. For the devil spoke these
things through the mouths Of the captains
to men who had been away from home for
three long years England and Russia
have united and declared war against the
United States. New York city is captur-
ed; San Francisco is being bombarded;
Russian troops are coming through ST.
IBERIA to Alaska, and down through Brit
ish America 10 Chicago; the owners of
the North American whaling fleet have
paid this white man $1,000 TO bring this
word: GO north as soon as the ice breaks;
push north, stay NORTH as far north as
the ice will permit, for two years or until
peace has been declared. Also avoid
communicating with other ships"
What is the little matter of swimming
tropical torrent under fire as compared
with bringing news like this, and being
sound asleep and locked in a captains
cabin when it strikes 800 homesick Yam
KEGS who want TO go home and fight. Fun
ston viii never again in his life make the
sensation he made in the Arctic ocean.
Nor win the devil and two captains ever
have so much fun over MIN.
When he returned TO Rampant House
he had made journey of 800 miles in the
dark night of Arctic winter. Pearys first
famous journey was made in an Arctic
summer and it was not so long as Fun
| ston's either.
When summer dawned Funston took up
| his kit aud left Rampant house, and with
two Indians came down the Porcupine to
the Yukon. There Funston left the In
dams and alone In an open boat drifted
| down the length of the Yukon to it's
mouth, making a botanical survey of the
| country. The pressed fiora that he gather
ed are now in the agricultural department
at Washington. And his report is a mat
ter of record. He was picked up by the
| revenue cutter Bear and came home in
| the fall of "a 1t was a hard trip. But
Funston thought nothing of it, and was
| too busy to go to New York and get fame.
| When he got back to civilization Fun
ston tried to establish coffee plantation
! in Central America, and lived down I'M
| der the equator for a few months. Later
| he drifted into New York, and was made
| assistant auditor of the Santa Fe Rail
road when it was being recognized. But
the task of signing his name to bonds
eight hours day grew irksome, and Fun
ston felt what he thought was his life
| cad to duty, and in August, 1S96,he pack
ed his kit and went with lliDustering
party on the Dauntess to Cuba. He en-
| tered the Cuban army under Garcia. He
was with Dana Osgood when he fell and
! Funston was promoted to Osgood's place
and rank and made commandant of Gu
| ban 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 a farm boy looks
over a cultivator, and pulled them apart
and put them together again, and then
went out to fight. Then they brought
him a dynamite gun-the first one that
had ever been used in actual warfare
This is his story Of it: "Weu I looked
her over and prodded around her for a
day or two till 1 found from the printed
directions that came with her which end
was the shooting end. l didn't let the
Cubans know that / was scared, but
was; we got into a little mix up one day
and the old man sent for the dynamite
/ waltzed her out, kept the directions in
my head as well as / could and loaded
her up When the order came ! sighted
her and let her go. For a second she
seemed to wheeze; it's all up l thought
the Cubans ram but / didn't dare to; il
was only a second, and then she coughed
and the air in the Spanish fort was filled
with misfit logs and debris, and l knew
that it was all right. l turned around
and grinned like the cat that had swal
lowed the canary, and no one knew that
had just finished making four or five
kinds of a fool of myself After they haC
set 'em up in the other alley, we rolled 'en
again"
Funston was wounded three times IL
Cuba, once through an arm, once through
the lungs, and once his horse fell upo1
him, fracturing his thigh. From this woun(
he was lame when he left Kansas will
the Twentieth last spring. He came hom
from Cuba on sick leave; he had an orde
from Garcia to the president of the Cuban
republic for his parole, but he was cap
tured by the Spaniards while making hi
way across country to get the order hon
| Hraf
him. While he was explaining TO his Span
lsh captors that he was coming in to sur
render he seemed to be hopping his fac
with his handkerchief, but really was slip
ping the order for the parole from tn
handkerchief into his mouth. The Span
iartls did not discover the trick. Funston
stuck to his story of surrender and in
court martial released him. Gen. Fitzhugl
Lee fitted him out with his passage none,
and a suit of hand-me-down clothes. an
Funston struck New York In the winter o
'97-'9S. raclxed with fever, broken in body
and discouraged an mind.
This Is briefly the Funston that the
knew out West when the war broke out
And this is why it was good politics 70
Gov Ieedy 10 make Funston colonel. II
did not apply for the place, and did no
accent IL at once. He feared that he di
moi have military training-though he ha
acknowledgements to do the work. Bu
when he took his regiment into camp h
took up the gentle art Of numbering, an
learned its theory as well as one ca
IN the few months durlh
which the Kansas boys were kept in tn
limited States. In the duh time, ne me
a pretty California girl-Eda Blankert-
and at the end of a six weeks acquaintanc
married her His wedding trip was
walk around the block, and few hour
later he sailed away with is regiment. !
month later his wife followed him on
Hong Kong steamer, and the interrupte
honeymoon began in the Philippines Jus
before the battle. The Kansas boys VIII
write home say that Funston sleeps an
eats with them on the firing line, that h
has not been in his tent since the out
break began last February. He. is thol
idol. His lame leg does not Keep hir
from nmplng ahead Of them when the
charge. He was with them when the
charged into Calocan. He was the frs
white soldier to enter Malolos. He wa
the first American officer to cross tn
river at Caiumpit.
The people of the Missouri valley kne'