Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-06-08
Fasteners Revive Stories Of
His Dash and Bravery in
Days and Wars Gone BY


News, when we read that Fred Fun
sion leads the troops sent to Vera
Cruz" But Brigadier-general Fun
STAINS Philippine days were over Is.
years ago, and many Americans have
forgotten the details OF the events
that gave TO Funston his present rank
In 1901, at SO years Of age. The News
continues:
IL there is anywhere a modern hero
Of romance, his name is Funston. In.
the old days. he fought for Cuba
Libre: he has been reporter, botan-
lst, Alaskan explorer, but always with,
the elan, the joyous spirit Of adven.
ture, that marks the true soldier of
fortune. To Funston a little matter
or swimming q tropical river and cap
turing Aguinaldo was a mere happy
detail IN the days work On second
thought, II was part Of the nights
work, FOR ii was pitch dark in Luzon
when that little trick was turned and
the Filipino instruction breathed its
last
Whether he has been good peace
soldier, nobody knows or cares. He
may have proved wonderfully expert
In unfolding and refolding red tape
end signing requisitioas for hams and
shoes, or he may have been an ordi-
nary or extraordinary failure at these
routine tasks.
What matters? He Is just the man
to attend to things down in Mexico.
When an emergency presented. he
has never failed.
He was born in Carlisle, O.. in 1865.
moving with his family to Kansas al
the age OF three, from which state his
father went some time later as Con-
gresham to Washington His educa-
lion extended through the second year
at the university Of Kansas, but then
the spirit OF adventure claimed him
and severed him from the humdrnm
Z life Of his upbringing. As the New
York Tribune remarks:
He was born with wandering foot,
which has taken him from the arctic
TO the tropics seeking adventure, He
is the kind OF man who can find adj
venture anywhere.
In 1883, an off school yaar. he be.
came Santa Fe traln-conductor. AT
different times his route lay all the
way from Kansas City to Albuquerque
and south to the Gulf of Mexico.
Among his other duties was that OF
train-bouncer He doesn't weigh much
now, but he weighed less than 100
pounds then. and yet that fact didn't
stand In the way OF his success as a
bouncer. The record Of his guilt Is
/ still. perhaps, in the clogged supreme
court OF Kansas, where damage suits
against the Santa Fe have long waited
fundamentally.
And among the greassTs and COW.
boys of New Mexico. Colorado and
Western Kansas there is still myth
| to the effect that the Santa Fe once
put q human rnarmot on its trains,
which concealed death in its right
hand and lingering illness in its left,
He was made brigadier-genera In
1901, when he was 36 years old Be.
fore then he had been farmer, col
lege student. inconductoT. tews.
paper man, magazine writer. collector
OF botanical specimens, soldier of for
tune and lover of Kipling ALWAYS.
Probably no man ever paid RHdyard
Kipling the compliment that Funston
! paid him in Alaska, for on a long jour,
ney over a thousand hills he carried
| in his pack, where every ounce OF
weight became a torture, copies OF
1.-THE "Barrack- Room Ballads" and the
stories of Mulvaney and his friends.
He took part in an expedition into
Death Valley desert that nearly proved
| fatal to the whole party and was at.
| tended with such terrible sufferings
that one of the number became per.
tmanently insane. He went to Alaska
on government commission and
Travelled $500 miles alone over snow
and ice, living through the long days
| of an arctic winter. sleeping and
hunting for Is months. The record
OF his experiences he put in an article
which appeared in ScribneE,s in No
vember, 1896 He was in Mexico in
1895 on a coffee plantation, then in
New York doing newspaper work, and
then he went to Cuba as lieutenant
OF artillery.
The particulars of General Funston's
start in Cuba are not generally known
but form in themselves an interesting
and significant chapter in the story oil
his career. The Grand Rapids Press
tells OF the strange way in which he
got his chance. In June of 1896, he
was wandering about New York, as
newspaperman and botanist, a man
from the wilds and out Of his element
In the big city. He was waiting fol
opportunity. 1t came, and month OF
two later in the same year he wa;
with the Cuban Junta in New York
learning how TO manage a HotchkisE
12-pounder, breech-loading rifle, and
enheartened by the promise of all the
adventure he wanted soon to come i
/ happened through an idea that came
to him while he was knocking about
in his reportorial capacity, as follows
He went to Palma, afterward presi
dent of Cuba, but then in charge o.
the Junta in New York. He asked
the Cuban patriot to give him {
| chance to lend his services to the sui
fering republic as a filibuster. The
Cuban politely refused his offer. He