The National tribune., 1906-04-26

Photo by IIarris-Ewing.
GEN. FREDERICK FUNSTON
physical conditions in geography up
there that might discover mines of un-
told richness in gold. silver copper, iron
and possibly lead. Anyhow, he wanted
to go. He was clerk in the AgricuI-
tural Department at that time. for while
his teeming brain was getting it's al
cOyeS properly furnished with ideas as
to just what he intended To do with
himself he had to live. so he concluded
that clerking in a Government Depart
ment was handy while his brain was
working out other problems.
The wander-Lust.
He finally imbued his Chief with his
own ideas, and after q while letter
appeared in his home paper, telling of
the wonderful things that Fred Funston
had found up in Alaska. That was the
first intination that anybody had that
Fred had disappeared from his board
ing-house haunts In Washington, and
that his seat In the Agricultural Depart
mcnt was vacant for keeps. Funston
found a lot of things up in the Alaskan
country. and brought back invaluable
Information to the Government. Then
he went back to Kansas. but the wan
der-lust" was still in him. Cuba was
fermenting. and he concluded to go
down there. He went. and thereby
hangs this tale. His letters to his home
papers on the conditions read like
stories in a pirate kings novel. He
told of the terrible conditions imposed
by Spanish rule and the heroic suffer-
ing OF Cuban patriots. He went into
details, and he nearly scared his people
to death. Frantically they wrote. wired.
and wrote again for him to come back
home. But he didn't come, and he
wrote 10 more. After six months ST.
lence he came home one day, gaunt,
worn. but a shadow of his former
chubby self He had been an officer
| in the Cuban army. had seen most ter
| rible vicissitudes, n price was on his
head, and conditions We're such that he
could no longer help the Cuban patriots,
so he came home for mother to nurse
him back to health. He didn't talk
much about himself. but he told O. lot
about Spanish cruelty, and he wrote to
the President about 1t. One day there
came to the United States the story of
a young Kansan who had performed
deeds of the most daring vaior for the
patriot Cubans. He had with dash and
daring marshalled them against the
| tyranny of Spain, and had made him
self so notoriously hated by Spanish
authority in Cuba that his life was not
worth a puff of wind. He was made a
prisoner. escaped. and after fleeing from
one hiding place to another became Ill,
and was no longer able to help the Gu
bans. and they begged him to come back
| to his home and reeuperate to assist
them, to become commander of their
army. Fred Funston, rolling stone. a
| soldier of fortune, was the Kansas boy.
The Crisis.
Than Maina hInrrn T,f,-
mediately there came to Washington,
on request of President Mckinley, a
young, sawtd-of Kansas man. He
wasn't much of a 'looker;" he was no
| tallSer at all. for public consumption.
| but the President of the United States
| was glad TO get advice from him as to
real conditions in Cuba. SO was the
Secretary of War. Would he accept a
| commission to go down there and fight?
| No, indeedyi
There is price on my head, Mr..
| President" he said, "and do not think
/ could help the cause much by taking
command of any of our troops. 1 would
be killed by spies, cut off in ambush,
| because / am a marked man. and that
| would be bad all round. I can do more
good here" That Fred Funston was n
power to the President as an adviser is
| now well known, but much as he longed
| to don the uniform and fight as his
| father had fought, he knew that he
| could be more valuable here at that
time. He got into the service, however,
at last, in the 20th Kan, and when
| Dewey shot Spain to death in Manila
| Bay Fred Funston, of Kansas, got the
dearest wish of his heart. He donned
the uniform of the United States Army,
and as Colonel of the Goth Kan. took
his regiment to the Philippines. All at
once he became a military martinez. did
| this Kansas soldier of fortune. He was
commander of that regiment, and every
man Of every company in it found it1
out. For a long time they paused in
San Francisco. While the men of other
regiments and commands of other States
suffered with insanitary diseases, Col.
| Funston's men, grumbling. cussing him
and everybody connected with the
army, grudgingly did the things that
their Colonel ordered them to do, and
finally awakened to the fact that they
as regiment were the healthiest men
| in camp. Over in the Philippines it
| was the very same way. He was Colonel
| and he was boss. And his men grew TO
love him with an affection that sur
passes the love Of woman for man.
| They would go anywhere, do anything
| for him. But Col. Funston never asked
one of his men to go where he would
not first venture himself. Where danger