The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-01-26
Philadelphia Times.1

greatly, indeed, has the scope of the work been
extended that it now is not only history of
our flag, but of flags and standards generally
ancient and modern, from the time of the
Assyrian monarchy down to the present day
including all the flags and proposed flags of the
defunct Southern Confederacy A great num-
ber of cuts and several colored plates illustrate
the text and serve entirely to make clear the
authors explanations and descriptions. And
while thus treating exhaustively of his subject
in chief, the author necessarily gives a vast
deal of valuable miscellaneous information
more or less of ancient and modern history,
good deal of heraldic matter, and somewhat of
naval architecture togt ther with things mill
tary generally. In tracing the history of the
flag he cannot but also trace, in outline, the
history of the nation; going back for start to
the discovery of America by the northmen and
the "first banner planted ON its shores''-an in
ferential creation-and thence downward
through the ages until American independence
was established and with it an American flag.
The more important events in which the ma
tonal standard has borne part ar referred to
and more or less fully stated; the great battles
of the Revolution, of 1872, of the war with
Mexico and of the Rebellion; memorable flag
raisings at home and abroad-on mountain
peaks, on conquered territory and ON newly
discovered shores Also the past and present
flags and signals of our army and navy, togeth-
er with the flags of American yacht clubs are
described; q brief history is given of the arms
of the United States, including cuts of the flags
seals and colors of the several States; then
there is an Interesting collection of anecdotes
of the flag" and the book appropriately ends
with ''our national and patriotic songs" sew
eral of which are reproduced in fac-simile OF
the authors manuscript. An exhaustive ill.,
dex in three parts-reference, subject and
names-with a careful table of contents, places
the contents of the voume,a stout octavo of
800 pages readily at the readers command.
Ii any oojection Is W be- raised against this
work 1T must be that of diffuseuess and lack of
digestion. Few people-ony earnest students
and iolk having great deal of spare time
will read the book through; but unless il is
read through some fact oi Importance certainly
will DO missed. md yet, 50 entertaining is
the Admiral's store OF gossip and Conjecture
about the hags origin and adventures, the
book is 10 be heartily welcomed just as 1T is
leaving To some less genial historian Ill the tu-
t1re The WORK oi cutting, polishing anu
compacting the facts which are here SO abun-
dainty collected aud winch are OF such great
aud fasting value.
The history of the flag proper that is to say
within "a period not 50 Remotely buried III the
past as 10 be beyond The power vi sy sympathetic
revival, ls matter III which almost every
American must ieel an interest; and that por-
tlon of Admiral PreDle's book which covers
this period Will EARNESTLY the at
tenton OF most readers. And the majority OF
readers Will be surprised by finding how far
back the period extenus; how considerable Is
tie antiquity OF this flag that popula-ly is sup
.'oSed To W but a tritte over hundred years
old. As we now havei;-the stars and slripes--
The flag Is coeval with the nation; but for its
genesis we must go back at east as far as the
year lIO4 As shown III print bearing that
date, the flag of the East India Company, so
lar as The thirteen sIripeS, alternately red and
white, are Concerned, was Identical with our
nag of to-day. But Instead OF a starry field
this Nag Snt wed st. Georges cross on a white
Canton that extended across the first six stripes
The flag that was first used by the United Col
onIes-Lhat was carried by The Royal Savage
schooner ON Lake C1alnplaln III 1776-ditfered
from this flag OF three quarters OF century
earlier only III that 1t Was cautioned with the
Union Jack instead OF with st. Georges Cross
Admiral PreDie does not urge that the stripes
on our flag Came from thus source especially
any more tnan from the striped flags of the
Dutch; nor does he positively aeny that ''both
stars and stripes" as ''otherS have considered
were suggested by The arms of Washington,
which, by a singular coincidence, contain
BOTH" Simply as u historian he gives all the
information tnat he CAN find bearing upon his
subject, aud yields to his readers the right of
decidlng upon the evidence that lie presents
1t Is strongly his opinion, LOwever, that the
stars and stripes of Washlngton's coat armor
had nothing Whatever to do with our flag-ot
the Lh4 striking and a,,tiralu
original feature. 1T will probably never be
Known, he writes, who designed our union
Of stars, the records Of Congress being silent on
the subject, and there being no mention or
suggestion OF IL in any of the volumnious cor
respondence or diaries of the tune, public
private, which have been published" SO ex-
nauStlve has been The search for evidence
wherewith 10 establish this poin yet so fruit
less, that 1t reasona ly may De thus consigned
10 the paradoxlcal region of certain DOUBT.
But while the name OF the designer OF our
dag Is lost, the name OF the maker vf the first
star Spangled banner survives, together with
au authentic account Of the circumstances at
tending this notable event III our Ia tional
history. As Mr.. William III. Candy there
quoted by Admiral Preble) has shown the
make" OF the flag was Mrs. John Ross, living
ut No. SO (now No. 239) Arch street, Phila-
dephia. A committee of Congress, headed
by Gen. Washington, called upon this good
woman-who Was famed for her fine needle
WOIN-iu Ouuo IL 10, anu from q rOuSn de-
sign that they brought with them, redrawn
Oy Gen. Washington in her little back parlor,
she made the flag. Being completed her WORK
was shown TO Congress for approval and BY
formal vote was adopted as the national stan
dard. Admiral Preble writes, with sugges-
tion of cautious reserve, that it "was," accord
ing to Mr.. Candy, "the first star-spangled ban
ner that ever hoated on the b eeze." On the
same day that Congress adopted the flag June
IA, ND, it passed resolution giving Paul
Jones the command of the Ranger, and upon
her, soon after, the flag was shown, for the
first time, at sea. Moreover, the Ranger, sail
ing Francewards, carried the flag to Qulberon
Bay, where lay the French fleet under the Ad-
niral la Motto Piquet, and there the new flag
for the first time was saluted by a friendly
power DIR. Ezra Green, surgeon of the Rang
CT, writes in his diary for 1913: Saturday,
14th February: Very squally weather. came
to sail at about o'clock p. m. Saluted the
French Admiral and received nine guns in
return. This is the first salute ever paved the
American flag" This statement is literally
correct, but pot correct in spirit Six months
earlier the striped Continental colors carried
by the Gen. Miff1n had been sa ued at Brest
TO the great indignation of Lord Stormont, the
English Embassador; and more than year
before, November 16, 1776, the same coors,
carried by the brig Adrea Doria had been sa-
luted at Eustasia by the Dutch Governor de
Graft. In default of other evidence this last
named salute may be accepted as the first for
NAL recognition of our right as an independent
power TO fly flag of our own.
Our flag of to-day differs slightly from that
which our grandfathers and great grandfath-
ers carried a hundred years ago, but between
the time of adoption, 1776, and the time of its
establishment" 1878, it suffered various al
terations AS first designed, it consisted of
thirteen stars arranged in circle, and thir-
teen stripes, emblamatic of tho number of
States in the original confederation. After
the admission into the Union of two new
States, Tennessee and Ohio, Congress passed
an Act, January 13, 1894, that the stripes and
stars should be increased in number to fifteen.
rhis plan was perceived to be inexpedient rs
the number of States increased. So far as the
stars were concern ed, the additions mattered
little, but the additional stripes made the ap-
pearance of the flag exceedingly awkward.
Moreover, the frequent additions of stripes
and stars had led to noticeable lack of uni
formity in the flags of our shipping. Flags OF
thirteen, fifteen, seventeen and twenty stripes