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

up oIr .spines," says the Baltimore
News, when we read that Fred Fun
ston 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 eTents
that gave to Funston his present rank
in 1901, at sc 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-
ist, Alaskan explorer, but always with
the elan, the joyous spirit of adven-
tuTe, that marks the true soldier Of
fortune. To Funston a little matter
OF swimming a tropical river and cap
turing Aguinaldo was mere happy
detail in the days work. On second
thought, II was part uf the nights
work, for II was pitch dark in Luzon
when that little trick was turned and
tie Filipino instruction breathed its
last.
Whether he has been a good peace
soldier, nobody knows or cares. He
may have proved wonderfully expert
in unfolding and refolding red tape
end signing acquisitions 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
las never failed
He was born In Carlisle, o., in 1855.
moving with his family to Kansas al
tie age Of three, from which state his
father went some time later as Con
gresham to Washington His educa-
ton extended through the second year
at the university of Kansas, but then
the spirit Of adventure claimed him
and severed him from the humdrum
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 ad.
venture anywhere
In 1888, an off school yaar, he be.
came Santa Fe train-condnctor. 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 Re have long waited
Fundamentally.
And among the greasers and COW.
boys OF New Mexico. Colorado and
western Kansas there is still myth
to the effect that the Santa Fe once
put a human marmot on Its trains.
which concealed death In its right
hand and lingering illness in its left.
He was made brigadier-gene in
1901, when he was 36 years old Be
fore then he had been farmer. col
lego student train conductor. eews.
paper man, magazine writer. collector
OF botanical specimens, soldier of for
tune and lover of Kipling always.
Probably no man ever paid Rudyard
Kipling the compliment that Funston
paid him In Alaska, for on a long Jour-
#ney over thousand hills he carried
In his pack, where every ounce of
weight became torture, copies of
the "Barrack-Room Ballads and the
stories of MulYaney 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.
manently insane. He went to Alaska
on q 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 Scribner,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 a lieutenant
Of artillery - f.'
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 of
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 for
opportunity. II came, and a month or
two later in the same year he was
with the Cuban Junta in New York,
learning how to manage a Hotchkiss
12-pounder, breech-loaling rifle. and
enheartened by the promise of all the
adventure he wanted soon to come. 1t
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 of
the Junta in New York. He asked
the Cuban patriot to give him a
chance to lend his services to the suf-
fering republic as a filibuster. The
Cuban politely refused his offer. He