Col. Fred Funston, whose father, "farmer" Funston lives near Iola Kansas, is a typical western American, fond of adventure for its own sake, reckless of danger, bright, intelligent, well educated, at home everywhere, and a marksman who never misses a shot. He is a representative of the kind of material the Spaniards will have to fight in our volunteer army. He served for nearly two years under Garcia and Gomez, and was then captured while riding alone through the country, and escaped death by representing that he was on his way to give himself up to the Spaniards. He was so easy and honest in his manner that they believed him, paroled him and let him go. He returned home, but answered the call of his country as soon as war was declared, receiving from Governor Leedy, of Kansas, a commission as Colonel of a cowboy regiment that will, no doubt, give a good account of itself during the conflict.

Colonel Funston's adventures in Cuba, while marching and fighting with the insurgents, were more thrilling than romance. He says the Spaniards are brave and will fight, but their marksmanship is contemptible. They cannot shoot as well as the insurgents, he declares, and the insurgents shoot about like policemen. There are no marksmen in the world who can compare with the Americans.

"The Spaniards and the Cubans fill the earth and air with bullets but it is an accident, generally, when they hit.

"When I landed in Cuba," said Colonel Funston, recently, "I soon found the Cuban army. I found Gomez and Garcia; both men far above the average intellectually. Both loyal patriots and brave fighters. With several other young Americans I enlisted and was made a lieutenant. That was in July. I had been in New York and learned of the filibustering expedition. I had nothing to do and saw a chance for adventure, so I went in. After getting into the Cuban army I wasn't long, getting, into a fight. We had some hot little skirmishes, and then we had one hard battle after another in quick succession. just before the first lively battle I was in I felt nervous. The Spaniards were drawn up in battle line on a knoll about five hundred yards from us. We could just catch a glimpse of them occasionally. They were in close order to prevent the cavalry charming them. Just as soon as they saw us they blazed away. They filled the air with bullets, but didn't hit anybody. We were in skirmish line, standing about as far apart as fence posts. We returned the fire and there was a general fusillade. The Spaniards had Mauser rifles and smokeless powder. There would be an occasional puff of smoke, but that was about all we could see of them. We crouched in the grass and would rise up and shoot and then duck. Every time we would catch a glimpse of a Spaniard we would crack away. Those Mauser bullets whistled through the air and made an awful shriek, but after the shooting began I forgot all about my nervousness.

"It isn't much use to get behind a tree or any obstruction when the Mausers are talking, for the bullets go at a velocity of 2400 feet a second. They will pierce a large tree and kill a man who is behind it. Those steel bullets will penetrate two inches of steel at close range; so, you see, barricades are not worth much. We used to drop dynamite shells among them. You can see the shells traveling slowly through the air, and when they strike the ground you'd think an earthquake had broken loose. One feels an awful relaxation after a battle; it is hard to sleep for a few hours.

"It is impossible to remember the exact dates of all the fights, the number involved, or the casualties. But I shall never forget Desmayo. That battle was fought in October, 1896. The Spaniards, 2500 of them, were drawn up in their usual close order, and we fixed to charge them with cavalry. They quickly formed squares with rapid-firing cannon at the corners. We bad only four hundred and seventy-nine men, but we charged them. We rode right up in the teeth of their fire and fired our revolvers right into their faces. We didn't try to ride our horses on their bayonets, but we rode almost in arm's reach of them. It was a terrible slaughter. Of our four hundred and seventy-nine we lost two hundred and fifty-one in killed and wounded in the charge. The percentage is almost without a parallel.

"During that fight I heard bullets dropping around us when we were three miles from the Spaniards. Their rifles carried that far. The velocity of the shot from that kind of a rifle is something astounding.

"Another hot battle was the taking of Las Tunas. The town was heavily fortified. After hard fighting, we got in and played havoc with the Spaniards. We charged them in the streets, and the bullets rattled against the sides of the buildings like hail. Finally, we planted two dynamite guns in the parlor of a fine dwelling house about two hundred and fifty yards from the Spanish fort. Then we began to pump dynamite shells into them, and it made them sick.

"We had with us," be went on, "an educated Cuban named Barney Bueno. He was a rollicking devil-may-care fellow, who had lived in New York and was as full of fun as a yearling colt. While the dynamite gun was cracking death out of the parlor windows Bueno sat at a grand piano in the richly furnished room pounding out 'Dixie' and all the rag tunes he knew. The dynamite gun struck terror to the Spaniards. The big brass shells bad five pounds of dynamite in them, and when they hit the fort there was hell to pay. We corraled all of the Spaniards and they surrended.

"Some of the battles were very bloody. At Bayamo in December, 1896, we had 3500 men and the Spanish had 4800. We lost 463 and they lost 681. We were after them hot then. just a month before that the battle of Lugonas was fought, and the Spaniards murdered thirty-eight of our wounded on the field after the battle. We found the bodies afterward, and they bad actually bayoneted every wounded man they found.

"A few times the Spaniards,used the express bullets. They explode after striking an object and are very deadly. The Mauser and Krag-Jorgenson bullets are humane, they penetrate with terrible velocity, but do not lacerate, like the old forty-five lead minnie balls. One went through my lungs and, while it made a painful wound, left no serious result."

Colonel Funston gives this graphic account of his arrest by the Spaniards: "I was going to the Cuban capital, Las Guymas, and was crossing a railroad track at night when I was ambushed by a squad of the enemy. I had no idea any one was near when I was challenged and heard the click of their rifle-locks. I knew I was captured, and I said in Spanish 'I surrender.' I told them that I was on my way to the Spanish lines to give up, and I stuck to the story. They believed it. I was taken to Puerto Principe and tried by a military commission. I was very decently treated and released on parole. I worked my way to Havana and sought General Lee. I was in the uniform of a rebel, and was a pretty seedy looking specimen. The Spaniards stared at me on the streets, and a gang of kids followed me around shouting, 'Mambecia!, which means rebel. No one bothered me, though. I dropped into General Lee's office, and he sized me up with the remark: 'Are you a rebel?' I said I was. 'Well,' said he, 'I was a rebel thirty-five years ago, but I never was as tough looking as you are. I had no money and he furnished me funds to buy clothes and get to New York. I had not time to wait to have a suit of clothes made, and the only thing I could buy was an ice-cream suit, straw hat and tan shoes. I landed in New York on January 10, 1898, rigged out in that outfit. It was very cold and I was a curiosity.

"There is very little danger from yellow fever," said Colonel Funston. "There was some of it in the Spanish camps when I was in Cuba, but there was little of it among the Cubans. Malaria and dysentery is what played havoc with the Spaniards. They drink rum and eat fruit, and the two combined in the Cuban climate will kill anybody. The Americans must leave rum alone when they go to Cuba. They must take the advice of those who have been there on this point. It will not do to use liquor, especially with the fruit. The Spaniards have Jamaica rum, and when they go out on the march nearly every fellow stows away a quart or more among, his effects. Marching through the country they find the luscious mangos and bananas with other fine Cuban fruits. Many times they eat the fruit half green, and with the rum, dysentery and malaria combine to kill them.

"The mango is a most magnificent fruit. The trees are the size of our great oaks. There are fine wild groves of mango trees, and I have seen the ripe fruit on the ground a foot deep. The mango is a species of large plum the size of a pear. It has a delicious flavor and is most tempting to a hungry soldier. The Cubans eat the mango it great quantities, and it does not seem to hurt them. That is because they select only the ripe fruit and they have no rum. They cannot get rum. I have seen Cubans eat forty large mangos in a day, and I have eaten them myself, but they are good things to be left alone. When the Spanish army is on the march, guards are usually thrown around the mango groves as they are passed, to keep the soldiers from eating the fruit.

"There is a chance of a contagion of yellow fever, of course, but with reasonable precautions there need be no danger. The men should take quinine in reasonable doses every week or ten days, try to dry their clothes once a day, drink no liquor and use the rations instead of the native food. These will combine to keep off all contagion and the malaria, too.

"Malaria is the dread disease, but quinine properly administered will keep it off. When I was in the Cuban army we could only get quinine occasionally. I contracted the malaria after I had been im the country about nine months. It is a strange thing that the Americans who were with the insurgents stood the climate better than even the Cubans themselves. American soldiers will stand it well for at least eight months, because they will be in good condition when they go ill. They will have wholesome rations, tents and good clothes as well as' medicines. However, if the war should last longer than that a reserve force should be ready to take the place of the active army. That is why I think the government should raise a big, army at once."