The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-17
THE nrErn or IcoNocLAsrs.

| to force them to respect it. and no ions-eherished belief is proof against
 their destruetiveness. For several
 centuries we have accepted the story
 of John Smith, Powhatan and Poca-
 hontas with almost as much confidence
 as we felt in any reported happening
 of ancient or modern times. That the
 old King was just ready to have Cap
 tain Johns head smashed, and that the young princess got busy and put her.
 self in his place so to speak. thus saw
 ing the Captains life and brains: all
 that has come down to us as the in-
 disputable facts of memorable time.
 but there are those who insist on try
 ing to knock the story cold. They are
 bound to admit that there was Csp-
 tain John Smith, and that there was
 also Powhatan and Pocahontas. for these are facts that canot be contro-
 vsrted, but they would have us believe
 that the episode of the young princess
 interposing her own head to save that
 of Captain John is fake. Well, let
 them doubt. if they will; we hang to the story as it comes down to us.
 Then there's that pretty little story
 about George Washington and the cherry tree which has been in every school book for a matter of four or i've generations or more: that has also
 been attacked and diseredited with
 many. The knockers do not deny that there was . George Washington, for to
 obiiterate him would be to upset every Ithing and put our government itself. among the fables. We suppose, too,
 that they are willing to admit that
 George had a father. but that is about
 as far as they will 70. They tell us that there was no cherry tree. no hstchet and no cannot tell lie'
 episode at all. Shall we call the story
 myth just because some unbeliever
 disputes it7 Not if we know the Am
 srlean people.
 Cone of the latest stunts of the unbe- ~~N-N
 and the story of the first American flag.
 It has been handed down as one of the
 well-established facts of American his-
 tory that the first flag of the new Repub- lie was madeby one Mrs. Betsy ss. As
 the story has beer told thousands of times a Committee of the Continental Congress was appointed to select a de- } sign for an American flag and have
 one made for the Congress to decide on.
 That committee with Washington him. self at It's head. watched the delft fin-
 gers of Mrs. Ross as she stitched to- gether the silk, put on the stars and stripes, and thus turned out a job that
 was accepted by the Congress-
 This in brief. is the old story of the original flag which was destined to
 be the emblem Of Liberty and Indepen- l dence forever. If not exactly like the flag as we now see 1t, 1t was the first 7 model and was pleasing to the patriots who saw it and were willing to fight , under and for it to the end. It is a } pretty story. and has held good during l all the years that have followed. up to a quite recent period. but 1t could not 7 escape the Iconoclast any more than l. the other treasured beliefs have done. They don't want anything to stand 3 that's what aifs them. and so here comes a man who declares the whole t story to be fake. He says that Bet 3 sy Ross didn't make the flag, in the presence of Washington or anybody : else. We are not sure that he denies @ that there was ever such person az
 Betsy Ross, but he might as we'll make 8 a complete job of it.
 All this Is discouraging to those Oi t us who reverence the traditions con. . nected with the birth of the Republic and we don't propose to give up Mrs Betsy. And, as The Kansas City Journal says, eff Betsy Ross didn't dc > It, somebody else did. and no harm can come with according the honoI to the little sewing woman of 23' | Arch street, Rh1ladelpnla. During al these years we have honored the namt of Besty Ross, and until this fellow Campbell yneeringly denied her credit 3 the fact was never challenged. Un 5 fortunately all the parties to the his toric transaction are dead and thert is no way of proving the matter. Bu Il just the same. thousands and thou
 sands of Americans will keep right or revering the name of Betsy Ross Campbell to the.eontrary notwithstand ing"
 Just so; the flag was made by some Q body. It didn't grow by itself, and il . Betsy Ross didn't make the first one '' who did? That's the question to b. y answered. Evidently some one sewe' . together the parts that went to mak' Y up the whole. and that somebody wa . one of the patriotic women who were t. = have such an important part in making
 country, and we may as we'll keeI
 on believing that the maker was Bets, Y Ross. The effort to displace her 1 = mean. A plague on the whole race 0