Wichita eagle., 1888-01-19
SOME FOREIGN FLAGS.
WHY THEY FLY so OFTEN OVER
NEW YORK HOTELS.
The Man in Charge of the Bunting Tells
Some Interesting Facts About It-F1ags
Floated In Honor of Distinguished
Visitors.

Some Interesting Facts About It-Flags
Floated In Honor of Distinguished
Visitors.
The flag Of Siam has been flying over the
Fifth Avenue hotel for week past, and the
strange standard has attracted the attention
of thousands of passersby. The body of the
flag is blood red with white elephant in the
center. 1t was raised in honor of his royal
highness, Prince Devanwongse.
Asked where he obtained the flag one
OF the proprietors called up Mr.. Albert Love
Joy, the head porter of the hotel "Mr Lovejoy
has charge of the flags and can give you all the
Information you want on the subject" Mr..
Lovejoy came up to the desk in response to
the summons
Eyes," he said, when the flag was men,
toned. ayes, we are flying the flag of Siam
today in honor of his royal highness, and a
strange flag it is / doubt if it has ever
foated over any building in the United States
before, except Siamese consular buildings.
AT any rate it is very seldom seen here We
secured this one for the occasion from the
Siamese consul general. 1t has always been
our custom TO raise the national flag of
country when distinguished people therefrom
stop under our roof.
"What flags have we foated under such
circumstances? Well, SO many | can hardly
recall them all now. Let me see: We hoisted
the English flag when the Prince of Wales
was here on his famous visit in 1860. We
had flag made to order for that occasion,
and afterward raised the same flag when the
Duke OF Edinburgh was guest at the hotel.
We have always keIt an English flag on
hand since Then we raised the Brazilian flag
when Dom Pedro stopped here. He is, perhaps,
the only reigDing monarch, except kalakaua,
who ever travelled i'll this country. At differ
ent times during the last twenty eight years
we have raised the dragon of China, the tri-
color of France, the German, Spanish, Co
rean and japanese flags. and now the white
elephant of Siam. These have been raised at
different times when embassies from these
countries have come to make us a visit.
AS OCCASION REQUIRES.
"Do we keep these different flags on handa
Hardly. We'd find it pretty expensive to
keep all the flags we might be called upon to
use from time to time, and if we undertook
TO do so we'd have TO own every national flag
under the sun, for we never know who may
be coming next. We can generally secure
the particular flag we need for an occasion
from some of the flag makers, who have
them on hand, or else from the people them
selves, who very likely have one or more
with them, or, as did in this case, borrow
1t from the consul of government whose
representative we wish to do special honor TO-"
"How about the American flag; do you fly
that very oftenf"
"Well, at every chance we can get we have
the stars and stripes flying. We have one
very large American flag 22x32 feet, which
we only put up in quiet and pleasant
weather; if we should put it up in storm it
would tear things all to pieces. We are SO
careful of this flag that we make it last four
or five years. Then we have smaller Ameri-
can flags which we use on ordinary occa-
sions and in Indictment weather"
"What Americans do you fly the flag for
when they come 20 the house!'
always for a president of the United
States. or governor of New York, but not
habitualy for any other person. Senators,
generals, or other distinguished men when
they come here on some state occasion. OF in
a public capacity, have the flag raised in
their honor, but not when they come as pri-
vate citizens only"
housep
Il can remember that Lincoln, Grant,
Hayes, Garfield, Arthur and Cleveland have
all stopped here Over each of these presi-
dents we have kept the old flag flying, and
let me tell yocl the stars and stripes is the
prettiest bunting that ever foated over this
or any other hotel. New York Commercial
Advertiser.