The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-05-18
Picturesque Sketch Of Pictur-
esque Parsonage
Who Has Lived What Walter
Scott Wrote.
His Actual Doings Make Dime
Novels Seem Tame.
MANNER OF THE MAN.
One Who Can ChiseI a Scheme
Into a Fact.
Took to Lecture Platform When
Driven to 1t.
What William Allen White Says
MANNER OF THE MAN.
What William Allen White Say $
of Famous Kansan.

copyright. 1901. BY the Curtis Pub
fishing company
The following character sketch, in
tenselv interesting. dramatic in sub
ject and treatment, was written by
William Allen White. Of Emporia and
Kansas, for the Saturday Evening Post,
OF Philadelphia-one of the most read
able OF weeklies-and is reprinted in
full in the State Journal by special per
mission. It appears in the Post Of
May IS:
This is a grirny old world. Coal SCOT
coats everything, even our heroic stat
ues and brings all aspiring color and
form into a great dingy democracy
Comfort for the millions has siienced
the trade cries so that the fruit vender,
and the stock broker. and the chimney
sweep. and the shoe clerk-au slip
nOiselessly through their business
routine Corporations in the upper
world. and police-protected raScals IN
the lower xvorid-and between the mill
stones, the brown grist OF business PEG
pie, married men IN barrac ks this IS
the civilized world Sometimes there
Is the flicker of a flag. and the cneep
of a fife and the mutter of a drum, and
a line Of blue or of khaki or of red
But the color soon fades back into the
brown of the multitude; the fife and
the drum are drowned in the rumble of
limp. And only the roar of the grind
ing business World-keyed about to
f. they say-rises with the clang of
the owl car gong at cock-crOW. and
swells to a frenzied crescendo at high
noon. and dies TO an echo in the
mufned noises OF the night. Thus the
sullen, mOnotonous incarnation thrObs
around the glObe-the sigh of the DESC
lated. spited of dying romance. PhilOS-
ophy has made a diagnosis of life and
has pronounced il case of ledger
entry. The Individual Is an item in the
expense account. the syndicate Keeps
the cash account. what is called the
trust gets the incren ent after the trial
balance is reached. It is all precisely
calculable-a1 exactly according to
rule, until the hero comes along he
snaps the cords of conventions The
diapason of civilization in F. becomes
q Qulck-Step. SyucOpated- StaccatO. The
world begins jogging Poets tune up.
To make a dollar and SeVenty-nVe cents
is no longer considered an adventure
Men wave their hats, and we all drink
stone blind when Johnnie comes march
ing home"
For when the hero comes. men revert
10 type They cease to wear trousers
and become clouted savages. Whereat
philosophy picks up its shattered the
cries. taps It's forehead at a mad world,
and calls the manifestations of red
blood that God has put in mems veins
the phenomena of hysteria-
THE DYNAMIC KNIGHT-ERRANT
FROM KANSAS.
When a man like General Funston
arises in America dynamic knight
Grant of great voltage. with a nimble
wit and a cavaliers cOura ge-his fellow
citizens at the plow, the desk, the shop
and the counter observe that the
money-devn really hasn't the world in
his clutches. whereupon the workers
give themselves one more furrow, one
more column of figures. one more kit of
mackeref, one more turn of the lathe
before they leave their work and fol-
low the bugles into knighthoOd with
Funston, and make all their dreams
come true-Of pirates and buccaneers.
and chivalry and hidden treasure. and
the Lord only knows what of wassails
and Journeys and jOusts. and the high
times of the clanking days when men
wore hardware, stoves and tinware,
harness. cutlery and shelf goods.
The recital of the events in Frederick
E'unston's life. set down in bald chrome
logical sequence. makes a story which
gentlemen of the press. familiar only
with the adventures of the paste pot
and the romance of the shears. have
thought wise to call "a MunChausen
tale. Frederick Funston was born a
the village of New Carlyle Ohio. in 1866.
He came TO Allen county. Kansas. a
baby, with his parents. He grew up on
a farm there He got common school
education, and like most ambitious ,
farm boys he taught a country school I
Tor term or so. The determination
to get on in the world awolSe in him
early. and for a time the military spirit |
moved him He attacked his books
was graduated at the county high
school, took the examination for West |
Point-and failed The boy who won
over Funston in this contest is now a
captain Funston's boyish discomfort
with the farm sent him to Mexico.
where he picked up Spanish and learned
the language well enough to teach it
later in life.
When he returned TO Kansas he en-
tered the State university at Lawrence 4
at twenty. He was a notably poor stu
dent of textbooks, but an Unsuitable
reader He spent many hours in the
university library reading books that
would not help him in the class room:
but they built a foundation for a liberal
education and a broad culture. to the OBJ
tanning Of which he has devoted every ,
moment he could spare in a busy life
he IS a member Of the college fraternity. /
PM Delta Theta He put in six years
at the ity-intermittently. And
ar odd times. and between terms in those /
SIX years. young Funston was a fare col /
lector on Santa. Fe trains from Kansas
lily 70 Albuquerque; he worked on Kan /
SaS City newspapers. managed a paper /
at Fort Smith. Arkansas. took the civil I
service examination without the knOvI- /
edge OF consent Of his father. a member I
OF congress at the time. and was ap- /
pointed to a place in the department of I
agriculture. He was sent to Montana ]