OCR Text |
Show FUNSTON DROPS OEM. HOTEL COMMANDER OF SOUTHERN DEPARTMENT DE-PARTMENT OF U. S. ARMY FATALLY STRICKEN. Hero of. Philippine War Seized With Illness While Playing With a Child, Death Being Almost Instantaneous. San Antonio, Texas. Major-General 'Frederick Funston, commander of the southern department, United States army, since February, 1915, died suddenly sud-denly at a hotel here Monday night a few minutes after he had finished dinner. He collapsed while seated in the lobby of the hotel talking with friends and was playing with little Inez Silverberg of Des Moines, Iowa, a guest, with her parents, at the ho-' tel. when he fell unconscious. Death was almost instantaneous. General Funston was 51 years old. Not until 1896, when the Cuban insurrection in-surrection was at its height, did Frederick Fred-erick Funston become known throughout through-out the United States as a first class fighting man, but his friends in Kansas Kans-as where he spent his early manhood man-hood long had so classified him. As a student at the University of Kansas, when he weighed less than 100 pounds, he conquered a 200-pound 200-pound "bad man" -who threatened him with a razor. T6 add to the giant's humiliation, Funston marched him through the streets of Lawrence, Kan., at the point of a revolver, to a police po-lice station. A few years later, while city editor of a paper in Fort Smith, Arkansas, young Funston stirred up intense feeling feel-ing by attacking editorially the publication's pub-lication's own political party leaders during the absence of his editor in chief. Many threats are said to have been made against Funston and the newspaper property, but he remained on guard until his superior returned and then turned over the plant unharmed. un-harmed. Incidentally, Funston also resigned. Along the Santa Fe railroad they still recall how Funston, as a passenger passen-ger train conductor, thretv a drunken MAJOR GENERAL FUNSTON Major-General Frederick Funston, who died in lobby of a San Antonio hotel, was one of the most noted figures fig-ures of the army. cowboy off a train and later, when he hurled a rock through a coach window, win-dow, pursued him several miles on foot while the train waited. (Funston's first experience on the firing line came in Cuba, where he Commanded General Gomez's artillery with remarkable results. After engaging engag-ing in twenty-two battles and being wounded three times, he resigned his command because fifty guerrillas who had aided the Spaniards were executed execut-ed against his wishes. . Captured by Spaniards on his way to Havana, he escaped death by swallowing a letter to the president of Cuba which would have proved his identity. While a colonel of the famous Twentieth Kansas volunteer infantry " regiment in the Philippine war, Funston Fun-ston performed feats of bravery that brought him the title of brigadier general. gen-eral. His capture of Aguinaldo and his fording of the Rio Grande river at Columpit under fire featured his work. When the volunteers were discharged dis-charged Funston retained his rank as a member of the regular army. As a regular he made a mark by maintaining maintain-ing order in San Francisco during the disaster of 1906. Temporarily in charge of the troops at the Presidio when the disturbance came, he quickly quick-ly declared martial law and set about obtaining accommodations for the homeless, keeping down the cost of food and arresting trouble-makers. It was while he was In command of the troops at Vera Cruz in 1914 that he was raised to the rank of major general. gen-eral. He then was 49 years old. |