The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1914-05-12


Weyler Set Price Upon His Head.
Fighting Fred Funston. who has
been ordered to lead the first advance
Of the army TO Vera Cruz. is the senior
brigadier general of the American
army, although he is now only forty
nine years old and did not enter the
regular army until 1901. He came
into the regular establishment with the
rank he now holds. his commission
having been given by President Nc
Kinley in appreciation of his remark
able feat in capturing almost single
handed, Emilio Aguinaldo, the Filipino
insurrecto leader.
Funston had been in the volunteer
service from the outbreak of the Span
ish- American war. when he recruited
the Twentieth Kansas among the same
kind of men forming the backbone Of
the rough riders. Before he engaged
| in the enterprise he had been for about
| two years 4 soldier in the Cuban army
of liberation, and so big Il factor was
| he in the warfare that Butcher Wey-
| Ter. the Spanish generalissimo, set a
! price upon his head.
{
Funston is Il product of the Universi-
| ty of Kansas After his student days
| he became newspaper man. then en-
! tered the service of the United States
| department of agriculture and was sent
! to Alaska to study the fora, He show
ed the stuff Of which he is made by
/ floating down the Yukon alone in ca
noe in 1898.
He was wounded ten times in battle.
During his Cuban experience he took
| part in twenty-three engagements, and
he kept that pace after entering the
American volunteers. Once he was ar
rested in Cuba by Spanarls as he was
trying to reach the seacoast He rep
resented himself as deserter from the
patriot army, having swallowed his
passport, which indicated his rank. lie
was condemned to death, but eventual
~ was liberated and got back to this
country.
His Kansas regiment was assigned
to Philippine duty, and on his way he
met and married his present wife in
San Francisco. He joined General Mer
rift before Manila. which he aided in re
ducing Leading the pursuit of Agui
naldo in April 1899, he came to the
AIurilac river, on the other side OF
which was a considerable force of thu
enemy. The bridge had been destroy
ed, but Funston, with twenty of the
] many men who volunteered. swan the
river, drove the hostiles back and tool
eighty prisoners.
e. AS "Prisoner," Took Aquinado.
A few days later he crossed the Ri
Grande at Calumpit on Il raft am
0 drove the enemy. $500 strong. from Al
II intrenched position. This feat won hi
u brigadiership of volunteers.
1t was in 1901 that he made his hi
mark. From his hiding place in tn
) province of Isabella, Aguinaldo ha
called the insurgents to rendezyou
- near his headquarters. Funston car
tured the messenger who carried thi
command. lie and several comrade
made their way through the thick G
hostile country with eighty Mac;
p bebes, who passed as insurgent Tag
logs who had captured the Americans
Word was sent to Aguinaldo. and o
l. ders We're given for the prisoners I
~ be brought to him.
T. Before the strategy was suspecte
n, Funston had entered the rebels hous
2, and taken him prisoner. That n
u broke the neck of the instruction, an
~ peace negotiations were at once begu
" Funston is a little man. with Il linn
n a mementO of several wounds. He po
sesses a bubhling sense of humor