The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1853-03-18

oTHE FLAG oF ouR uNIoN.n

I namely, that il means, and was intende
i, to mean, UNION! 1t grew out of III
=, Unien Jack, Its star of stars SYMBOL
zes UNION. lis thirteen stripes are th,
record of the UNION. From ten thousan,
liag-stafs and mast-heads il is ever keep
ing alive the spirit of UNION. captain
Hamilton's work enables us TO compil,
its brief history. ,.ozrr r4r sse.la
= On the seventeenth of January, l776
% the captain ofau English transport, lcI
lying in the port of Boston, wrote home
TO his owners: 81 can see the rebels
camp very plain, whose colours, little
while ago, were entirely red; but on the
receipt of the kings speech (Which they
burni) they hoisted the Union Flag, which
is here supposed 10 intimate the union oi
The PROVINCES" The captain could not,
probably, discern the devices uponrihe
Fag but he noted tho change of colour,
hom royal req TO union blue. uaea. s.
A variety of flags, were used by The
contlnentals in the early noashs of the
revolutionary struggle. Atlhc taking of
Fort Johnson, September l3lh, HTS, a
peculiar flag was employed, which Hol-
mes, in his Annals, refers 30 lhus:-E'A
dag being thought necessary for the pnr-
pose of signals, Colonel Moulnie, who
was requested by the Council of Safety
10 procure one, had large bIus flag
mado, with a crescent in one corner. to
be in uniform with the troops. This was
the first American flag (adds TIolmes)
displayed in South Carolina.p The
crescent, be il observed, is an emblem
of sovereignty. On the twentieth of
October, in the same year, Colonel John
Reed wrote this order 10 Colonel Glover
aud Stephen Maylan:-"Please to fix
upon some particular colour for . flag and
a signal 10y which our vessels may know
one anolher. Wha, do you think, of
fig with white grounds tree in She
middle-the motto, Appeal 10 Heaven!
This is thp flag Of our floating batteries"
February ninth, l776, Colonel Gadsdep !
the following desiga for naval
dag;-n"A yellow field, with lively
representation of a ratilesDa AXE in the 4
middle, in the attitude of going to strike,
and tho words underneath, Don't tread
on msr" Many o.hcr designs for aags
were proposed, and several, as we have
just observed, were in use. a. .rr .8ar
1t was not till June fourteenth, MT,
that Congress passed the resolution which
gave to the infant nation a National Flag.
That resolution was In the following
words :-7"Resolved, That the Aag of
Thirteen United States, be thirteen
stripes. alter2ate red and white; tina, HE
Union be thirteen Stars, white, in blue
ied, representing anew constellation"
This was the flag ofthe lai,er iriumpbs
If the revolution. Itremained una,.ered |
Ill January thirteenth, 1874, when the
dtnissicn of two new States added two
tars TO the decentralization" and two stripes
o the 'rainbow." This was the flag
# lSl2--the A,g of Lake Erie, New
Orleans, and the Atlantic Ocoun. In
SIS, the following resolutions were
dopted by Congress : -"That from and
fier the fourth day Of July next, the flag
# the Uniled States he thirteen horizon.
pl stripes, alternate red and white; that
he Union be twenty stars, white in blue
eld; and that on the admission Of new .
State intu the Union, one star be added
. the union of the flag" This change
vas suggested by the Hon. Peter II.
Vendover, Of New.York. lis utility is /,
obvious. The flag which
oated over the "Halls of the Nlontczu-
lss" had thirty stars in the union. The
resent flag has thirty-one. a
Long may il wave! y +
NATURAL GAs.-The "Holmes Coun- =
, (Ohio) Farmer" states that wonder
ii natural curiosity has been discovered q
| that county, in the shape of natural +
as. The discovery was made on tie f
lrn Of Mr.. Purdy, some eight or len i
IDS south of the house, in curious kind =
earth resembling dark sawdusi. The
wner, for some years, has been aware OF
le existence Of some wonderful phe> h
omena. The place on which the dis. 5
,very has been made has been cultivat- h
for number Of years, and il has been h
served that, in number of places, q
,e.y thing planted or sown, and all a
pds of vegetation, would dwindle and =
e, and seemingly turn up. After the A
te rains the water was discovered TO be 9,
yi,s,ed, and bubble up in number Of
aces, Which led Mr.. Purdy and others
experiment, by collecting a bottle Of If
is gas, and setting it OH fire, when, the +,
slant lighted match was TOUCHED TO il, II
G vapor igni,ed, and sent the bottle "
hizz;ng through the house. n
A western writer thinks that If the i, i;
oper way 10 spell H,ho" is 'rhough," h
lie" "ciglh,"" and "bo" "besu," the n,
oper way TO spell "polatoes" is pough- " "