The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-05-22
GOLD GLORY" STORIES.
Facts and Fancies Which Cluster
Around the U. S. Flag.

/
Times-Herald: 1t will soon be the
one hundred and twenty-first anniver-
sary Of the American flag, or, rather
its adoption by congress. George Wash
ington being chairman of the commit
tee which gave the order for the Is
stars and stripes. The patriotic women
OF that day did not immortaliZe them
! selves by making the flag with their
own hands, but the expert needlewom-
an VINO drew the threads and did the
nne stitching on George Washington
shirts made our first national banner.
and within late years her house, which
is still standing. has become a resort
FOR the patriotic. 1t has long been
designated the Betsey Ross flag" so
it gees down to posterity with a wom-
an name attached as a factor in its
being.
IL was succeeded by the flag of Is
stars, which will come to be known as
the Francis Key flag" our national
anthem, THE Star-Spangled Banner"
having been written under its folds, or.
rather, IT was the flag which Key saw
while inditing his poem.
L have had the pleasure of hearing
from the lips of one who knew the his
tory OF the name given to our flag in re-
cent years. 'Old Glory" the incidents
OF the occasion. The narrator, George
W. Bates, of Detroit, Mich, a gentle
man of unusual information on all top
les, and an ardent patriot, says that it
was applied to the flag of the United
states for the first time by CAPTAIN
stephen Driver, an old sea captain, who
was living in Nashville, Tenn. in 1862.
IN order to keep the flag. which had
Deen presented to him while abroad
oy American friends, he hid it in a
quit and slept under it's folds without
It's enemies being any the wiser. On
awakening in the morning he would
ascrlbe his good sleep to the concealed
nag, which he called by the pet name
Old Glory" and when the federaIs
entered Nashville. ne flung "OId Glory
TO the breeze and told the story every
where. The name is now as national
as the flag.
AS a nation we are the most pictorial
IN the world, and we began early to
read from symbols, our first standard
OF independent rule being the design
OF rattlesnake cut in Is pieces. repre-
sen the Is colonies. bearing first
the motto, Unite or Die and later
the significant warning, Don't Tread
on Me, the rattlesnake being typified
IN an attitude prepared to strike. DR..
FRANKLIN, seeing the emblem one day,
wrote of it in this admirable explana-
ton:
The rattlesnake is found nowhere
but in America. Her eye is exceeding
" bright and without eyelids-embIem
Oh vigilance. She never begins an at
tack and she never suTTenders-emblem
OF magnanimity and courage. She
never wounds even her enemies until |
she generously gives them warning not
10 tread on her, which is mathematical
Oh the spirit of the people who inhabit
ner country. She appears apparently
weak and defenseless, but her weapons
are, nevertheless. formidable. Her poi
son is the necessary means for the di- !
sestlon of her food, but certain death
10 her enemies-showing the power of |
resources. Her 10 rattIes. |
the only part which increases in num-
Der, are distinct from each other. and
yer so united that they cannot be dis |
connected without breaking them TO |
pieces, showing the impossfbilitv of an 1
American republic without a union of |
states A single rattle will give no |
SOUND alone, but the ringing of the 10 .
-ogether is sufficient to startIe the
Doidest man alive She is beautiful in
her youth, and her beauty increases
WITH age. Her tongue is forked as the
lghtnlng, and her abode is among the
mpenetrable rocks
This magnificent apostrophe TO a
'attlesnake reads like an Improvisation
rom the Book of job or the Psalms of
David, and, connected as it is with
very epoch of American liberty. if
mould be as immortal in its sentiments
Is the declaration of independence