The National tribune., 1898-07-14
THE SENIOR FLAG.

| Years OF Old Glory, In your EsSt issue,
you say: "Our Flag, which, it may not be
generally known, is the oldest in the world
to-day" / must confess l am one of those
ignorant of the fact, and little enlighten-
ment on this point would be fully appreci
ated, not only by myself, but by many other
old Vets.-N. Il. PEGG, Utica, n. Y.
We expected to astonish good many
of the veterans by our assertion that
Old Glory is actually the oldest of
modern National banners, and therefore
Comrade Pegg's query was not un-
anticipated.
We are therefore ready with our
demonstration. Our Flag was adopted
June IA, 1777,-121 years ago. The
only change in it is that it contains
more stars now than then.
The next oldest flag is that of Great
Britain. England has had great va
riety of flags in the centuries that she
has been a Nation. Very few of them
pretended to be National flags in the
sense now understood. The family
standard of the King or Queen gen.
orally passed for the National banner.
Finally red cross on white field came
to be regarded as the English flag, and
white St. Andrews Cross on a blue
field that of Scotland. In 1906, after
the union of the Kingdoms, their flags
were combined, as naval ensign only.
In 1907 the same was prescribed for the
land as we'll as naval forces. In 1901
the flag was again changed, to provide
for the incorporation of Ireland. An
other cross was added to the field, the
colors were rearranged, and other
changes made, and for the first time it
was made genuinely National banner,
though there are still great differences
in it, whether flown on land or sea, by
merchant or war vessels, etc.
Therefore, as a National banner our
Flag is at least "a years older than the
present British ensign.
The French had a similar variety of
banners in their earlier history, but
finally settled down to the white stand
ard, with three lilies, of the Bourbon
family. They did not really make a
National ensign of these even while the
Bourbons were on the throne. In 1894,
during the Revolution, they adopted
the tri-color of red, white and blue in
perpendicular stripes Then Napoleon
substituted his flag with the crown and
bees. Then the Bourbon flag came back
again, to be succeeded in 1880 by the
tri-color.
The German flag only dates, of
course, from 1871.
The Austrian flag was for a long time
the banner of the Hapsburg family. 1t
and the Empire it represented went
through many notifications during the
Napoleonic wars. 1t was again radi-
cally changed in 1867, when the present
dual-empire was formed.
The Italian flag dates from 1870.
Russia has no strictly National flag.
The fagso sof the Romanof family repre-
sents the Gar; a special banner desig-
mates the navy; another the merchant
shipping, and SO on through all the
divisions and services of the Empire.
1t is the same with Spain. There is
no really National flag. There is a
royal banner, containing a crown, the
arms of CASTLE and Leon, and num-
ber of other quarterings The navy
has flag of broad yellow stripe in
the center, with crown and shield en-
broidered on it. Above and below are
narrower stripes of red. The merchant
vessels fly a yellow flag with two
red horizontal stripes. Each regiment
carries its own special colors, and there
have been many changes in all these on
account Of the innumerable revolutions
of the past.
The like is true of Portugal. The
nearest approach to National ensign
is the banner Of the reigning family.
The Dutch flag has been repeatedly
changed iR the history of recent times.
The flag of Sweden and Norway
was adopted in 1917.
China and Japan have only adopted
National flags in recent years.