Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1914-06-20
ADVENTUROUS CAREER OF GENERAL |
FUNSTON GRAPHICALLY RELATED
Spirit of Daniel Boone Lives in
the Fighting Bantam of
the u. S. Army


other romancers. There never was a
period In the worlds history when
such daredevil deeds Of adventur.
were chronicled as are being chron-l
icIed in this twentieth century. Look
at Peary and Scott and Amnndsen, for
instance. Look al the Wright broth,
ers and the whole troop of aviatoTs.
Consider L1andor and Roosevelt and
Leonard Wood The world is simply,
reeking with romance and adventure.
most of which Is never made public
Every once in a while some mining
engineer like John Hays Hammond or.
some labor leader like John Mitchell
or some bandit like Al Jennings gets
/ into the limelight; but there are
score Of Others who have adventures
equally thrilling which never get into
the magazines, or; IL they do, are
!Quickly forgotten
OF all the careers of modern times,
none seems to be fuller OF sheer adj
venture than that Of the. little briga-t
ldier-general who has command OF our
troops down TO Vera Cruz. Not that
he has done bigger things than anyone
| else has done, but that he has done so
many Of them. He couldn't wait until.
| he finished school. After completing
Il the high-school course at lola, Kan
sas, he tried for West Point and failed,
and then started on bis first search for
romance. II took him down into Mex
| leo. where he stayed long enough TO.
learn the Spanish language and inn.
bibe q general idea of the Mexican
character Then he returned to KAN
lsas and, az the age OF 20, entered the
State University at Lawrence. He.
was a mite Of youngster. weighing
less than 100 pounds and measuring
Ionly five feet three inches In height.
But William Allen White, who was in
| the university at the time. tells how.
young Funston called the bluff of q
| big bully who weighed 200 pounds, ar.
rested him and marched him TO the
Ipolice station. Another story Of him
at about this time tells of his kicking
| a revolver out Or the hand OF an exhfi-'
Iafated cowboy on q Santa Fe train.
then rushing the cowboy off the train
land chasing him down the track. Fun
|ston was conductor Of the train at the
time, having taken the position to exc
tout his income while at school, and
they say he had more than one Of
this kind to handle
Having spent four years at the uni
|veTsity with Indifferent success there
being no record Of bis receiving q de-3
gree--he turned his hand to news
paper work in Kansas City. But the
|call OF the wild proved too strong for
this descendant Of Daniel Boone. for
|such he Is said 10 be. He had chance
Ito 20 as q botanist on q government
|expedifion into Death Valley, Califor-l
|nia, and be turned HIS back on news
paper work forever. on this trip the
party encountered heat that sent the
mercury up as high as lat degrees and
half the party was at one time dis-I
tabled by the terrible strain. Funston
himself came near perishing. He was
|sent across the desert to get the mail,
lost his way, his horse died from ex-,
haustion, and for "a hours he wan
dered in the desert alone before find
ing help.
But suffering and danger seem to-
have an irresistible attraction for
|some natures All soldiers admit that
war Is hell. but they get right back
into it again whenever they have al
chance. Having experienced the ex-
IRENE Of heat, Funston next proceeded
to see what the extreme Of cold felt
like. He got an appointment as agent
|of I he Agricultural Department at
Washington and went into the wilds of
Alaska to examine the flora.
OF course he took the most danger
Gus route
with party OF Indians, he went
lover Chilkoot Pass, carrying among
|other things, copy of Kiplingss
''Barrack Room Ballads" and SOL
diers Three which he pored over
enthusiastically IN the long Arctic
nights In Alaska he made the long
lest trip ever made by white man
lon snowsfioes and padded down the
Yukon distance of 100 miles abso-
lutely alone In an open boat not see
ling human face for weeks. Moth
ling was said Of Funston's going, says
William Allen White, in an account
he one wrote Of It: mo bugles were
sounded ON his return. Yet for con-
|tinued hardships, unceasing danger
land uninterrupted adventure, probably
Luis mp HAS DccH uu64CSil60 Dy any
|other on this continent in a century =
All this time Funston was collecting
Botanical specimens and cataloging
them. = 49, -
Once again amid. the comforts of
|ciyilization, he began to fret and fume
and, having saved up little money by
this time, he went to South America
and invested Il in a coffee plantation.
Had this enterprise turned out well,
the history of at least two countries
Cuba and the PhiIippifles-might have
been written differently. But in 1896
Funston was back again in America,
his money gone, but his love of dan
ger as keen as ever.
For a few months he served as as
sistant auditor on the Santa Fee Rail-
road, but. finding life in an office too
tame for him, he started for the East
with his eye fixed on Cuba. He made
a study Of guns, especially rapid-fire
guns, such as were of use in such a