The evening times., 1896-09-08
FLAG MADE BY BETSY ROSS
Interesting Discovery in a
House She Occupied.
WORK OF A FAMOUS WOMAN
Historic Piece of bunting Found In a
Little Cubby Hole-Thirteen Stars
Only on the Field of Blue-TwO Old
Shoes Also Were There of a Make
Of Times Long Past.

| Philadelphia, Sept. S.-An interesting
discovery was made day or two ago at
| the Ross house, 239 Arch street. The
house is now occupied as q residence and
| store by Charles p. MuDd, the son and sole
survivor OF the family OF Philip Mund and
wife, and heir to the property. Mr. Mund
has not yet quite attained his majority,
but, being steady young man, has opened
| a store on the premises, and besides his
| sales, attends tp the visitors who come by
| hundreds every month Oh patriotic pill
| gri,nage TO the birthplace of the American
| flag.
| He also takes lively interest in the as
sociatiop OF patriotic American women,
who have leagued with the object of buying
and preserving 10 future generations the
solidly-built old house, which bids fair to
| hold its own for another century or two.
FLAG GARTER ERwAsHINGToN's DESIGN.
Ii is a matter of history that after Mrs.
Ross had submitted for approval her first
| flag, made after Washipgton's design, and
| 1t had been accepted and the manufacture of
| the flags had becoIne IL matter OF business.
she received the first contract for them
| and held IL for many years.
Also that one OF her daughters, Mrs.
tldTiSSd NlisoH. suCCttucu 10 tHc uusiutss
and continued for some time supplying the
flags for the arsenal and navy yard, and
that even after on account of her feeling as
a member OF the Soc.cty OF Friends. that
warfare was unchristian. Mrs. Wilson had
given up making military and naval flags,
she still continued TO supply the merchant
marine.
The twofold festivities OF the occasion
of Ii Hung Chang's visit and the ccurrence
OF Labor Day had led Mr.. MuDd to hang out
several orl: banners on the outer wall and
the next morning he went to restore them
to the place where they are usually kept
and where, 1t now appears. other flags were
once stored also. The Ross house is two
stories and a hair in height. Over the half
story is a loft, to which access may be had
by means of a trapdoor that seems to meas
ure about one foot each way.
Reaching into this small aperture to
feel if the place was clear for the flags he
was about to lay away, Mr.. MuDd felt some
thing like bunting and told his friend,
william II. Snyder, who was with him at
the moment that he believed that there
was stillanotherflagstoredi loft, though
he thought that he had taken down all that
belonged to the house. Acting on Mr..
Snyder's suggestion. before putting the new
flags back into the loft, Mr.. Mund gave a
pull to the one that he had not expected to
find, when out came. not modern flag at
all, but one that no one now living in the
house bad ever seen before.
STAINED WITH DUST AND AGE.
1t was flag of the old regulation size,
its bunting stained with dust and age; its
blue considerably faded and the stars,
once white, turned dingy. There were
Just thirteen of these stars, arranged not
as in the original flag In circle, but
the stars, instead OF being woven
in, were sewed on to the material
OF the flag. precisely as the very
first stars are said to have been sewn On
the flag which the Continental Congress
adopted
The two dscoverers were, therefore,
not long III coming TO the conclusion that
many years must have elapsed since that
Union and those stripes aud stars saw the
light The elder Mr. Mund bought the
property, his son said, more than forty
years ago, and he was confident that his
father knew nothing OF the existence Of
this old-time relic.
There, undisturbed, in the dark and dust,
has that old flag lain, while the thirteen
stars, tackled fast upon its blue. have multi
piled into five-and-forty, and bitter con.
fict has been waged III order TO keep them
together
TWO OLD SHOES.
Close to the flag Mr.. Mund next found
lying. not pair OF shoes, but twotha had
belonged to different pairs. Their respect
i've mates had vanished. Both were OF
antique style. and like nothing that is man
ufactured now.
The leather had turned russell with age,
and had they but matched, it would have
been easy to fancy that they had belonged
to the ensign that bore the flag, aud had
been laid away after the course of both was
finished
Messrs. Mund and Snyder brought both
shoes and flag, with what remained to the
latter of its staff, downstairs into the store,
and the venerable relics were inspected by
numbers of interested visitors during the
the day.