Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-04-13

| under his leadership. This singing
kept up tor several hours. so great
vas the enthusiasm and patriotic
fervor moving the people of Balti-
more because of the recent repulse
o. the enemy fleet of British ships.
Song Sung In Theatre
The little tavern owned by Mrs.
Berling, which was the setting for
this historical scene. was right next
door to the Holiday street theatre.
When the theatre opened for the
season. the song was made part of
every performance. However, in
stead of playing the anthem just
before the beginning of the perfor-
nance, as was the custom in all
American theatres during the World
War. the song was rendered after
ward. 1t vas not merely orchestral.
the entire company of actors leading
all of the audience shouting the i'm
mortal words to the very heavens.
One PADDY Mcfarland was the
leading man of the theatrical COM
pany then playing at the Holiday
street theatre, and he 1t was who led
the singing,
The tatiered old flag now in the
National Museum here raj carefully
preserved. chiefly because it was
the inspirotion of the famous an
them. Probably it would have been
kept somewhere az a treasured re-
J minder of the impulse of the British
at Baltimore, bpt the whole nation
took an interest in this battle
SCARED Bit of bunting because of it's
association with Keys inspired pa
triotic poem.
Despite the fact that the old flag
was mounted on net and carefully
mended, it still reveals the signs Of
| age and wear and plainly shows
that it has been through strenuous
times.
The old emblem of this nation has
little in common with the flag of
today except the general plan or
which il is made with the blue field
dotted with white stars in the cor
ner, and the alternate red and white
stripes. However. where To-Day there
are As stars, In 6 horizontal rows of
s stars each. there r in the old
Fort MciIenry flag but 10 stars all
told. Beginning at the cage which
would be next the flagpole. there are
three stars in a row, then a row of
two stars, then three, then two,
three ~ora and two more.
Old Flag Has Is Stripes
In the early days. it was custom
airy not only to add a star for each
additional state admitted to the
Union, but TO add a stripe TO the
flag as well. When the country
reached its days of real expansion,
this had TO be stopped. and the
stripes in the flag were reduced to
10. TO correspond TO the Is original
/ colonies which were formed into the
United States of America when this
country freed itself from British
rule.
However. the country had not
gone back to Is stripes for its flag
in 1914, and there were jus. as many
stripes as stars in the blue field and
the old inspiration for Keys poem
has is stripes.
Key was not a Baltimorean, but
was horn in Frederick County,
Maryland. He was a lawyer, prac-
ticing his profession in Washington
and the town OF Frederick, later
famous as the home OF Barbara
Frietchie. Key was buried in the
little cemetery at Frederick. His
home in Washington was enc OF the
sights of the city for a long time.
being torn down not long ago in Or
der that a big new bridge connect
ing Washington with Virginia might
have its own Washington end on the
site of the old Key home. TIL
bridge is known to Washingtonians
as the Key Bridge because of this
/ fact