The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-09-11
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

reckon you thought I had finished with yachting, the America tbs his- tory Of the Queens Cup. but running across what to me was new item of interest will give it to my readers. as everything l hear, or see or read is ! grist for this column.
 It may not be generally known. but the golden eagle. which graced the stern or the America survived long after it was out of commission. We talk about making the American eagle scream. just as we do about twisting the lions tail; and spread eagle oratory for many generations has been q Fourth of July sport
 In spite of Franklins idea that the turkey is more properly the truly Amer ican fowl. somehow l am glad that the eagle got fixed in the minds of our people as the typical bird to represent our country. This is not to even inti- mate that am not fond of the great Thanksgiving dish, which annually calls for the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of the parnyard gobblers and hens.
 From its size, strength and powers of flight the eagle has well been called the king of birds. It was the ensign of the Babylonish, Persian and Eruscan Ei the Seleucides. and it was borne on the Roman standards, being adopted by the Roman republic in B. C. T, when a silver eagle poised on spear, with a thunderbolt in its claws. was borne at the head of the legions.
 It will be seen by this that the United States was not the first republic to adopt it as a symbol. It would make a remarkable story if one had the time to trace how the eagle at one time had stood for the government of the people, and has typified imperialism. merely throw the suggestion out for some col lege' graduate in search of a topic for thesis for graduation. I think it could be worked out interestingly, and be a really worthwhile study. but, so far as I'm concerned, rlf drop it right here.
 The Roman empire retained the symbol simply converting the demo- cratic bird into a royal one It was rIIi fa ell d u the metal from silver into gold. An eagle was always let fly from the funeral pgree of an emperor. to bear his soul up to Olympus, and fittingly Romans to be peculiarly the bird of love.
 two-headed eagle. as sign of double empire, was first used by the Byzantine Caesars to denote their con trol both of the east and the west. The double eagle of Russia came into being with the marriage of Ivan l. to Greek princess of the eastern empire, and that of Austria, when the emperor of Ger many took the title of Roman emperor.
 
 but the late war gave them both the double cross, and they were thrown into the discard along with the black one of Prussia. .@
 The eagle of the Roman republic is but memory, while the imperial bird of the eonqueroring Caesars of the days of Augustus on down to Char legmagne and the pretensions of Ma poleon. who dreamed like the Kaiser, the twentieth century Caesar of uni versal dominion. put the the golden eagle of the world wasters to the front until it became necessary for the demo- cratic eagle of America to pull out the tail feathers of Emperor Williams pet fowl.
 It will be seen that many modern na- tions, as France under the Bonpartes Austria, Prussia. Russia, Poland and even the United States, have adopted the eagle as it's national emblem; and it is a well known fact that in heraldry it ranks as one of the most noble bear ings in coat arnlor. I'll not take time to describe the Order of the Black Eagle, a Prussian oroer founded by Frederick l. in 1710, or the Order of the Red Eagle. or the Order of the White Eagle, for in my opinion the Spread Eagle of America is the bird which brought all the imperial eagles of the day to order.
 The American eagle is the native bald eagle. and was first adopted on the seal of the United States on June 20, 17S2. against tie bitter opposition of Benjamin Franklins who looked upon 1t as Caesarian' emblem, and wanted to know what was the matter with the wild turkey, as being more distinctly American and a bird sui generis. Never theless, the eagle was accepted not only on the sea. but on the first coin issued by the United States in 17s5 and on majority of the subsequent coins.
 But as usual I'm running away from what I started out to tell about, and that was the late Dixon Kemp called attention to .the fact that the golden eagle taken off of the Americas stern might be seen on top of the Eagle hotel at Ryde. England, just opposite to the entrance to Ryde pier. To add probability to the truthfulness of the statement. Thompson in his History of the Americas Cup" says: ''She left the yard at Northfleet minus the golden eagle, and the scroll, that had adorned her stern and for years that patriotic