The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-09-26

silly lie ABOUT the pope yellow nag
being hoisted on our battleships. In
the first place, the pope has had no flag
since 1870, when the Italian govern
ment took possession of his temporal
power In the second place, no papal
flag has ever been hoisted on an
American warship. There is church
pennant, blue cross on white field,
that is hoisted whenever religious ser
vices are performed on auy ship of
the United States navy. There are
! men of all churches in our navy, and
each of the larger ships has chap
lain. Some of the chaplains are
Catholics, but most of them are
Protestants. No matter what church
| the chaplains or the men belong to
flag prescribed in the regulations. We
suppose Mr.. Bitch is aware that Eng
land and Prussia are both Protestant
nations, and they also have crosses on
their church flags; in fact, the fashion
of the church flag of the American
navy was taken from that of England.
1t has only been since the coming
of that great prophet Billyparker
that we knew the cross was dis
tinctively Catholic symbol. We were
taught to believe it was the common
symbol of Christianity. Isn't it a
Protestant hymn that says:
with the Cross of Jesus
Going on before?
I We invite Mr.. Bitch to take any
hymnbook he finds in Baptist or
Methodist Sunday school and try to
pick out the hymns that have no
reference to the Cross in them. We
have been to more than one Metho-
dist camp meeting where the lines,
1 I'm the Cross, in the Cross
Be my glory ever,'
lifted the worshipers out of their
seats. We have seen crosses over
scores of Protestant churches, and on
the covers of hundreds of Protestant
bibles. The Protestant nations of
| Denmark, Norway ard Sweden have
crosses on their flags. Switzerland,
three-ffths Protestant, has cross on
5 it's flag. The man who started the
story that the pope's flag was hoisted
on American warships was silly as
we'll as an INSCRIPTIONS liar, and we
are surprised that a man of Mr.
4 Blitch's intelligence should believe it.
As for the vote in Hamilton county
if Mr.. Bitch had been up there and
thought he found evidence of fraud
We would attach weight to his opinion
AS it is, he only has the evidence that
went before the court, and the court
thought it was too thin to hold water
We have before US copy of the
. Jasper News edited by Ben NJ Cald.
well, who was on the spot. The News
says Barton's story was ridiculous
and that there is no evidence thai
Hunter and Murrow were even think.
| ing of tampering with the ballots
The Jasper News is paper we have
been reading for thirty years, during
|
hands of the Caldwell family, the
| members of which for their devotion
to truth, fair dealing and genuine de
mocracy are not excelled in the state
! Mr.. Bitch misquotes Mr.. Knott
who did not ask that the recount il
Madison be thrown out on account OF
J. fraud. He asked that on account Of
the bitter controversy caused by the
recount, that it be not considered.
We have no doubt that most of thu
! guardians in our state are good men
but we consider those in the north
{ where the movement had it's begin
| ming, as just such another set of seal
awags as the coffee coolers and car
: petbaggers who followed the Unior
7 army in 1865. Our regret is that oul
5 own honest and patriotic people ar,
r deluded by such men whose stock in
: trade consists of statements like tina
about the pope's flag, the fallacy o.
, which we have just shown. Yet an.
} man who can read could have fount
the combination of that yarn in an,
1 copy of Websters Unabridged die
/ tionary.
: It's natural for any American to re
2 sent the idea of any church, or an,
, foreign government, controlling hi
!; country. We are full of that senti
!. ment ourself. But we have beer
: watching the politics and religion O.
] this country ever since 1876, and w,
see no reason to take any stock in tn,
: stories with which Tomwatson, Billy
4 parker and Cats try to extract none,
j. OF public office from the people.