The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-06

NAoIAieo u4SAlllS nag OI the navy.
 The president of the United States, who is the head of the army and navy, is entitled to the first ranking flag in the country. The presidents flag IS spread eagle-the national coat f-arms-mounted on blue field, sur mounted by a curved row of thirteen stars. It is five feet six inches long by four feet four inches wide, is made of the finest quality of seamless silk, and is trimmed with yellow fringe. Next to the presidents colors come the flags of the secretaries of war and navy. That for the secretary of war was adopted as recently as March 3, 1S97 It is made of scarlet silk, and is otherwise identical with the presidents flag, with the exception that the thir- teen stars are replaced by four white stars in the corners. The special flag for the secretary of the navy has blue | field, and instead of the national coat of-arms, is embroidered with white anchor in the center.
 Following in the order of rank, the most important flag in the army, next to that of the sercetary of war, is the United States army headquarters standard. It has a blue field gorgeous | ly embroidered with the national arms in brown and gold. Wherever it ap- | pears ln active service, it denotes the | army or his nearest ranking general In regular line of march, every regiment composing an army carries | at it's front the national colorS, bearing | on the fourth red stripe from the top | the number of the regiment and it's character, whether infantry, cavalry, | or artillery. Besides this, it carries a regimental flag on which is embroider- | ed a national coat-of-ar similar to that on the presidents special flag. | The regimental flag for the infantry is blue; the cavalry is yellow. The artil- lery and battalion colors for engineers are both scarlet, but the flag for en- | gineers are both scarlet, but the flag for engineers bears three turreted castle instead of the spread eagle. Detached troops of cavalry and artil- lery carry small guidons or pennants bearing the troop number and letter. l The regulation colors for the army, whether national or regimental, meas ure 1-2 feet long by 4 feet 4 inches | wide. All service" flags are made of bunting; colors for ceremony are of silk. The trimmings, fringe, and cord and tassels of all flags must conform to l the regulation colors of the division to which they belong Flag bikes are 9 | feet long and an inch and a half in l diameter in the center tapering slight | ly toward the ends. The pike is tipped with a nickel-plated spearhead in the | shape of a heart.
 In the navy there are seven flags designating rank, aside from the spe- cial flag of the secretary of navy. | Next to his is the assistant secretarys S, an exact counterpart of the former, | only that the colors are reversed. All the remaining flags have a blue field | and white stars; the order being, for l admirals, four stars; for vice admirals, | three stars; for rear admira1s, two 1 stars; for commodore, one star in cen- l ter of blue pennant The captains l pennant is a strip of bunting fifteen feet long, with thirteen stars in blue | field and a red and white stripe. Last of all is small triangular pennant l with a dead blue field denoting the senior officers presence in the absence 1 of the captain of ship.
 | The special flag of the officer highest | in rank invariably floats from the
 main" of the vessel he is on. When the
 secretry of the navy visits a ship of
 war, the commanding officers colors are immediately lowered from the
 masthead and the secretary's flag takes
 it's place. During squadron cruise the
 captain of the flagship never flies his special flag the admiral being the high
 est ranking officer.
 q T
 in the navy, ranging all the way from
 thirty-siX to three feet in length. The
 first five sizes are designated officially | as ship flags, and the remaining two
 are "boat" flags. Sizes Nos. 1 and
 are now almost obsolete. They were in- tended for the old wooden frigates, 1 whose sterns stood high above the
 water, and would be entirely unsuit- | able for the low-lying freeboard of our
 cruisers and battleships.
 A vessel in commission always car
 ries the national colors at the stern un-
 til sundown every night. The flag of
 the commanding officer remains at the
 masthead day and night. In going to
 and from shore, the ships small boats
 carry the flag of the senior officer at
 the fore when the officer is below the
 grade of captain, otherwise the officers
 own colors are used
 In addition to the flag of officers
 whose rank entities them to special
 recognition in naval etiquette, every
 ship of war is supplied with a full set
 of international colors, a full set of
 "iwg-wag," or signaling flags, and a
 full set of pennants, including colors
 for the purpose of showing that the
 ship is taking aboard ammunition, that
 the crew are at 'mess," or that the
 regular Sunday "church" services are
 taking place, and so forth.
 The grandest and most imposing pen
 nant in the whole navy is the home
 ward bound" streamer, a fortyAfive-
 starred red, white and blue strip of
 bunting, in all respects like the cap-
 tain's pennant, which floats majesti-
 cally from the mainmast, and is often
 so long that it trails in the water at
 the stern.-Philadelph Inquirer.