The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-23

The feuds of the Appalachian region have produced some fighting men who, with different environment and education might have been conspicuous in legitimate warfare. Among the most interesting of these Is R. Fulton French, now of Win chester Ky, who was the leader of the French faction of the French -Eversole feud, in which from twenty to thirty-five of the EverSole clan, according to different estimates, went down before the guns of the enemy. MT. French is a lawyer with considerable practice in the mountain country, and he has accumulated consid- erable property in business enterprises. He was never convicted of any of the killings done by the clan which he proud ly boasts having led, and he speaks of his war" as if it had been prosecuted be- tween nations.
 'The only time my conscience ever troubled me- said MT. French on one oc- casion, twas when I thought I was about to die of asthma. I had heard that all of a mans misdeeds rise before him when he faces death. Well. when I felt that it was all up with me, remembered that I had once drowned an old hen. When we were small boys my brother and I thought we could teach the hen to swim, but just as she was in fair way to learn she drowned" He never thought of the thirty-five dead Eversoles at all.
 MT. French Is apparently sincere In his belief that a war between families may be prosecuted with no more dishonor than a duel between gentlemen, or war be- twene two countries. He points with pride to the fact that the mountainers, hay ing once settled their differences, are a peaceful and mutually trustful people When he Is in Jackson, Ky, he is always shaved by a barber who, as an Eversole partisan, would gladly have made an end of him if he had had the opportunity while the "war'' was in progress.
 Maj. Gen. J. Franklin Bell, chief of
 staff of the United States army, is an American fighting man whose career Is like a romance, but whose explanation
 of his own success. and whose recipe for success in general is the simple mono syllable work Just prior to the deela- ration of war between the United States and Spain, Lieutenant J. Franklin Bell
 of the Seventh United States cavalry, was feeling about as blue as his uniform. He was the son of Kentuckian whose purse
 was not so long as his pedigree His am
 bition had been to rise to position which
 would enable him to provide for his father in his declining years. After twen- ty-odd years of loyal service in the reg ular army he found himself no higher in rank than first lieutenant. There Wtic but iiitS optiiii6o III tiic eti ny apoNC the rank of captain, and there were sixty five men older than MT. Bell ready and waiting to fill them. His prospect was to be retired at 64 as a captain. after forty-six years of service.
 Despairing of rising to desirable rank in reasonable time, MT. Bell studied lay wiile detailed on college duty at Car bondale, H.. to get in the judge advo- cate's department Isaac Clements, in whose office he studied, rather inclined to the opinion that it was pity for so promising a law student to waste his time in the army. How his brilliant service in the Philippines brought him to the attention of the President, and resulted in his finding himself a major general anu chief of staff at 50, is history. Un- like Funston, Bell did not win fame by a single coup. His prominence came by good end constant work The President said that Bell had done more than any other man to simplify the situation in l the islands, and that the thanks of the nation were due him. Major General Bell l is nephew of Joe Bell. who was a great deal larger than Secretary Taft.