The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-07-06
Americans While Patriotic Fail to Display Patriotic Emblems at Home. Although They Do So Abroad.
Fire Works Much in Evidence But Smacked of Sale and Profit, and Sentiment of the Flag Was Lost.
aY ANNIE KENpRIck WALKER.


 At an al fresco dinner party of the week the remark was made that in many of the foreign cities greater number of American flags were displayed on our great national holiday that Is ever seen in many American cities. In honor of the hundreds Of American tourists abroad. the ooIors of their country are greatly in evidence and many Americans confess that not even in their own coun- try is the full significance of the flag im- pressed upon them as deeply as when across the seas 1t fiutters unexpectedly in some beautiful foreign city.
 It may be that since to the American mind the love of the flag is a lesson learned anew on foreign shores that so many Americans give little evidence in their own country that the flag is an em- blem to be displayed The absence of flags in Birmingham on the Fourth was 50 general as to make it lamentable. Birmingham Is at heart as patriotic as any American city, but Its patriotism did not find expression in the fiuttering of flags
 In driving from South Highlands to North Highlands, Friday. not dozen houses displayed the national colors and few public buildings and shops. The flag at the city hall. old and faded. was bound about It's staff. while the court house was without It's lesson of patriotism Only one hotel beneath whose roof there sat no doubt travellers from all parts of the world, fioated the starry ensign. Two or three of the shops remembered the day. The only conspicuous remembrance was the Woodward. from every corner and window of which fiuttered hundreds of flags. Grand in its design, the Wood ward is a welcome sight to Birmingham, but in nothing is it more welcome than than in It's lesson of patriotism. Its builders far away from their homes, stepped their din of work for the day and decked the pile of iron and stone in holiday attire.
 The coaching parties made picturesque the streets, but the red, white and blue were not in evidence. The display of pa triotism was the exception and not the rule. The day was observed not with out it's sentiment but 1t seemed more of self than patriotism.
 Barbecues, races, golf are all right but was the day properly observed with out its display of flags. In other words, was not the lesson of patriotism lost?
 How much greater would have been the pleasure of the day, how much lighter every heart would have beat, if every house, every shop had been lavish in their display of the flag, and the red, white and blue. Before another Fourth of July there should be flag staffs upon every lawn in Birmingham. Then may follow appropriately every legitimate pleasure. The lesson of patriotism will never be learned as thoroughly as in beautiful city bedecked with the national colors.
 To be effective, lesson for the young must be practiced by the old. In Bir- mingham, for instance, our municipal authorities should not forget the flag The hotels, as public institutions shell the country's flag. Again, the mer- chants should remember that to them the public looks for the purchase of flags and bunting, the insignia used in the true observance of the day.
 But one of the Birmingham shops made a display of flags and these were nina ture. In another shop. there were per- haps a half dozen larger flags packed away, while in one of the principal shops the inquiry was made as to what pur- pose were the flags to be used.
 Fireworks were more in evidence. but this smacked of sale and profit, and the sentiment of the flag was lost.
 It may be true that business men have little time to purchase flags and their pa- triotism finds expression in other ways. Then, to the women of the land is left the true lesson of the day. a lesson to be taught in the unfurling of the country's nag.
 It Is not too late to begin the erection of flag poles upon Birmingham's pictur-