The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-09
THE NEW FRENCH COLORS.
A sketch OF the Various Emblems which
Have Led the French 20 victory
and Defeat,
From the New York World

From the New York World
In the French military colors nothing Is
changed, but there Ia one eagle the less
Hereafter the eagles upon the regimental
colors will be replaced by wreath Of bronze
Iaures traversed by golden dart, the letters
"R. f." and the regimental number In bronze
adding to the ornamentation. In the middle
of the ttieolor are tho words "Republique
Francaise-Honneure ct Patrie," while in each
corner Is the regimental number in the centre
oil a golden wreath. On the other side Is in
scribed the name Of the regiment and list
Of the battles In which 1t has won distinction
the corners are decorated with wreaths How
old the eagle Is as military emblem-who
knows The eagles of the Tenth Legion had
landed In Albion long before the embroidered
raven Tapped It's wings on the Northmen's
standard the eagle superseded the lark,
which was the cognizance OF the CALI, levies
and outlived all the birds and beasts of the
early Roman militia, as the woodpecker
of the Picen and the wolf of the
Hirpini. The division of the empire
gave the eagle two heads. one
for Rome and one for Byzantium, and when
The empire fell the imperial cognizance was
adopted by Austria and Russia, which claimed
through the female line the honors of the
Pal@ologi. Prussia and Poland had their
eagles, and it was only natural that Napo-
leon, who considered himself the successor
Of Charlemagne and the Caesars should have
adopted the bird Of Jove as the emblem Of his
empire. Up to his time France had known
flags. many. In 49s Clovis took for the
standard of France the Cape of St Martin,
the great soldier saint. Under Philip Angus
tus the royal flag was white, strewn with
golden lines; Charles vi made 1t blue with
white cross In the middle. In the middle
ages the white flag was generally recognized
as the signal of truce or surrender, and grad
ually 1t was abandoned as q battle-ilag
and claimed as the personal banner of the
highest officer, then of the King himself
Louis XIV iealously abolished the office of
acknowledgement and the white flag ceasing to
be prerogative OF that superior officer, be-
came the national banner. The coonels, how
ever, had trieolored flags, whence the express
Eions Joining the coors," Serving with the
color5." In 1889 the tricolor replaced the
white banner as the national stand
ard Camille Desmoulins, picking up a
Leaf In the garden of the Palais Royal,
adopted it az cognizance, and
would have had green made the national color
but the liveries of that most unpopular of
princes, the count of Artois, were green, and
the revolution had to make another choice
4 The colOrs OF the city of Paris, the red and
blue, which had already been cOnspicuously
borne on many occasions, were therefore Sc
iected, with between them the royal white.
dear to the national guard. This tricolor was
adopted with enthusiasm BaiiIy and Lafay-
cite presented the red, white and blue cock
AIDE TO Louis XIV, in the great municipal hall
Of the Hotel de Vile after the fall of the Bas-
tile, and many DEGREES of the constituent and |
legislative assemblies and the convention
ratified the selection. Inasmuch, however, az |
none OF the DEGREES settled the order Of the |
three colofs, rural France had large as |
sortment of national iags-red, white and |
blue, red, blue and white, and blue, white and |
red; some indeed had the colors disposed |
horizontally. Finally a law was passed liking |
the position OF the blue next to the staff and |
leaving the red Outermost; the battle-Ha |
were also ordered to be inscribed Discipline |
and obedience to the law"
Napoleon gave the eagles to the French re-
public, OF which he had just been crowned |
emperor, December 3, 1904 on the Champs
de Mars, appearing in the dazzling corona
ton robes he had worn the day before at |
Notre Dame, which were designed by the |
painter David, and adjusted upon the i'm
perial person by the actor Talma, and which
now rep0Se, gaudy but somewhat furnished,
III glass case at the Louvre. Thus robed,
the emperor from a throne erected In front
OF the military school he had entered but q
lew years before as a penniess cadet, deiv-
cred to the standard-bearers Of the regiments
the eagles, exelaiming, Soldiers, behold your
iiags! These eagles will ever be your raj
lying-point: they will be found wherever
your emperor deems 1t necessary to dispatch
LheIn IOT Une ueIenSe OF MS people ana his
throne. Swear that you will sacrifice your
lives to defend them, and that you will al
ways maintain them In the path of honor
and victory" They swore and kept their
oath well, for the eagle had flown from Ma
drid to Moscow and from the Mediterranean
70 TO the Baltic ere the imperial donor depart
ing for Elba embraced the standard of the
guard,
Dear eagle" said he may this kiss
Long thrill In the hsarts of the bravel"
Under the restoration the white flag with
Che lilies was reintroduced, but i'm the
spring OF 1915 the violets bloomed and Napo-
leon came back, the regimental eagles and the 7
tri-color issuing from the unknown hiding (
places where they had found shelter, to blaze {
through the hundred days, 4
but at dusk Of O sutry evening IN June the t
who was mounting his ladder at 6
the corner of Pall-Mall and st. James square q
deserted post-chaise and four driving at a {
break-neck pace from the direction of White
hall from one of the windows protruded two {
tri-colored flags. surmounted by golden t
eagles. 1t was Wellingtons aide-de-camp, t
Mai. Percy. who had posted from Dover to q
the Horse Guards, aud now was galloulng to {
the private mansion in the neighborhood '
Of st. James, where the prince t
regent was dining that night to present t
his highness with tho eagles and the dis t
patches telling Of their capture at Waterloo. t
In France the white flag of the Bourbons was {
again brought back and It remained the b
standard OF France till 1890 But it was /
worth recounting, for very few Frenchmen I
sven know the fact, that when the law Of q
April Is, 1916, restored the white flag French o
,fficer had raised the tricolor abroad, Gen. a
Allard who was charged with recognizing "
he army of the King of Lahore having &
,hosen the French oolors adopted Ia 1J89 as n
he battle-tlag of the force, by which it was Il
,orne till 1880, when the monarchy Of July 81
rave back to France the tricolor snrmounted Il
~ the Gallo cock and bearing the iuscrip- h
T.ih D.tlNI Ia nrIn I |
Aohs iloeFtv-T uolc OTueF Louis Ma II
,oleon brought back the eagles with tie en- Ii
,ire, but the empire fell at Sedan, and since
he decheGnce the French martial colors have
'orne no symbol in lieu of the erased eagle