New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-23
By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS,
Author of Brave Little Holland" etc.

hulHOT VI DIdNt hi'thS ''O''"N'
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: June "a, 1915, will mark the second
presentation by Netherlanders of a flag to
the city on Manhattan, in each case marking
| its municipal development.
! In 1850 the two delegates sent by the
States General to secure burgher rechts, or
city rights, to New Amsterdam, brought over
stand of colors for the Mayor and burgher
| guard.
| In 1915 the city Of Amsterdam presents
the orange. white and blue. which colors New
York City, true to her origin and early MS
tory, has adopted as her own. AT such a
time it would seem appropriate to glance at
the origin of this emblem of freedom and ma
tionality in the old republic beyond sea
which gave us so many forceful precedents
in federal government. All cities IN the
United States before the Revolution, except
ANNAPOLIS and Penn's settlement were found
ed by the Dutch. All except Albany lay IN
! line from Manhattan to Philadelphia. New
England had towns even Boston, until 1884
No country exceeds in richness Of flag law,
symbolism and variety OF tints that in which
the word is native Besides the national tri-
color there are the different flags of the
eleven provinces, of many score of the cities
and of dozen or of the colonies, Surinam,
Java, Lambok, Atjeh, etc, besides rich
variation in details appropriate to the spe-
cial arms of the national service. These,
with the historic varieties of vlag and vaan-
del (streamers or pennants), show the vicis-
STUDIES Of political relations with other lands,
az. for example, when Dutch stakeholder
was also King of England; or they illus
trate or vary the heraldry Of William OF
Orange, posthumously and popularity called
1.-THE Silent" the father of his country. 1t
is noteworthy that in the Netherlands, whose
evolution was through city republics, every
municipality has its own flag or banner
The arms and colors Of William of Orange,
Of the House of Nassau, himself a sovereign
prince in his own right, may be studied in
the large stained glass window found in
scores Of the Dutch Reformed churches in
America. Several of these are in New York
CITY. as. for instance, on Fifth Avenue, at
Twenty-ninth and at Forty-seventh Streets.
Notable are the orange, white and blue on
the insignia Of William the Silent Some Of
the emblems, the hunting horns, for exam
pie, carry US back in association to very near
the days of CharIemagre. The upper left
hand quartering shows seventeen dottings
representing bricks Of turf from the old sew
enteen provinces of the Netherlands.
The Beggars of the Sea.
How did the colors upon a nobleman's coat
of arms become the national flag Of peo-
ple who are well in the fourth century Of
their history as a nation, both as a federal
and disguised republic, and who first col
onized the four Middle States?
II was not a case like that of the fanciful
origin of the Stars and Stripes in our ma
tional flag. which people of uncritical and
unhistorical mind derive from the three spur
rowels and two bars on the Washington
arms at SuIgrave, England This supposed
coincidence was first, by an English clergy
man. called TO the attention Of George Wash
ton in 1875.
On the contrary, the orange, white and
blue was purposely and consciously made the
SYMBOL of freedom from the oppressor,
Snain. by the Beggars Of the Sea as early
as 1872. One of the decisive battles OF the
world was their capture Of Briel.. Then the
Dutch took Holland"-as the news headings
in 1872 and in 1913 announced. From that
time forth the Prince OF Orange acknowl-
edged and commissioned these sea royers TO
fight for him and for their native and his
sdopted fatherland. "Sea power" either as
a literary theme or as formulated science,
was not at the front in Motley's day. Hence
the subordinatiop in his narrative of the
decisive nature Of the Netherlands marine.
Yet the Dutch sailors. by blockading Parma