The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-11-09
sFTGHTINa FREDp $ FUNSTON. CAPToR OF
 AGUINALDo. 47 TODAY.

Railroad man. newspaper reportef,
 botanist. explorer. war correspondent.
 and, last of all. and more than all, a
 fighter from the word go. summarizes
 the career Of Gen. Frederick Funston
 U. s. A.,-a career that commenced
 forty-seven years ago today in New
 ing Fred" was ush cred into the world.
 His father, Edward Hogue Funston.
 was something of scrapper himself,
 civil war, retiring with the rank of
 ca ptain. Later Funston pere married
 Ann Elizabeth Mitchell, a descendant
 of Daniel Boouey the Kentucky pioneer
 ing blood In the Funston veins, as he
 has proved in Cuba. the Philippines
 and elsewhere. The elder Funston, m
 addition to his war-1ike activities,
 served three terms in the House of
 Representatives, and was prominent in the, politics of Kangas. which State youthful activities.
 "Ffghting Fred' was still iE his teens when he tf1ew the coop" of his parents. and went to Mexico There he acquired "a speaking acquaintance with the Spanish language, but not
 much else. and soon deci led thnt After leaving the University of Kan sas he went to Kansas C1Cy and got q job as a train collector. Railroad so fe next tried his hand at reporting on a Kansas City newspaper. At the university he had accumulated con- such things. and this enabled him to land an appointment as government hotanist- That sounds rather tame. car eer was full of excitement and hair breadth escapes. He was a mem Der of expeditions to Death Valley. frigid Alaska, and added much Inter esting and useful data to the scant scIent tific Knowledge of thoSe sections. the winter a@paa of pssssoa and a aione noat ed down the Yukon in frat1 canoe. That experience was one that would holnbre. but the buiIet-hes.tIed youIls; Kansan enjoyed it. He care ous CT the country beyond the Arctic Circle pretty thoroughly chilled, and pro- our. After running a coffee planta- ton in one of the Central American banana republics for 2 short time. he too tame, and Funston answered the | gall Of Cuba Iibre" and hiked off | Jr Havana. The CubaT revolution | Funston was the accredited war cor | of Harper's Weekly He l lust couldn't keep out or the fraeas. | arrny, in which he soon became g. | icutenant-colone1 and chief Of arttl- l cry under Gen. Garcia. He was In | ne D6IL10 or DeSIE1dyOs du0 W1OL6 d. | tory about 1t that is one of the .lass.cs of military literature. As n Cuban officer. Funston fired the first dynamite gun ever used in actual war are He knew nothing about big ,rinted directions on the packing case s his guide.
 When Uncle Sam interferred in Gu an affairs Funston was made colonel f the Twentieth Kansas which. how yer, got no farther than Florida. Text he bobbed up in the Philippines, -hare he fought the little brown men Q a frazzie, and won immortal fame y captuuring Gen. Aguinaldo, spresi- ent'' of the Philippine Republic. He idn't swim a river. as was reported t the time, but he did risk his life in
 thousand ways that have not been 1entioned. He was rewarded by be- lg made a brigadier- r-generaL Gen. 'unston was in charge of the Depart 1ent of California at the time of the an Francisco eart-Leg pardon-t1e an Francisco fire, and brought order ut of the chaos that followed the dis ster- He-but, pshaw, this is not
 book.