The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-13
FLAG DAY.

r~OM0RROW IS flag day and the minds of 1 men are concentrated upon the flag, symbol of the nation. The American flag like everything else is a growth. It did not spring into being in it's present form, but was gradual ly evolved from other forms.
 The story of this evolution has been com piled by the Bureau of Education and the facts are briefly as below.
 During the first crusade in 1195ss Pope pr- ban II assigned to ali of the Christian nations as standards crosses varying in color and de- sign, emblematic of the w6rfare in which they were engaged. To the Scotch troops was as signed the white saltire, known as the white cross Of St. Andrew on a blue field. The Britt ish used yellow cross, but century and a quarter later they adopted a red cross on g white field, known as the red cross of. St. George.
 When James VI of Scotland ascended the throne of England as James I, he combined the two flags, and issued a proclamation requiring all ships to carry the new flag at their main lnasts.
 The new flag was known as Kings Golors, z the Union Colors, or the Great Union and later as the Union Jack and was the one uTl- der which the British made all their permanent settlements in America. The Government is- sued regulations requiring the navy to use what was known as the white ensign; the Naval Re- serve the blue ensign; and the Merchant Ma rine, the red ensign. Owing to the fact that the British merchant vessels Were everywhere, the C0lOn1SIS AI15F1cd9 FGI1 ensign as the flag of Great Britain.
 The people in the New England colonies were bitterly opposed to the cross in the flag. In 1855 some of the troops in Massachusetts de- clined to march under this flag and the military nnaissiOners were forced to design other flags for theif troops with the cross left out The design they adopted. has not been preserved. Tn 1852 6 mint was sestabIished in Boston. Money coined in this mint had the pine tree stamped one side of it. The pine tree design was also used on New England flags certainly by 17O4 and possibly as early as 1885.
 At the outbreak of the Revolution the American colonies had no flag common to all of them. Tn many cases the merchant marine flag Of England was used with the pine tree substituted for the Union Jack. Massachusetts adopted the green pine free on white field with the motto. An Appeal to Heaven.f Some of the Southern States had the rattlesnake flag with the motto 'sDonst Tread on Me- on a white or yellow field This flag had been used by South Carolina as early as 1764. BeniaTnin Franklin defended the ratlesnake device on the ground that the rattlesnake is found only in America and that serpent emblems were con- sidered by ancients to be symbols of wisdom.
 The colonists desired to adopt common flag; but they had not yet declared indepen- dence and were not at first seeking indepen- dence They took the British flag as they knew it, and made new colonial flag by divid- ing the red field with white stripes into 13 al- ternate red and white stripes. This is known as the Cambridge flag, because it was first ur- furled over Washington's headquarters at Cam bridge, Mass. on January 1, 1776. It complied with the law of 17O7 by having the Union Jack on it; it also represented the 13 colonies by the 13 stripes.
 As the colonists gradually became convert ed to the idea that independence from the mother country was necessary, they began to modify enags first by leaving off the Union Jack and using only the IS horizontal stripes The final modification was the replacement of the Union Jack by the white stars yn blue field
 The stars are the only distinctive feature of the American flag. The charming story which credits BhfsR9 Ross with making the first flag of stars and stripes is still accepted by historians When Washington suggested the six-pointed star, she demonstrated the ease with which a five-p pointed star could be made by folding a piece of paper and producing one with sin gle clip of the scissors Some writers are of the opinion that both stars and stripes in the flag were derived from the coat of arms of the Washington family, but this theory is not gen. orally held.
 The official adoption of our first flag was in 1777. On June 14 of that year the Continental Congress passed an act providing that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes alternate red and white; that the union be thir- teeen stars, white on blue field, representing a new constellation. The IS Stars were ar ranged in a circle 10 symbolic the perpetuit4 Of the union of the States.
 Vermont was admitted to the Union ir 17g1 and Kentucky in 17Q2 It was felt thaa