The times-herald. [volume] (Burns, Harney County, Or.) 1896-1929, 1915-07-31
STORIES or FLAGS
Oriuins Of Some Of the Emblems
Of European Nations.
THE TRIcoLoR OF BELGIUM.

u Was Originally the Standard OF the
puohy Of 5rsbsnt--complsx colors
Of Austria and the Flags Of Germany,
France, England and Russia.
Prior TO the Franco Prussiun war OF
1870 the German empire was little
more than group OF scattered states.
When they combined into n single em-
pire, however, traces OF all their ilags
were combined In the resultant stand
ard.
To be sure, the colors OF Prussia
black and white-and the PrusSian
eagle enter very largely into 1t, but 1t
must be remembered that this country
became at that time the head and
ruler OF all the others. Besides the
smaller states. there were also the
Gags Of East and West Prussia to he
included. That OF West Prussia was
black, white. black, three stripes of
equal diameter, running the length or
the flag. That OF East Prussia con
sisted OF two such stripes, the upper
black and the lower white The
Jack" OF the imperial navy consists
of three horizontal stripes, the upper
black. the middle white and the lower
red. The much prired iron cross dat
ing back to the end of the twelfth cen
turyl Is In the center This red stripe
appears In the fnal war ensign OF the
empire, In which the trIcolor (hlack,
white, red) appears in the upper quar-
ter. with the iron cross upon II, while
the remaining three-quarters are white.
with the royal arms in the center \
black cross divides tho whole flag into
quarters.
The Gag of Austria is a very com
plex affair. To begin with. the various
Austrian provinces have their own
Gags. Bohemia In rcd-whlte, Tyrol Is
white-red, Dalmatia is blue yellow, Ga
licia is blue-red. Croatia Is red white
blue and Istria II yellow white-blue.
Then again. Austria Hungary being Il
dual monarchy, both Austria and Hun
gary must be separately represented
and fuily-on the flag. Fortunately.
this combination was rendered more
easy by the fact that portions OF the
hags Of both countries were already
the same. Thus, the Austrian flag was
red-white-red. the Hungarian was red
wbite-green. Compromise was eject
ed by dividing the lowest horizontal
stripe in two. and leaving half red
while the remainder was green. The
arms OF both countries also appenrebn
the dag. This was decided upon March
@, 1869.
The imperial standard OF the car OF
all the Russias Is OF brilliant yellow.
in the center of which is large dou.
bic headed black eagle. This flag dates
from the year 1872, when Ivan the
Great married Sophia. niece Of Con
stantine Palaeologus. and thence AZ.
sumed the arms OF the Greek empire |
On the breast OF the eagle IL an es
cutcheon bearing on its red tield in sil
yer the figure OF St George Staying |
the dragon, the whole being surround
ed by the collar OF the order OF st
Andrew. On the displayed wings of
the eagle are other shields bearing
the arms of Kiev. Novgorod, Vlndi-
mir, Kasan, etc. The Russian union
Jack is very similar TO that OF Eng
land. save that the principal crossbars
are blue instead OF red. This X the
we'll known Russian war flag The
cross is that OF st. Andrew, the patron
saint OF Russia.
The well known tricolor OF France
Is made up Of three stripes blue,
white and red-runnlng not the length,
but the width OF the flag. II dates
rom the era OF the French revolution
ind came into existence I'm 1889. II
mas been the national fag since. with
but slight variations. In 1904 the trl
,olor was also made the Jack Of the
French navy.
The union Jack of Great Britain Is
OF the three crosses Of st
George, st. Patrick and st. Andrew
That of the first was a broad red cross,
lividing the white flag into four white
quares; the white cross OF St An
rev. on a blue background. ran from
orner TO corner diagonally. while the
ed cross of ST. Patrick ran in the same
direction. II the union jack be exam
ned II will be found TO be composed
4 these three crosses. as stated. The
ag was first unfurled In 1901, on the
nion In that year OF Great Britain
Scotland and WalesD and
reland.
The flag OF Belgium Is composed OF
tricolor-black. yellow and red-run-
ing up and down-that is. the width {
nd not the length OF the flag The
oyal standard has the arms placed In
be center OF the yellow strip. This
1as adopted as the national flag In I
s3l, being originally the colors OF the 1
uchy OF Brabant &
From I477 until 1900 Belgium be {
,nged TO Austria. but on the latter
ate It fell into the hands OF Spain. '
n 1905 and for some years following
was held by France, and In 1914 I
Tas handed over to the Prince OF
range, but In 1880 the Belgians rose
gainst the Hollanders and established
leir independence. The dag which Is r
ow flown was then adopted.-Wash' g
lgton Post. r