OCR Text |
Show GENERAL FUNSTON HERO. Through all the crises from which shattered San Francisco Is just now beginning to emerge, no figure stands out in more heroic relief than that of General Funston. With that natural gift of leadership which was shown in all tho glittering glitter-ing record of his remarkable achievements in the Philippines, he marshalled his forces, and with the quick intiution which is a part of military genius, met grandly and serenely every emergency emer-gency in that long chapter of imminent disasters. And still it seems envy and army jealousy still aim their barbed weapons at this shining military mark, and in the moment of his triumph, after an ordeal of perils which would have exhausted ordinary or-dinary military and executive skill, ho was superceded super-ceded by General Greeley in the command of the . forces at San Francisco. Information is not avail-able avail-able regarding the occasion for his dethronement, but it will probably develop later that it was one of those cumbrous evolutions in army life, Inspired In-spired by tho spite of some vapid old army officer of superior rank, whose pride and self-conceit were galled by Funston's well-earned distinction. Whether that is the real secret of the affair or not, Greeley's official ascendency over Funston, after the crash of nature's battle with San Francisco Fran-cisco was nearly over, was too belated to wrest from the Kansas fighter the honors he won as a great chieftain or the homage of the grateful multitudes mul-titudes of that fallen city. The caliber of General Funston, and tho fact . that he was exactly the man suited to meet tht, exigencies of that unheralded catastrophe, was shown almost before the detonation of the first shock bjid died away. The earthquake started its angry procession at 5:12 o'clock. The Presidio is fully six miles from the heart of San Francisco, but Funston's campaign was outlined on the instant, in-stant, and by G:30 soldiers had been despatched from the post and were patrolling the imperilled streets, relieving the dying, directing the terror-stricken, terror-stricken, peremptorily beating back looters and marauders. Some of our vain and pompous officers of-ficers of superior rank would probably have spent that time frantically telegraphing for orders from Washington. FunBton's idea was to successfully meet the terrible crisis and look for orders afterwards. after-wards. All through the long days and the longer nights, whatever form the horrors took, whether in the awful voice of the earthquake, the agonies of the devastating fire, or the destitution and want of the homeless and hungry in the parks and on the hillsides, the compelling genius of Funston was always present, always capable, and in forcing forc-ing order out of panic and confusion, and in meeting meet-ing every condition, either with drawn sword or proffered food, he achieved more honor than was possible on any battlefield during his remarkable career on Luzon island. It seems strange that a man like General Fun-ston Fun-ston should have so many detractors. Certainly they cannot be those who are familiar with his exploits; not the brave band who saw him, under a pitiless fire, followed by a small guard of naked soldiers, swim the wide Pampanga river, flank the entrenched Filipino warriors, and drive them confused and beaten out of earthworks that were seemingly impregnable; not the men who later, at Santo Tomas, saw him at the head of the Kansas Kan-sas regiment, his bright blade brandished in one arm, while the other, pierced with a bullet, hung leaden and unheeded at his side; not those who ' saw him in the battle smoke of San Fernando, , watched the splendor of his resistless assault, un til in the eyes of the idolizing men who followed, that little wizened form assumed the proportions of a Greek god. There are far too many maligners of the nation's na-tion's heroes, and in referring to the traducers ot General Funston, one cannot but believe that long after the tongues which villified are dust, the name of General Funston will be reverently spoken spok-en by the grateful generations of the future. |