The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-01
BR TISH FLAGS, BURLESQUES.
An Epglishman's Lament Over the
Caricatures of "Union Jack"
-LOndOn Leader.)

(LOndOn LEADER
The meaning of the union jack and other
British flags, the combination of designs
that go to make them, and what they are
all intended to represent, are apparently
dead letters to not only the everyday
Britisher. but also to those government
officials who are content to display incor-
rect copies of the original flags.
1t seems to be no easy matter to get
the real thing even in England. For Mr.
William Laird Cloves. in a letter to the
Times said that, sending specially to one
of the London stores for a correct flag to
replace a badly-made one flying from the
house of the British pro-consul in Davos
a meaningless caricature was forwarded
to him. and on his demonstrating the
firm acknowledged that although incorrect
thousands of similar pattern were sold.
And these caricatures," said this gen.
tleman, are the vast majority of the
flags displayed by ordinary people At
such times as the jubilee, for instance
why. to one who knows anything of her
aldry, it is absolutely painful to walk
about. Scarcely one specimen can you dis
cover, even if you search for it, that is
properly made.
las for the royal arms. I've never vet
seen a true copy over shop. The color
ing is invariably wrong. Instead of MAX
ing the mantle at the back gold, lined
with ermine. it seems to be painted Just
as suits the individual fancy. But with
the union jack the chief mistakes occur
in the different width of the various
crosses.
Take a Japanese flag-youd never find
the smallest one incorrect; a German flag
that wasn't true would be stopped imme-
diately; but here anything seems 10 do,
not only for the decoration of our own
cities. but these absurdities go out all
over the world. and are supposed to be
our national flags. 1t is a rarity TO see
the real thing. AT the opening of the
imperial institute even. the VERY flags
arranged above where the queen sat Were
burlesques, and in every photograph there
were these painful emblemS. There is no
supervision; people can make what they
British public takes these mixtures of
red white and blue and imagine they've
got the national flag.
"Once you get on land" said the secre-
anything you like in the shape of a flag
the union jack upside down or anything
else but you'd soon get into trouble if
you used an incorrect flag on sea.
Il suppose it's only by legislation these
ridiculous flags could be stopped. If
makers of incorrect flags were fined there
would soon be q termination to this, or if
people knew what was the right thing
and would have no other the bad imita-
ton would soon die out But how. few
know what is correct
In England the st. Georges cross
should be seen flying, the st. Andrews in
Scotland and in Ireland their national
cross, or else the correct combination of
the three. which is the union jack
Whether the atrocities met every day
are manufactured abroad or not-and
store buyers of these goods seem confident
that many archie disgrace of allowing
the national flags to be burlesqued is the
same But what British schoolboy is
taught the meaning OF his countrys flag?
And where is the lad who could draw
them correctly?