Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-06-24

tablet where stood the man who was
going to make the speech, and beckon-
ed him down. A man in the automobile
stood up and made prayer, the rough
looking crowd standing very still. The
mayor spoke few words, and then the
man who was going to tell all about the
house in which Soma and Dietrow lived
and why the tablet was being put upon
the door and why this house should be
called The Flag House stood up
What he say?" Soma touched her
sons arm.
What he say?" Soma touched her
sons arm
What the lady told to u.s. that day
she came. That here in this room they
made a flag and Soma had
drawn off to themselves; they stood in
corner beside a window where they
could just see and hear-"that flag
whispered, looking with big eyes about
| the wide-low- ceilinged room, they
cut strips the red and white, and sew
them together. with the blue. Thirty
six feet long he say that flag was:
twenty nine feet broad. And whom they
come to spread it out to sew the stars
upon it, it was so big-that woman who
made It. she and her two nieces who
help-the floor 1t was not big enough.
They take it to a place near by, where
there was room, still trans
lated the speech Of the man below, it
was too fast for Soma to UNDERESTIMATE
land they sew the stars on there and
bring it back here The men come and
get 1t to the fort-you know" Soma
knew She had lived near that fort
when she had first landed from the en-
igrant ship and had spent many Sab
bath hour sitting on one of the old bat
Elements. THAT fort-but you Know
The lady had told Soma the story and
Dietrow could not whisper all the man
was ~saying-how that flag had been
hoisted at Fort McHenry, how there
was war between this country and
England, how the British ships had
bombarded that fort, and how a man
Kept prisoner back with the British
ships had watched the night through
till daybreak to see If the flag-that
flag-made In that house-was, still
there; and how, when he saw that it
was, he wrote "The Star Spangled
Banner" Some one In the street burst
into singing it. and most Of the crowd
Joined, quavering, in singing in queer
broken words. But the man in the au-
tomobile had still word for that par
ticular crowd.
THAT song was written about the
flag which was made here in this
house. You must love this house; you
must love that song; you must love
that flag. That flag means peace to you
today. It means a chance for work and
for making living and keeping home.
where hundreds Of those you left be-
hind you are marching to battlefelds
and dying upon them. 1t means peace
and home"-Dietrow heard no more. He
loosened Sona's touch on his arm and
slipped through the crowd. Across the
street he darted into an alley. When he
came out Of it's crooked way. he was
on one OF the old wharves.
The old place. quiet at its busiest,
was noon-lam. The water Tapped lazily.
Morning and evening saw the pulse Of
coming and going boats, noon all the
harbor was quiet, thick trimmed with
white steamers.
Far down, where the harbor slit
twisted to meet broader water, stood
lighthouse tower. The light from it
flashed and beckoned flashed and
beckoned. at night. Dietrow had had
many a fancy about that light. It was
a lamp, set beside an open door. Today
the tower stood white and still, ono
with the silent steamers But the sun
shine flooded steamers and boats and
water. 1t danced in silvery path to the
city itself, pointing 1t out. shining upon
1t, and just on the oher side Of the sun
path lay black-hulled ocean ship, the
Stars and Stripes at her mast.
Something broke into life in Diet
rows heart at sight Of it. That was his
city, his home, his flag. For the first
time he loved tall.
He went home whistling The crowd
| was gone. Soma was already truding up
and down the attic stairs. Dietrow.
laughing, took the Job out of her hands.
There was nothing to tell Soma now. He
was not going away. He was going to
live here. in this house-live and work
as the man had said. He laughed again
as he picked up little silk Stars and
Stripes which had fluttered from soma
mans buttonhole.
This flag to Soma. that man say
me must love it. is it not so?"
Soma smiled-sadly her love vas
elsewhere But the Stars and Stripes
, were fastened in Dietrow's coat That
was his flag.