Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1916-1918, 1917-08-10
Our Flag

flag? And did you ever stop to think
how queer it would seem if our flag
were anything at all but Just what it
is? Wouldn't you miss it if you could
not look up every morning when you
go to school and see it waving over
your school house? Sometimes when
you are working away in school. just
stop second and think about the flag
that always waves protectingly over
you. If you think loving thoughts of
it, think it will answer you and say
Work away hard at your lessons.
while | take good care of you! That's
the way, you can show now that yo'l
and are friends! I'll need you when
you are man, so work away for me,
and I'll wait patiently and lovingly for
you"
And wouldn't you miss it if on Wash
ington's birthday and on Lincoln's
birthday, and on Fourth of July, father
didn't go up into the attic and get a
flag that mother keeps so carefully
packed away? And aren'. you proud
when father lets you help tie 1t to the
halyards and together you pull 1T out
till it hangs down, straight and beautl-
full. from the flagpole? And then isn't
1t wonderful to look downEour street
and see all the other flags out? And
did you ever think that not just the
fathers and little boys in your street.
and in your town, but all the fathers
and all the little boy in every street,
in every town, all over our whole big
country from east to west. ore putting
out the flag-our flag? We all love 1t.
Hasn't father taken you to parades,
and doesn't it make you feel shivery
up your back to see the soldiers come
marching, marching down the street.
lines straight, feet in step, and hear
the drums roll and the flies pipe
"Dixie?" And then, suddenly, boom!
boom! two big bangs on the big bass
drum, and the shiny band begins to
play-maybe while We We're March.
ing Through Georgia. and you cant
take your eyes off the pompous drum
majors tall fur hat with its broad
leather strap under his chin. nor OF
his long betasseled wand which he
twirls so enthusiastically. Haven't
you seen it all? But what would It
mean without our flag? Can you
imagine parade without it? OF course
not! Because our flag is what the par
ade is all about-that is what soldiers,
are soldiers for-and { is really
what makes the shiver: n up your
back-our flag!
Have you ever thought how queer 1t
would seem to live under any other
flag but our flag? You cant imagine
it? Think how happy you will be when
some day as you are travelling in other
countries. which of course have other
flags, you suddenly see your very own
flag! hope you will salute It like
soldier, when you do! The sight of it
will make you feel the very happiest!
Longfe1low says something about just
that in one of his poems
And everywhere
The slender, graceful spars
Poise aloft in the air.
And at the mast head,
White, blue and red,
A flag unfolds the stripes and stars.
All, when the wanderers, lonely, friend
less
In foreign harbors shall behold
That flag unrolled,
Twill be as friendly hand
Stretched out from his native land,
Filling his heart with memories sweet
and endless"
Maybe. because you have seen our
flag ever since you were born, you
think we have always had it, that 1t
"just growed," like Topsy; but it
didn't I'll tell you little about it.
Long ago, when we first began to fight
in the great War of the Revolution,
we had no flag to fight under. Don't
you think 1t must have been hard for
our soldiers to fight the Battle of
Bunker Hill without our own Stars and
Stripes? They did have some kind
of flags, because little poem written
at that time tells us that
"Columbia's troops are seen in dread
array,
And waving streamers in the air dis
play"
That's rather grown-up poetry. but
you can see they did have flags,
though we don't know how they look
ed. Some people think that pine-tree
was a favorite emblem for the very
first flags: others mention a rattle
snake, coiled, and with head uplifted to
strike.
"A lItlle willie aIleT IHe bdIIle OI
Bunker Hill, because everybody want
ed flag so much. Gen. Washington,
with Col. Ross and Robert Morris went
one day to little house in Philadel-
phia, where lived Mrs. Elizabeth Ross.
who knew how to make flags. They
told her they were a committee of con-
gress, and that they had come to talk
over with her the making of flag.
Mrs. Betsy Ross asked Gen. Washing
ton and the two other gentlemen into
her neat little back parlor, and there
they all talked the matter over. Mrs.
Ross suggested changing the drawing
of the six-pointed stars to stars with
five points. After it was all talked
over and settled, Gen. Washington re-
drew the design and asked Mrs Ross
if she could make the flag.
She said. ~ don't know whether I
can, but III try"
think she must have been very
proud to try, don't you? And so she
made our first flag, and after that I
am sure it must have been easier for