The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1909-07-02
The Proper Salute to the
Greatest of All
the Flags

le question of salutng the flag has been and is now
D1lR aslIaIed extensively, with the audabe object of
Mng INTO every youthful heart that patriotism without
"Ah 40 country can live Sautng the flag may be new
V he but 1t IS old to this writer Away back in the
g's & zen tiny child OF tender years, upon the death
1 lother, my father being in the Army of the Cum
fad was LETT IN the care Of the widow of the late
O'l sohn Cleves Symmes (of arctic fame), u. s. A.
l oynmes was the daughter of an army officer Col
cnl Y. ). A., and the widow, first Of Capt Lock
Noo. W , a., then OF Capt Symmes and was a most
io army woman. AT the time of when | write She
"-7 5' years Old, full OF vlgOr and activity. The civil
Nj" ioSSed her entirely. Everything she could do or
say o 1er beloved union she said and did Her ei gies
~,e 81 en- directed toward me, and well have l. cause
never To forget the flag From the time could bend nv
un body was ordered to salute it. sfy
IIomptly at a. m. we often went on parade that
i we walked out over the old street of Newport KY
generally ending the day at the old baricks ow DESTROY
E y 70 hear the band at the evening concert ~s
one OF my childish honors when, twice year we
Etn 70 Cncnnatti, where grandma received her pen
|oI from the government IN gold. As would ap-
oach the building Third street. over which the flag
r7 Hoatlng, Salute the flag, child she would command
eh She and would make the French courtesy she was
'ehci---bendlng from the waist, low almost to tie
round ana IN the moSTprofound manner, which seemed
e KIND OF funeral performance. Italways attracted
at1ehton OF surprised people, She never noticed them,
m 1o me II was real concern which the bright little gold
ar-lny part OF the pensioneould not wholly do away
"IlH Everywhere and under any circumstances would
ter Iall to salute the3ag and she saw to it that
aM2rStood why this act of reverence was rendered
II Is your country% and latter, 1T is the union it
esents for which so many have laid down their lives
One day there came aetterto me, all to my own little
n T@ from my father, written the battlefield Of Shiloh
ine envelope had little flag the left corner and had
3 naIFow border in blue and red around it, Stationery
Ms MN mus decorated IN those war days. He had been
hded slightly in the shoulder and must 90 to the hos
Nal he wanted to write to his darling child" himself
Oilat II ms name appeared among the wounded or Kill
II me daily papers might kaow the truth. While he
9e large smooth chip of wood served for his writing
SN ana his blck braced against the huge forest
from which the chip had been cut by woodsman
trnpp prOfpc oil him
n I ne wrote from the bullets, which were still flying
the tide of battle had turned in favor of fhe union
iather dld not write how he had received the wound
NJ NJ learned afterward. During the fghtndeed, at
@ cflSsa standard bearer was shot through the head
@ Ie TO the ground, being down the flag with the staff
@ oNen m II twain My father, standing near, it fall
b rshng to the spot raised the flag and carried it with
'' hahds high as his could reach onward to the