The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-13
LIEUT.. COBB WAS A
NEWSPAPERMAN
Army Officer Who Died on
Quarantine Island Was
c Formerly a Reporter.

IdeuteIldHt I1lOIudS M OODD, Unity
ninth Infantry, who died of smallpox
on April 18th on Quarantine Island,
hailed from Kansas City, Mo-, where
he was formerly one of the brightest
young newspaper men of that city.
Little was known of the young officer
who died ere he could reach the shores
of his native country, after having
served his flag in the Philippines. The
Kansas City Journal of April 25th con-
tains the following:
1t is something for a young man to
have many friends, and Tom Cobb had
them by the score in Kansas City. AS
writer on local newspaper he was
thrown into public light, and he left
trail of beaming faces behind him.
If he ever had care in his life there
was nothing in Cobb's words or ways
! to show it, Always he was bright,
CHEEKY and laughed at anything short
of sorrow. He was the life of the To-
cal room, and when later he went into
the army he was the life of the Fifth
Missouri. Always he was boy. That
held him back, it is said, when he went
to the Philippines. He could not take
life seriously. If thing had to be
done, Cobb found a merry way to do
it. He had a magnificent bass voice.
voice which more than once got him
on the wrong side of the books with his
ministerial father. He tired Of country
life and joined a quartette, which went
transforming. Cobb enjoyed the fun
while it lasted. and when he decided
he would like to be reporter, the ser
ious side of it was turned to levity, and
the work he did was burden turned
to pleasure. If it were real labor to
write his copy he laughed as he finished
the story and his announcement that
he had ended his nights labors was all
ways worth the hearing.
When the President called for volun-
teers Cobb volunteered. He could not
find room to help raise a company so
he went into the ranks and was given
the complimentary title of sergeant.
When later the mastering officer APP
peared he was found" not having
the necessary weight. Colonel Milton
Moore, then Brigadier-General of the
State. but the man who was selected by
the men to be their colonel, as soon as
intervening formalities could be dis
posed of, liking Cobb, as did every
other man who knew him, turned acct
dent to fortune by telling Cobb that if
he was not fit for the doctors he was
fit for the colonel, and thereupon Colo
mel Moore made Cobb adjutant Of the
Fifth with the rank of lieutenant Cobb
served with the Fifth through its en-
tire career. On the final muster Cobb
applied for a second commission in the
second volunteer army which was be-
ing raised for service in the Philippines
and was appointed. He was assigned
to the Thirty-ninth, and went with
that command over the Pacific One
day last week Major Henry Julian,
Cobb's particular chum, received
postal card from the young officer,
dated Nagasaki, reading: 'tHave just
offered up prayer for you in a Jap
anese temple. You need it. The fat
ted calf killed? Home soon. Regards
to old friends"
That same day the major read in the
newspapers that Cobb had been put
ashore at Honolulu suffering from
smallpox. Yesterday came news of his
death.
Thomas M. Cobb was the son of the
Rev. Thomas M. Cobb, pastor of the M.
e. church, South, at Nevada. He was
born near Lexington, Mo-, twenty-five
years ago, attending Wentworth Mill
tary Academy after finishing his pub
lie school studies.
Colonel Milton Moore. as president of
the Fifth Regiment Memorial Associa-
ton, has called a meeting Of the mem
bers for 2 o'clock this afternoon, to
take place In his Office In the New York
Life building, touching upon the death
OF Lieutenant Thomas M. Cobb
The faculty, students and alumni of
Wentworth Military College at Licking
ton, Mo-, where T. M. Cobb, late lieu
tenant Of the Thirty ninth Regiment,
who recently died at Honolulu, went to
school, passed resolutions on his death
yesterday. Lieutenant Cobb was a
graduate from Wentworth in the class
Of '96.
Oliver cambridge, NJ. A., traveller