UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY Hppletons' 1bome IReaMng 1Book$ EDITED BY WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A.M., LL. D. UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION DIVISION III History 3 087 8 JPPLETONS' HOME READING BOOKS OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG AND THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN, LL. D. £6 34- NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1906 nov iyo/ Copyright, 1898, By D. APPLE rf home reading by lectures and round-table discussions, led or conducted by experts who also lav out the course of reading. The Chautanquan movement in this country prescribes a series of excellent books and furnishes for a goodly number of its readers annual courses of lectures. The teachers' reading circles that exi>t in many States pre- scribe the books to be read, and publish some analysis, commentary, or catechism to aid the members. Home reading, it seems, furnishes the e>sential basis of this great movement to extend, education vi OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. beyond the school and to make self -culture a habit of life. Looking more carefully at the difference between the two directions of the new education we can see what each accomplishes. There is first an effort to train the original powers of the individual and make him self -active, quick at observation, and free in his thinking. Xext, the new education endeavors, by the reading of books and the study of the wisdom of the race, to make the child or youth a participator in the results of experience of all mankind. These two movements may be made antagonistic by poor teaching. The book knowledge, containing as it does the precious lesson of human experience, may be so taught as to bring with it only dead rules of conduct, only dead scraps of information, and no stimulant to original thinking. Its contents may be memorized without being: understood. On the other hand, the self -activity of the child may be stimulated at the expense of his social well-being — his originality may be cultivated at the expense of his rationality. If he is taught persistently to have his own way, to trust only his own senses, to cling to his own opinions heedless of the experience of his fellows, he is pre- paring for an unsuccessful, misanthropic career, and is likely enough to end his life in a madhouse. It is admitted that a too exclusive study of the knowledge found in books, the knowledge which is aggregated from the experience and thought of other people, may result in loading the mind of the pupil with material which he can not use to advantage. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. vii Some minds are so full of lumber that there is no space left to set up a workshop. The necessity of uniting both of these directions of intellectual activity in the schools is therefore obvious, but we must not, in this place, fall into the error of supposing that it is the oral instruction in school and the personal influ- ence of the teacher alone that excites the pupil to ac- tivity. Book instruction is not always dry and theo- retical. The very persons who declaim against the book, and praise in such strong terms the self -activity of the pupil and original research, are mostly persons who have received their practical impulse from read- ing the writings of educational reformers. Very few persons have received an impulse from personal con- tact with inspiring teachers compared with the num- ber that have been aroused by reading such books as Herbert Spencer's Treatise on Education, Rousseau's Smile, Pestalozzi's Leonard and Gertrude, Francis W. Parker's Talks about Teaching, G. Stanley Hall's Pedagogical Seminary. Think in this connec- tion, too, of the impulse to observation in natural sci- ence produced by such books as those of Hugh Miller, Faraday, Tyndall, Huxley, Agassiz, and Darwin. The new scientific book is different from the old. The old style book of science gave dead results where the new one gives not only the results, but a minute account of the method employed in reaching those re- sults. An insight into the method employed in dis- covery trains the reader into a naturalist, an historian, a sociologist. The books of the writers above named have done more to stimulate original research on the viii OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. part of their readers than all other influences com- bined. It is therefore much more a matter of importance to get the right kind of book than to get a living teacher. The book which teaches results, and at the same time gives in an intelligible manner the steps of discovery and the methods employed, is a book which will stimulate the student to repeat the ex- periments described and get beyond them into fields of original research himself. Every one remem- bers the published lectures of Faraday on chemistry, which exercised a wide influence in changing the style of books on natural science, causing them to deal with method more than results, and thus train the reader's power of conducting original research. Robinson Crusoe for nearly two hundred years has aroused the spirit of adventure and prompted young men to resort to the border lands of civilization. A library of home reading should contain books that in- cite to self -activity and arouse the spirit of inquiry. The books should treat of methods of discovery and evolution. All nature is unified by the discovery of the law of evolution. Each and every being in the world is now explained by the process of development to which it belongs. Every fact now throws light on all the others by illustrating the process of growth in which each has its end and aim. The Home Reading Books are to be classed as follows : First Division. Natural history, including popular scientific treatises on plants and animals, and also de- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix scriptions of geographical localities. The branch of study in the district school course which corresponds to this is geography. Travels and sojourns in distant lands ; special writings which treat of this or that animal or plant, or family of animals or plants ; any- thing that relates to organic nature or to meteorol- ogy, or descriptive astronomy may be placed in this class. Second Division. Whatever relates to physics or natural philosophy, to the statics or dynamics of air or water or light or electricity, or to the properties of matter ; whatever relates to chemistry, either organic or inorganic — books on these subjects belong to the class that relates to what is inorganic. Even the so- called organic chemistry relates to the analysis of organic bodies into their inorganic compounds. Third Division. History, biography, and ethnol- ogy. Books relating to the' lives of individuals ; to the social life of the nation ; to the collisions of na- tions in war, as well as to the aid that one nation gives to another through commerce in times of, peace; books on ethnology relating to the modes of life of savage or civilized peoples ; on primitive manners and customs—books on these subjects belong to the third class, relating particularly to the human will, not merely the individual will but the social will, the will of the tribe or nation ; and to this third class belong also books on ethics and morals, and on forms of o-overnment and laws, and what is in- eluded under the term civics, or the duties of citi- zenship. x OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. Fourth Division. The fourth class of books in- cludes more especially literature and works that make known the beautiful in such departments as sculpture, painting, architecture and music. Literature and art show human nature in the form of feelings, emotions, and aspirations, and they show how these feelings - lead over to deeds and to clear thoughts. This de- partment of books is perhaps more important than any other in our home reading, inasmuch as it teaches a knowledge of human nature and enables us to un- derstand the motives that lead our fellow-men to action. Plan for Use as Supplementary Reading. The first work of the child in the school is to learn to recognize in a printed form the words that are familiar to him by ear. These words constitute what is called the colloquial vocabulary. They are words that he has come to know from having heard them used by the members of his family and by his playmates. He uses these words himself with con- siderable skill, but what he knows by ear he does not yet know by sight. It will require many weeks, many months even, of constant effort at reading the printed page to bring him to the point where the sight of the written word brings up as much to his mind as the sound of the spoken word. But patience and practice will by and by make the printed word far more suggestive than the spoken word, as every scholar may testify. In order to bring about this familiarity with the EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION. x i printed word it has been found necessary to re-en- force the reading in the school by supplementary reading at home. Books of the same grade of diffi- culty with the reader used in school are to be pro- vided for the pupil. They must be so interesting to him that he will read them at home, using his time before and after school, and even his holidays, for this purpose. But this matter of familiarizing the child with the printed word is only one half of the object aimed at by the supplementary home reading. He should read that which interests him. He should read that which will increase his power in making deeper studies, and what he reads should tend to correct his habits of observation. Step by step he should be initiated into the scientific method. Too many ele- mentary books fail to teach the scientific method be- cause they point out in an unsystematic way only those features of the object which the untutored senses of the pupil would discover at first glance. It is not useful to tell the child to observe a piece of chalk and see that it is white, more or less friable, and that it makes a mark on a fence or a wall. Sci- entific observation goes immediately behind the facts which lie obvious to a superficial investigation. Above all, it directs attention to such features of the object as relate it to its environment. It directs at- tention to the features that have a causal influence in making the object what it is and in extending its effects to other objects. Science discovers the recip- rocal action of objects one upon another. x ii OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. After the child has learned how to observe what is essential in one class of objects he is in a measure fitted to observe for himself all objects that resemble this class. After he has learned how to observe the seeds of the milkweed, he is partially prepared to observe the seeds of the dandelion, the burdock, and the thistle. After he has learned how to study the history of his native country, he has acquired some ability to study the history of England and Scotland or France or Germany. In the same way the daily preparation of his reading lesson at school aids him to read a story of Dickens or Walter Scott. The teacher of a school will know how to obtain a small sum to invest in supplementary reading. In a graded school of four hundred pupils ten books of each number are sufficient, one set of ten books to be loaned the first week to the best pupils in one of the rooms, the next week to the ten pupils next in ability. On Monday afternoon a discussion should be held over the topics of interest to the pupils who have read the book. The pupils who have not yet read the book will become interested, and await anxiously their turn for the loan of the desired volume. Another set of ten books of a higher grade may be used in the same way in a room containing more advanced pupils. The older pupils who have left school, and also the parents, should avail themselves of the opportunity to read the books brought home from school. Thus is begun that continuous education by means of the pub- lic library which is not limited to the school period, but lasts through life. W. T. Harris. Washington, D, C, Nov. 16, 1896, AUTHOR'S PREFACE. In Part I of this book a history of the national flag of America is given. It is pre- sented first because every American child should, first of all, know how the flag of his country came to be what it is. Some ac- count is also given of the various standards that were set up on the continent of North America by the early discoverers and ex- plorers. From the settlements at Jamestown in Virginia (1607) and at Plymouth in Mas- sachusetts (1620) until the American Revo- lution (1775), the flag of England was the flag of the colonists. The king's colors flew on forts and ships of war, but the white en- sign with the red cross of St. George was the flag of the people. XIV OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. The protest of the colonists against un- just rule led to the assumption of liberty- flags in every colony. In 1775 a flag was adopted by the colonies to mark their union for securing, by force if necessary, their rights as Englishmen. On the 4th of July, 1776, the Declaration of American Inde- pendence proclaimed "that all political con- nection between us and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- solved," and a year later the Congress adopted the flag of thirteen stripes with its union of thirteen stars — a new constellation — to symbolize the birth of a new nation. During the whole history of America, therefore, our flag has been the flag of a country, not the personal standard of a king or of an emperor. It stands, and it has stood, for us as the symbol of an abstract idea, not as the sign of the power of any ruler. It is, and it has been, a national flag, not a personal standard. This is by no means the case with the flags of other and of older nations that have AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xv gone through a different development and have had a different history. France, for example, is far older than the United States, yet the French people had no national flag until after the revolution of 1789. Before that time its banners represented the power of the king. They were personal standards, not national flags. The oriflanime of St. Denis was borne before the armies of France because the French king had succeeded to the honors of knight-banneret of the famous Abbey of St. Denis. It represented the national aspira- tions in a manner ; but it chiefly symbolized the belief that the power of God was on the side of the French monarchs. Ever since the Crusades, the banner of St. George has stood for England, not for the power of the English king. The idea of nationality has not sprung up in the world all at once. In the begin- ning of things an army or a tribe gathered round a chief, and his personal standard stood for the power of the army, and the xv i OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. army was the state. As the state grew stronger and more complex the chief of the state became — as in the later years of the Roman Republic — merely its leading citizen and soldier; and the emblems of power grew more and more to represent the maj- esty of the state itself. The color-bearer of the Roman legion advanced the eagle-stand- ard against the enemy in the name of the Republic and of the commanding general. Mediaeval Europe was under feudal lords in whom, once more, the power of their petty states was concentrated. Their personal standards once more represented the army and the state. The religious banners given by the Church to lords and princes had some- thing of the character of national banners ; and the crosses of different colors borne by the Crusaders (white crosses for the English, red for the French, etc.), distinguished sol- diers of different nationalities. But even the Crusaders owed their first fealty to the ban- ners of their personal chiefs. Each knight followed the fortunes of his overlord. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xvii It was not until very recent times that the idea was born that each nationality must have its separate flag. The flag of Germany dates from 1871, that of Italy from 1848; China's flag dates from 1872, Japan's from 1859. The American boy who reads this book must recollect that his flag, like the flag of England, has always been the flag of a peo- ple, and that he unconsciously thinks of it as his flag in a stricter and more personal sense than if he were a Bavarian or a Prus- sian lad, whose national flag — the German — is not yet a generation old. There are cen- turies of devotion to the symbols of the flag in our English blood. A large part of this book is taken up with the history of the flags of foreign na- tions — that is, with the history of the symbols that stand for the hopes, desires, beliefs, and aspirations of countries other than our own. A flag is a symbol that stands for all these things just as the cross stands for Christianity. How is it that the symbol of xv iii OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. the cross really represents Christianity to our thoughts, not merely to our eyes ? How is it that a flag, which is nothing more than a bit of colored cloth to our touch or to our sight, really comes to stand for the idea of our country ? The answers to such questions as these are given in Chapter III of this book, and no boy can read it without gaining new and far-reaching conceptions of the antiquity, the universality, and the power of symbols. Symbols stand close to man and interpret great ideas to him. They enable his feeble imagination to maintain a grasp on vast ab- stractions like the idea of religion, or of country. Two bits of stick crossed and held aloft have sustained the fainting heart of many a Christian martyr in the presence of the savage beasts of the arena ; and the sight of his country's flag has nerved the arm of many a soldier in extremest stress and trial. A true and complete history of the flags of the world — of national symbols — would be nothing less thau a history of the aspira- AUTHOR'S PREFACE. x i x tions of men and nations, and of the institu- tions that they have devised to obtain the object of their hopes and to preserve intact what they have conquered. Not even a sketch of such a history is attempted here. But it is believed that no American child can read these chapters without understand- ing somewhat of these great matters; nor without acquiring a larger conception of loy- alty, of patriotism, and of duty. E. S. H. Stockbridge, June 17, 1898. Master ARNOLD WHITRIDGB. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE Introduction to the Home Reading Book Series BY THE EDITOR Vli Author's preface xv Note for the readers of this book . . . xxv PART I. THE AMERICAN FLAG. I. — Flags of England and the American colonies, 1607-1766 1 Flags of the American colonies, 1766-1776 . 19 II. — The flag of the United States of America, 1777-1795 28 The flag of the United States of America, 1795-1818 34 The flag of the United States of America, 1818-1898 35 Official flags 40 The great seal of the United States of America . 44 XX11 OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. CHAPTER National songs of America . The meaning of the American flag The man without a country. PAGE 4? 56 62 PART II. THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. III. — Ancient standards and banners — emblems — sym- bols — THE CROSS — ANCIENT FLAGS ... 65 IV. — The flags of foreign nations — England — sig- naling by flags — United States Weather Bureau signals — salutes — France ... 91 V. — The flags of foreign nations — the flags of sovereign states (the different countries are arranged alphabetically for convenient refer- ence) 139 / 6 6 3 4- NOTE FOR THE READERS OF THIS BOOK. 816^-8 It has seemed best to divide this little book into two parts : First, the history of the American flag- ; second, some account of flags in general, and of the flags of European nations in particular. The history of the American flag is printed first, because every American cbild should know that history first of all. Afterward he can read the second part of the book, which will tell him many interesting things about the meaning of flags, and about their uses on land and sea. Many of the ex- cellent plates are printed in colors, but not all of them. A number of those in black and white are drawn so that they also express the colors in the following way : 7 Yellow (Or). V-->':,.i. SK'.'SiJi? ^M' Green (Vert). xxiv OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG. Whenever a surface is left unshaded it stands for white (the French word for silver is argent). When the sur- face is covered with little dots it stands for yellow (the French word for gold is or). When the surface is shaded with vertical straight lines it stands for red (the French word corresponding is gules) ; and so on for the other colors. These French words have become Eng- lish, and they are to be pronounced exactly as they are spelled, according to English rules. If you wish to un- derstand the colors in one of the black and white draw- ings of this book you should look for the shadings in the different parts of the banner or flag, and read them by this color alphabet. OUR COUNTRY'S FLAG, AND THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES. PART I. THE AMERICAN FLAG. CHAPTER I. There is little doubt that the adventur- ous Northmen from Iceland (a province of Denmark) discovered the continent of America long before the first voy- age of Columbus. We know but little of their journeys, and we may say, at any rate, that the discoveries of Columbus, in 1492 and later, made America known to the Old World. It chances that the flags displayed Fig. 1. — The standard of Spain in 1492. The gol- den castles on the red fields stand for Castile ; the red lions on white fields stand for Leon. THE AMERICAN FLAG. by the Spaniards when Columbus landed on October 12, 1492, have been described by his own son. They were two — the standard of Spain and the banner of the expedition. These were the first European ilaos, of which we know anything, that were dis- played on the continent of North America. The many expedi- tions of discovery in the years following Colum- bus, and during the six- teenth century, brought other flags to our shores — English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, even Venetian. Each discov- erer planted the flag of his country, or per- haps the standard of the monarch under whose patronage his voyage was made. French, Spanish, Swedish, and Dutch colo- nies were planted on our shores. Ameri- cans are most interested in the history of the English colonies and in the flags of England and of our own country. Pig. 2. — The white banner of the first expedition of Columbus. The green cross stands for Christi- anity (green is the color of hope) ; the P and Y for Ferdinand and Ysabel, the King and Queen of Spain. THE FLAG OF ENGLAND. 3 We are used to think of our country as one of the youngest in the family of nations, and it is so. But our flag is by no means the youngest of national symbols. It was adopted in 1777 in its present form, and has remained essentially unchanged since 1818. Very many of the present flags of the old countries of Europe are much younger than ours. The French flat? was established in 1794. The flag of the German Empire dates from 1871. The flag of Italy was adopted in 1848. Spain's nag, in its present form, is not older than 1785; Portugal's no older than 1830. The Russian tricolor is quite modern. FLAGS OF ENGLAND AND THE AMERICAN COLONIES, 1607-1766. England claimed for her colonies in North America all the seacoast from Halifax in Nova Scotia to Cape Fear (near Wilmington) in North Carolina, and all the territory west- ward from this seacoast — that is, as far as the Pacific Ocean. This immense domain was granted to two companies. The " Plym- outh Company " controlled the region from Canada to New York. The " London Com- pany" controlled the region from the Poto- 4 THE AMERICAN FLAG. mac to Cape Fear. A broad strip was left be- tween the two territories, so as to avoid any troubles and disputes about boundaries. The sovereignty over all the territory re- mained, of course, in the hands of the English king; but the immediate rule was given to these two companies, just as the rule of India was given (in 1600) to the "East India Com- pany," and just as the rule over parts of Africa was given to the " Imperial British East Africa Company" (1888), or to the " British South Africa Company " in our own days. The companies of "knights, gentlemen, and merchants " in England furnished the money necessary to send colonists out to America, and expected to gain their profits from trade in lumber, fish, etc. The domin- ion over the colonies remained with the king and Parliament of England, and the flag of the colonies was of course the English flag. A flag is the visible sign and symbol of do- minion. A full history of the flag of England, which was our flag until theWar of the Revo- lution, is given in the second part of this book. For long centuries, certainly since a. d. THE FLAGS OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. 5 1327 (in the time of King Edward III), the flag of England was the cross of St. George, a red cross on a white field. As St. George's Fig. 3.— The flag of England (St. George's cross) from 1327 onward. cross was the flag of the English, so St. Andrew's cross was the flag of the Scottish people. The cross of St. Andrew was white on a blue field. The crosses of St. George and of St. Andrew are shown in their true colors in Plate III, where they are combined with the cross of St. Patrick (for Ireland), which is red on a white ground. King James VI of Scotland succeeded to 6 THE AMERICAN FLAG. the throne of England (as King James I) in 1603, and the two kingdoms of England and Scotland were united at last after centuries of strife and war. The new sovereignty needed a new flag, and in 1606 the flag was made by uniting the crosses of St. George and of St. Andrew in one field. It was called "the king's colors," not the flag of Great Britain. Fig. 4. — St. Andrew's cross — the flag of Scotland since the time of the Crusades. England still had its flag (St. George's cross) and Scotland had its flag also (St. Andrew's cross). ,AG OP THE AMEK; <); , S u When King Charles I was executed in 1649, England became a Commonwealth un- Pig. 5. — The king's colors, 1606. In a slightly changed form it is still the color of the reigning monarch of England. See Fig. 35 following. der Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, and changes were made in the flas: that we do not need to know about now. In 1660 Charles II (son of Charles I) was restored to the throne, and changes were again made in the flag of Great Britain* Early in 1707 * Great Britain is England and Scotland, and does not in- clude Ireland. Queen Victoria rules over " the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland," and she is Empress of India. 8 THE ^RICAN FLAG. the " union " flag was adopted as iD the next drawing. It was a red ensign, with the sym- bol of the union of England and Scotland in the upper and inner corner. The space occu- Fig. 6. — The red ensign of Great Britain, adopted in 1707 and used until 1801, when Ireland was admitted into the union. The flag of most British merchant vessels is like this. The war vessels now fly the cross of St. George on a white field with a union in the upper and inner corner, though they used to display this red ensign — " the meteor flag of England." See Plate III, and also Fig. 35, for the present form of these flags. pied by the union is called a canton, a word which you must remember, as it is often used. THE FLAG OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 9 The English flags that are shown in the pictures were the official flags of the colonies in America from 1620 to the Revolutionary War in 1776, when it was declared that " these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." The little ship Mayflower (1620) brought its freight of Pilgrims under the cross of St. George, which was then the flag of all Englisli ships. The king's colors, with the union, may also have been displayed, though we have no certain knowledge on this point. British ships of war visiting the coasts of America in later years would certainly fly the king's colors, and finally, after 1707, the red ensign with its "union" was the official flag of Great Britain and of all her colonies. A flag stands for dominion, for govern- ment, for power. And the symbols of the flag tell something of the history and of the aspirations of a people. The cross of St. George was the ancient flag of "Merry England." Under it great battles had been fought. All Englishmen were proud of it. Its cross was the symbol of St. George, the patron saint of England. The Scottish knights who had traveled 10 THE AMERICAN FLAG. the weary way from Edinburgh to the Holy Land in the wars of the Crusades (a. d. 1095-1270) bore St. Andrew's banner. The two crosses were at last united in the "union" of 1606. The red cross of Ireland was added to the union in 1801. A flag has a meaning then. It embodies a history ; it stands for an idea ; it may express a hope. If you think carefully about the flag of any nation — what it is, how it came to be — ■ you will see that this banner is something more than a thing made of colored cloths. It is really visible history. It is the great ideas of the nation expressed in symbols, in forms, in colors. The flag stands for the past his- tory of a people, or at least for that part of it of which they are proud. It stands for the truths they believe in ; it stands for the principles they profess. The flag of England symbolizes a history six centuries long filled with stirring events. The flag of the United States stands for the history of English colonists who have founded a nation for themselves. Every human being under either of these flags is free, entitled to the equal protection of the THE FLAG OP THE AMERICAN COLONIES. H law, possessed of rights, and not dependent on other men for favors. Most of the American colonists were de- voted and loyal subjects of England. They looked to the "old country" with affection- ate remembrance. They were fond of their adopted country at the same time, and their new circumstances gave them a taste for freedom. Every year that passed made them more independent. But a very considerable number of the colonists were by no means friendly to the mother country. They had suffered perse- cution from the Church of England, and they had emigrated to a distant land to be rid of religious as well as of political con- straint. They were ardent Protestants and above all things they hated " Papists,"— Ro- man Catholics who obeyed a pope. They were determined to obey nothing but their own consciences — to be their own popes. As early as 1634 there were mutterings in the colony of Massachusetts Bay that the cross of St. George in the English flag was a papistical symbol. It had been given to an English king by a pope, and blessed by a pope, and it seemed to them to be a sign of 12 . THE AMERICAH PL AG. obedience to Rome. It was "idolatrous," they said. Therefore it ought not to remain. This seems a strange idea to us now, for we have accepted the cross as the sign of Christianity. Christ died on the cross, and the symbol belongs to the whole world of Christians. But the Puritans did not feel as we do. To them the cross stood for perse- cutions that they had not forgotten. It rep- resented a power that was still feared and hated. Accordingly some very zealous and daring spirits at Salem, in Massachusetts, cut the cross out of the banner of the soldiery there, so that it might no longer display a "papistical" symbol. It was a religious scruple that inspired the act, not disloyalty to the English king. But the flag, with its cross, was the sym- bol of the dominion of England. It was a sign of the power of the state and of the king, and it was treason to affront that power. So that the people in authority in Boston were in a dilemma. They were afraid to approve the act for fear of offending Eng- land ; and afraid to disapprove it, for fear of offending their own people. The matter was finally arranged by al- THE FLAG OP THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 13 lowing the king's colors to be displayed over the castle in Boston harbor, because the cas- tle belonged to the king ; and by permitting the different 'military companies throughout the colonies to choose colors for themselves, which they did. The military company of Newburyport, for instance, in 1684, carried a green flag with the cross of St. George on a white canton in its upper and inner quarter. At the very beginning of the history of the English colonies in America the question of what flag to fly was discussed. The Eng- lish flag seemed to many of the colonists to represent something they disapproved. So far as it stood for the English state, or for the power of the English king, they found no fault with it. So far as the cross was a papist symbol they hated, despised, and feared it ; and the colonists had their own way. They were so distant from England that no notice was taken of their action. Such actions would not have been permitted to Englishmen at home. It was an important matter, however, because it set the colonists to thinking how far they were really inde- pendent of the mother country, and whether 14 THE AMERICAN FLAG. they might not some day set up a govern- ment and a flag of their own. All kinds of influences were educating the colonists to be independent of England, and to depend only upon themselves. They were forced to defend themselves against hos- tile Indians, and to maintain a little army They had to provide, for their own defense against foreign enemies, too. In the records of the town of Roxbury in 1673 there are " Tidings of the Dutch assaulting New York, which awakened us to put ourselves in a pos- ture of war, to prepare fortifications, and to seek the face of God." The religious colonists depended on God to be their helper ; and in the matter of war they built their own fortifications, bought their own gunpowder, fired it from their own cannon, and did not rely for any aid upon a mother country three thousand miles over sea, that was busy about its own defenses, and chiefly concerned about its own affairs. The exiled colonists had a new country of their own, they were " subject to this com- monwealth and the government here, 1 '' as they declared, and they were ready to defend it against all comers. THE FLAG OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 15 As early as 1645 the colonies of Plym- outh, Massachusetts Bay, and Connecticut, formed a union for defense, and appointed commissioners to conduct their common de- fense. Miles Standish * was one of the first commissioners from Massachusetts. This league was the seed from which our union of American States has sprung. From 1643 onward, the idea of such a union was more or less familiar. The "Act of perpetual union between the States" (1776) and the adoption of the " Constitution of the United States" (1788) were mere consequences of this early idea fostered, as it was, by all the conditions of life in a country far removed from the mother kingdom. So the king's colors were hoisted at the king's forts and on his ships. The people in general had little use for flags, but their military companies displayed special flags of their own. In 1649 Charles I was beheaded, and there was no longer a king. The Gen- eral Court of Massachusetts ordered in 1651 " that the captain shall advance the aforesaid colors of England upon all necessary occa- * The hero of Longfellow's poem, The Courtship of Miles Standish. 16 THE AMERICAN FLAG. sions." The aforesaid colors were the white flag of St. George, that had lately been adopted by the English Parliament. When King Charles II came back in 1660, the king's colors came with him. In 1652 Massachusetts coined her pine- tree currency, silver coins, stamped with a pine tree, " as an apt symbol of her progres- sive vigor.'" The pine tree appears later upon some New England flags, along with the cross of St. George. The cross would stand for England, and the pine tree would express the fact that the colony claimed a right to its own flag, although it was at the same time an English colony. England, nowadays, permits her greater colonies, such as Canada, Australia, etc., to coin money and to display a flag. But in the days of Charles II this was considered to be a piece of great presumption, and to show that the New Eno-land colonies were on the way to become independent — as indeed they were. There is an anecdote that shows what Charles II thought about the matter. Charles had been saved from capture after the battle of Worcester (1651) by hid- ing in an oak tree — the royal oak, so called — THE PINE-TREE FLAG OF NEW ENGLAND. 17 and the figure of the pine tree on the shilling was so rudely made that it might be mis- taken for . an oak. This was fortunate for Fig. 7. — The pine-tree flag of New England. the colonists, because the king was in a gr Q at rage when some one showed him the pine- tree currency, and when he learned in this way that New England was presuming to coin money of her own. This was an unpar- donable assumption of authority. But when it was suggested that the tree mio;ht be the royal oak which had saved the king's life, his anger was appeased, and he 18 THE AMERICAN FLAG. said in good-humor, " Well, after all, they are a parcel of honest dogs ! " and was will- ing to listen to requests made in their behalf. Each of the older colonies had a seal that was stamped on legal papers and the like. These seals were afterward used for the coats of arms of the colonies, and they are now used on the flags 'of some of the States.* Some of the colonies had mottoes, and one of these mottoes must be mentioned, because it was often used on flags during the early part of the Revolutionary War. It was adopted by many regiments of New England troops. This is the motto of Connecticut. The seal was a number of grapevines ; and the Latin motto, Qui transtulit sustinet, means that He ■who brought us (the colonists) over (the ocean) will sustain us. An early motto of Massachusetts (not its present one) was An appeal to Heaven. The mottoes of most of the States are younger than these two, and were adopted when they were admitted into the Union. * The seals of the States may be found in Zieber's Her- aldry in America, which is in most large public libraries, and in other books. FLAGS OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 19 FLAGS OF THE AMERICAN COLONIES, 1766-1776. The flags of England and of her North American colonies have been described in what goes before. The main points to re- member are that the nag of England was the red St. George's cross on a white held ; that the king's colors were the symbol of the king's power, and the mark of the union of England with Scotland ; and that the united New England colonies had a flag of their own. This last flag was not authorized, nor was it everywhere used ; but the people had become accustomed to the idea that New England was in some ways independent of the mother country, and had some right to her own flag. In the southern colonies the flags of England were generally used. The years from 1766 till the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, and to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, were troublous times in the colonies. Everywhere the Americans found fault with their Brit- ish governors, with the laws, and with the taxes laid upon their commerce. It seemed to them that they should have all the rights 20 THE AMERICAN FLAG. of Englishmen. And one of those rights was not to be taxed unless they had repre- sentatives in Parliament to speak for them and to vote upon the matter of taxes. Many of the laws made in England for the government of the colonies were perfectly just, but a number of them were unreasonable. The royal governors enforced, or tried to enforce, all the laws, just and unjust alike. And the colonists, who began by protesting against the unjust laws, finally came to throwing off their obedience to all laws that they had not themselves made. As early as 1773 it was publicly asked "whether the only asylum for our liberties is not an American common- wealth ? " Your school history will have made you familiar with these disputes. England laid taxes by the " stamp act " of 1765, and this raised such a storm of pro- tests that it was soon repealed. Liberty poles, with flags on them, were set up in pro- test by the colonists everywhere. The motto on one New Hampshire flag was Liberty, prop- erty, and no stamps. A New York flag bore the'word Liberty. In South Carolina, in 1765, the stamped paper was captured and de- stroyed by the colonists, who hoisted a flag FLAGS OP THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 21 of their own — a blue flag, with three silver crescent moons. Boston selected a "liberty tree," under which the " sons of liberty " held meetings in 1765. A flag at Taunton bore the words Liberty and union • one displayed (1775) in South Carolina the words Liberty or death. "Liberty " became a watchword throughout all the colonies. People traveling through New England carried passports from the "sons of liberty" in their own towns to show that they were good Americans. The aspirations and the hopes of the Americans were then expressed by this one word — lihert)j. They demanded liberty from England. They were convinced that- they had a just cause, and that Heaven would help them. A favorite motto on their flags at the beginning of the war of the Revolu- tion was An appeal to Heaven. The first Connecticut State troops that fought in the Revolution carried a flag with the State arms and motto Qui transtulit mstinet* No one knows what flags were carried by " the embattled farmers " who fired " the * He who brought us over (the ocean) will sustain us (still), is the meaning of this motto, as has already been said. 22 THE AMERICAN FLAG. shot heard round the world," at Concord,* or at Bunker Hill, though it is said that a pine-tree flag was used at the battle of Bun- ker Hill. General Putnam took command of his troops in Cambridge on July 18, 1775, and unfurled a scarlet flag bearing two mottoes, one the motto of Connecticut, Qui transtuUt sustinet, the other the favorite phrase, An appeal to Heaven. In 1776 Massachusetts formally adopted a white flag bearing this last motto, and a green pine tree, as the flag of her naval ships. The rattlesnake, as a national emblem, was borne on several flags, sometimes with the motto Don't tread on me. An emblem of this sort is full of a certain kind of defi- ant spirit, and it expressed a part of the feel- ing of the colonists. But it entirely failed to express their conviction that they were striv- ing for liberty ; that their appeal to Heaven would be heard ; that all the colonies were * This is the first stanza of Emerson's Concord Hymn: By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard 'round the world. FLAGS OP THE AMERICAN COLONIES. 23 united in a just cause ; and, therefore, rattle- snake flags were soon abandoned. In 1775 and 1776 flags were used bearing stripes — red and blue, or red and white, or white and yellow, or yellow and green. These were usually thirteen in number, to stand for the thirteen colonies in rebellion. The idea of expressing the union of the different colonies by stripes in a flag became familiar to every one very early in the history of the Revolutionary War. The army under General Washington that besieged the British troops in Boston (July, 1775) was composed of troops from several States, and each company of soldiery had its own flag's. Sometimes these were the special standards of the company. Some- times the State arms were displayed. The Continental Congress was in session in Phila- delphia, and it represented " the United Colo- nies of North America." The troops from the various States were no longer to be State troops, but the army of the colonies ; and it was necessary to provide them with a flag that should belong to the u united " colonies, and not to any separate States. The Continental Congress began to fit u THE AMERICAN FLAG. out a navy in October, 1775, and a flag was also needed for its vessels te fly on the hio-h seas. An armed vessel without an authorized flag is everywhere considered to be a pirate. It was clearly necessary to Fig. 8. — The flag of the United Colonies of America, first dis- played in General Washington's camp, January 2, 1776. adopt a flag for the navy and for the Conti- nental army as well, and the Congress ap- pointed a committee, with Dr. Benjamin Franklin at its head, to go to Cambridge, to consult with General Washington, and to recommend such a flag. The new flag was first displayed at the camp before Boston in January, 1776, and it THE FLAG OP THE UNITED COLONIES. 25 represented the exact situation of affairs. If we understand just how men felt at this time, we shall see that the flag adopted ex- pressed the general feeling precisely. If one of us now thinks of that camp before Boston, commanded by General Wash- ington, whose soldiers were besieging the British regulars, a hundred years ago, it seems for a moment that the strife was be- tween Americans and foreigners. Here was an army of foreigners holding Boston, and an army of Americans besieging them, and the motto of the Americans was Liberty. And by liberty we now understand complete independence from British rule. But this was not the idea of the colonists. Liberty to them meant freedom from op- pressive English laws. They were fighting for the freedom that other Englishmen en- joyed. They called themselves Englishmen — Enodishinen livins* in America. No one thought of the British troops as foreigners.* We were rebellious English colonists, united* together to resist unjust taxation, not Ameri- cans banded against a foreign foe. It was * Not until Hessian and other German troops were hired by England to fight in America. 4 26 THE AMERICAN FLAG. not until the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) that the colonists entirely threw off their allegiance to England. The flag displayed over Washington's camp at Cambridge in January of that year exactly expressed the general situation. The thirteen stripes symbolized the thirteen colo- nies — New Hampshire, Delaware, Massachusetts, Mary 1 and, Rhode Island, Virginia, Connecticut, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, New Jersey, Georgia. Pennsylvania, The " union " in the canton was the king's colors. The colonies acknowledged their allegiance to England and t<> the king, only they wanted justice ; they wanted their rights as Englishmen ; and they were united in a determination to secure these rights, and to fight for them if fighting was necessary. General Washington says of this flag : " We hoisted the Union flag in compliment to the united colonies, and saluted it with thir- teen guns." THE FLAG OF THE UNITED COLONIES. 07 The same flag, probably, was hoisted on the naval .ship of John Paul Jones at about the same time. It is said that this very same flag was one of the signal fla^s of the British navy before the days of the lie volu- tion, and that it was the sign for the "red" division of a fleet to give battle. However this may be, it is not at all likely that such an English signal flag had ever been dis- played in American waters; and it is prac- tically certain that the English signal had nothing whatever to do in suggesting the flag hoisted over General Washington's army in 1776. CHAPTER II. THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1777-1898. On the 2d of July, 1776, the American Congress resolved u that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and inde- pendent States ; and that all political connec- tion between us and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." On the 4th of July a declaration of independence was adopted by the Congress, and sent out under its authority, to announce to all other nations that the United States of America claimed a place among them. On this 4th of July the nation was born. Its flag, the visible symbol of its power, was not adopted till 1777. On the 14th of June, 1777, Congress re- solved " that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white ; that the union be thirteen stars, 28 THE UNITED STATES FLAG OF 1777-1795. 29 white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." The national flag — our national flag- grew in the most direct way out of the ban- ners that had waved over the colonists. The Fig. 9.— The flag of the United States of America. 1777-1795. flag; of the United Colonics had thirteen stripes, one for each colony, and the stripes were alternate red and white. This part of the old flag remained unchanged in the new one. Each colony retained its stripe. The flag of the colonies, in its union, had displa} r ed the king's colors. There was now no longer a king in America, but a new Union 30 THE AMERICAN FLAG. had arisen — a Union of thirteen States — no longer a Union of kingdoms. The union of the old flag; had been the crosses of St. George and, St. Andrew conjoined on a blue held. The new union was a circle of silver stars in a blue sky — "a new constellation." The flag of the United States was de- rived from the Hag of the United Colonies in the simplest and most natural manner. The old flag had expressed the hopes and' as- pirations of thirteen colonies which had united in order to secure justice from their king and fellow-countrymen in England. The new flag expressed the determined resolve of the same thirteen colonies — now become sover- eign States — to form a permanent Union, and to take their place among the nations of the world. They were no longer Englishmen : they were Americans. Many suggestions have been made to ac- count for the appearance of stars or of stripes in the new flag. It seems unnecessary to seek for any explanation other than the one that has just been given. The old flag of the United Colonies expressed the feelings and aspirations of the revolted English colo- nists. They were willing to remain as sub- THE UNITED STATES FLAG OP 1777-1795. 31 jects of the English king, but they had united to secure justice. The new flag expressed their firm resolve to throw off the yoke of England, and to become a new nation. The symbols of each flag exactly expressed the feelins: of the men who bore it. There is a resemblance between the colors and symbols of the new flag and the sym- bols borne on the coat of arms of General Washington that is worthy of remark. Gen- eral Washington was a descendant of an Eng- lish family, and his ancestors bore a coat of arms that he himself used as a seal, and for a bookplate. It has been supposed that the stars of the American flag were suggested by the three stars of this coat of arms, and this is not im- possible. General Washington was in Phila- delphia in June, 1777, and he is said to have eugaged Mrs. John Ross, at that time, to make the first flag, though this is not abso- lutely certain. However this may be, it is known that the American flag of thirteen stars and of thirteen stripes was displayed at the siege of Fort Stanwix in August, 1777 ; at the battle of Brandy wine on September 11th; at Ger- 32 THE AMERICAN FLAG. mantown on the 4th of October ; at the sur- render of the British under General Burgoyne on October 17th. The flag had been adopted Fig 10. — The coat of arms (bookplate) of General George Washington. The field of the shield is white {argent), the two bars are red {gules), as well as the three stars. in June of the same year. The vessels of the American navy flew this flag on the high seas, and their victories made it respected everywhere. THE UNITED STATES FLAG OF 1777-1795. 33 It is curious to note that so late as 1784 the American flag was not always repre- sented correctly in drawings made by for- eigners. In a German publication of that year * the union is made to cover the upper six stripes only (instead of seven), though the drawing is otherwise accurate. Let the American child who is reading this chajiter stop here and try to draw the flag of his country without looking at any of the illus- trations. Every one should be able to do this. The treaty of peace between England and the United States was signed (at Paris, France) on September 3, IT 8 3. This was the acknowledgment by Great Britain of the independence of her former colonies ; and the other nations of Europe stood by consenting. Our flag w r as admitted, at that time, on equal temis with the standards of ancient kingdoms and states, to the company of the banners of the world. In 1791 Vermont was admitted to the Union, and in 1792 Kentucky became a State. No change was made in the national * Sprengel's Allgemeines Taschenbuch fur 1784 in the Lenox Library of New York city. 34 THE AMERICAN FLAG. flac till 1794, when Congress ordered "that from and after the first day of May, 1795, the flao* of the United States be fifteen Pig. 11.— The flag of the United States from 1795 to 1818. The War of 1812 was fought under this flag. stripes, alternate red and white ; and that the union be fifteen stars, white in a blue field." Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796, Ohio in 1802, Louisiana in 1812, In- diana in 1816, Mississippi in 1817, and Illi- nois in 1818, making twenty States in all. It was plain that the vast territory of the United States would be carved up into other THE UNITED STATES FLAG SINCE 1818. 35 States from time to time. Accordingly, in April, 1818, the Congress passed "An Act to establish the Flag of the United States. " Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., That from and after the fourth day of July next, the flair of the United States be thirteen horizon- tal stripes, alternate red and white ; that the Union have twenty stars, white in a blue field. "Section 2. And be it further enacted, That on the admission of every new State into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag; and that such addition shall take eifect on the fourth of July next succeeding such admission. Approved, April 4, 1818." No changes (other than the addition of new stars) have been made in the national flag since 1818. The stars have been added, one by one, until in 1898 there are forty-five in all. Every State has its star ; each of the original thirteen States has its stripe. The territories are not represented in the flag. Plate I, the frontispiece, represents the na- tional flag on July 4, 1895. Utah has since 36 THE AMERICAN FLAG. been admitted, and another star was added on July 4, 1896. ,, lf -— ™ aiiiiiiffliiiiiiiiiiiiiii !.1|!|» Fig. 12.— The flag of the United States in 1898. It has forty- five stars. More will be added in the future. So long as the United States exists the flag will remain in its present form, except that new stars will be displayed as the new States come in. It will forever exhibit the origin of the nation from the thirteen colonies, and its growth into a Union o^ sovereign States. The Held of the flag is already somewhat crowded with its constellation of forty-five stars, and it is not too soon to inquire what is to be done if ten more States are admit- ted into the Union. Fifty-five stars arranged in rows would confuse the field, and take away the distinctness, and some of the dig- THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES. 3? nity, of the flag. A very simple solution would be to group the stars into one large star. At a distance only one star would show. Near by it would be seen that this one star was made up of many small ones. The only possible objection to this plan is that our Has; would then somewhat resemble the ensign of Liberia (which has one star and eleven stripes — see Plate IX) ; but it appears that this objection is not of much weight. The frontispiece gives a true representa- tion of the flag both as to colors and as to proportions. Flags are made of wool " bunt- ing." The stars are white, sewed to the blue canton on both sides. The " heading " (that part of the flag nearest the staff) is of strong canvas, with two holes, brass-rimmed (" grom- mets "), for the " halyards " (ropes). The garrison-flag, 36 by 20 feet, is the official flag at all army posts. The joost-flag is 20 by 10 feet, and the storm-flag is 8 feet by 4 feet 2 inches.* * The usual price of a flag 4 feet long is about $1.75; for one 6 feet long about $4.50 ; for one 12 feet long about $10; for one 20 feet long about $25; for one 40 feet long about $80. 38 THE AMERICAN FLAG. Ill the opinion of most persons the flag of the United States is used too freely, and with too little respect — for advertising purposes, as a trade-mark, etc. A movement is on foot to regulate its use in such ways, and several of the States are considering laws to restrain its improper display. Such laws should be very carefully drawn so as not to impose re- strictions that are merely vexatious. The more the flag is displayed the better, pro- vided that it is always done in a respectful manner. The flag of the United States was estab- lished on June 14, 1777. One of the patri- otic hereditary societies of Pennsylvania (the Colonial Dames of America) has made the excellent suggestion that the 14th day of June in every year should hereafter be known as " Flag Day," and that it should be commemorated by the display of the Ameri- can flag from every home in "the land. Flag Day was first observed in 1893. It is too soon to say whether this is to become one of the nation's gala days, but there seems to be every reason why it should be celebrated. There are special flags for some of the departments at Washington, and for some of SPECIAL FLAGS OF THE UNITED STATES. 39 the higher officers of the government. For instance, the revenue marine is a branch of the Treasury Department. Its officers are charged with the duty of boarding vessels as they enter our harbors and with the en- forcement of the laws of the United States relating to customs duties, etc. The reve- nue marine has a distinguishing flag for its vessels. The national ensign is also dis- played. The distinguishing flag of the revenue marine is shown in Plate II. The yachts belonging to American citizens have a special flag that gives them certain privileges. The ensign of American yachts at home or abroad is also shown in Plate II. The national en- sign, the distinguishing flag of the revenue marine and the yacht flag, may be seen in almost every American port, and they are mentioned here for this reason. Flags are extensively used in the navy and in the army for signals, and some account of signal flags is given in the second part of this book. (See Plate IV.) Every naval ship has a " code booh," by means of which she can convey messages to other ships (if they have the same book). All merchant 40 THE AMERICAN FLAGL ships use a mercantile code for a like pur- pose. The ships of our navy fly the national ensign, and also the " jack," which is nothing but the union of the flag — a blue field with white stars. It is shown in Plate II. They also fly a personal flag for the commander; lie may be the u senior officer present,"' or a commodore, or a rear admiral, etc. If the Secretary of the Navy, or the President of the United States is on board their personal flags are displayed. The President's flag is also shown in Plate II. The flags of a ship tell all the other ships of a squadron, or of foreign navies, something about her mission, her commander, her pas- sengers, etc. She has a signal alphabet of flags for use in peace or war. The flags are used by day, and signal lights (blue, white, green, red) by night. The army, too, has distinguishing flags for its regiments of engineers, artillery, in- fantry, and cavalry. Each regiment has its own "regimental color' 1 (a blue silk flag for the infantry, a red for the artillery, a yellow for the cavalry, with the American eagle and coat of arms), and also carries a special Naval Convoy. Senior Officer present. Light-house Service. Secretary of the Navy. Rear Admiral. Union Jack. President of the United States. Fig. 13.— Some official flags of the United States. 5 41 42 THE AMERICAN FLAG. national flag about six feet square. On the stripes are written the names of the battles in which the regiment has taken part. One of the older regiments displays a proud history in this way. Its flag may bear the names of New Orleans (1815), Buena Vista (1847), and a host of hard- fought battles of the civil war, as well as Santiago or Manila (1898). Regiments are united into brigades (of three or more regi- ments), brigades into divisions (of three or more brigades), divisions into army corps (of three or more divisions), and each of these bodies has its distinguishing flag. The militia regiments of the various State troops carry the national colors, and they usually carry the flag of their State also. In both army and navy the greatest re- spect is paid to the flag. The interior loy- alty that every American should feel is ex- pressed by outward signs of respect. In an army camp the colors are brought to the "color line" (a line of stacked rifles in the front of the camp) at guard i noun ting in the morning, and they are laid on the line of guns. Whoever crosses that line during the HONORS PAJI> TO THE FLAG. 4g day must salute the colors by touching his cap. At evening parade the colors are brought, under the escort of the "color guard," to their place in the line of battle. The regi- ment salutes them, the band plays The Star- spangled Banner, and all visitors to the camp are expected to rise and remain standing while the band is playing the national an- them. At all military posts, forts, etc., the flag is hoisted at reveille, and remains flying till sunset. On board of an American ship of war there is a similar etiquette. The flag is hoisted at eiidit o'clock in the morning with ceremony, and remains flying till sunset. Every one who comes on the quarter deck salutes by touching his cap. It is really a salute to the colors. Merchant vessels salute each other by lowering their flags and then quickly hoisting them again — by " dipping the flag," as it is called. A man-of-war should never lower her flag except to sur- render, or as a courtesy to another vessel that has first given a like salute. A ship in distress hoists its flag with the union down. A flag at half mast is a sign of 44 THE AMERICAN FLAG. mourning.* A white flag is everywhere rec- ognized as a signal of peace. A yellow flag (a hospital flag) is a sign that wounded men, or the sick, are sheltered by it. A white flag; bearing a red cross is the standard of the Geneva Red Cross Association for the relief of the wounded. A black flag is the flag of pirates, and has often been flown by the buccaneers of the Spanish Main, either with or without the skull and cross bones. The red flag has of late years come to be considered the flag of Socialists or of anarch- ists. The second part of this book gives more particulars about these matters. THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES. The design for the flag of the United States was adopted in 1777. On the 4th of July, 1776, a Committee of Congress was appointed " to prepare a device for a seal of the United States of North f America." * The flag should be hoisted at half mast on Decoration Day (May 30th) and kept there until noon, when it should be run to the top of the staff and oidy lowered at sunset. f It is to be noted that this word is not a part of the official name of the country, which is the United States of America. If the whole of South America were to join the Union, no change in the name of the country would be necessary. From THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES. 45 The seal was not adopted till 1782, how- ever. The reader should look carefully at the illustration. The coins of the United States bear these devices in whole or in part.* The coat of arms of the United States is that por- tion of the illus- tration inside the border. The shield is argent (white) six pallets gules (red) with an azure " chief." It is borne on the breast of an American eagle, holding in his dexter talon an olive branch with thirteen leaves and fruits (in sign of peace), and in his sin- ister a sheaf of as many arrows (in menace of war). The eagle, the olive, and the arrows are blazoned in their proper colors. the beginning our people have called themselves "Ameri- cans," not "North Americans"; and we always speak of our coyntry as " America." * They are best seen on the reverse side of the twenty-dol- lar gold piece. Of late years the motto " In God we Trust " has been added to our coins. It is no part of the coat of arms. Fig. 14. — The great seal of the United States of America, adopted in 1782. 46 THE AMERICAN FLAG. Above the eagle's head is an azure sky with silver stars arranged in groups of one, four, three, four, one stars. They are sur- rounded by a golden halo, and encircled with clouds. In the beak of the eagle is a golden scroll bearing the motto E pluribus Unum (" out of many, one " — that is, one Union has been formed out of many States). There are several points to be noticed in comparing the arms (seal ) with the flag. The outer edges of the shield of the coat of arms are argent (white) ; the outer stripes of the flag are gules (red). The "chief" of the arms, like the " canton " of the flag, is blue; but it does not bear any stars. Thirteen stars are displayed above the head of the eagle in the seal, while the flag bears forty-five stars at present, and will bear other' stars in the future. The flao: will be changed from time to time. The seal will remain in the future as it was in 1782. The golden halo round the stars of the seal and the clouds encircling the halo do not appear in the flag, nor does the olive branch, the sheaf of arrows, or the motto. The eagle appears in the flag of the revenue- NATIONAL SONGS OF AMERICA. 47 marine service, but not in the national colors. These small differences are worthy of re- mark, because every American child should be entirely familiar with the emblems of his own country.* NATIONAL SONGS OF AMERICA. Properly speaking, America has no na- tional song. The two poems that follow, The Star-spangled Banner and The Amer- ican Flag, are the best known among many verses of the kind. The first of them — The Star-spangled Banner — comes nearer to being a really national song than any other. It is regularly played by the bands on our war vessels, and at military posts at evening parade, and is recognized by foreign countries as the nation's anthem. The country is yet waiting for a thor- oughly representative poem that shall ex- press the whole of the nation's aspirations, and that shall be set to original and stir- ring music. Until we have such verses * Both the seal and the flag of the United States are coin- posed according to the strictest laws of heraldry : a set of rules that governs such matters. Its rules date from the Crusades. The seals of some of the States do not follow any rules at all, and are sadly in need of change. 48 THE AMERICAN FLAG. from an American poet, and such original music from one of our own composers, the Star-spangled Banner will probably stand for our national song. Its chief lack as a poem is that it describes a single incident only. Its tune was borrowed from a piece of music for the flute (Ana- creon in Heaven) and is quite difficult to sing. Not one American in a thousand knows the words of the poem, and the air is not accurately known by most persons. The words of a truly national hymn should be in the memory of every one, and its air should be stirring and easily remembered and sung. Yankee Doodle — with trivial words and music borrowed from an English tune of the time of Charles II — was a favorite during the War of the American Revolution. The Star- spangled Banner owes its origin to an inci- dent of the War of 1812. The war of the rebellion (1861-65) produced hundreds of war songs, some of them of real excellence. No truly national song could arise, of course, out of a civil war, which divided the people among themselves, and set brother at strife with brother. NATIONAL SONGS OF AMERICA. 49 We are still waiting for a national song that shall be dignified, serious, expressive of the aspirations and of the ideals of the whole people. It must not be boastful ; it must not be sanguinary ; it must not breathe ven- geance. We are a serious-minded and a re- ligious people, devoted to ideals of justice, of equal law, of absolute fair dealing, of charity to our fellow men. Our national anthem, when it is written, must express the nation's trust in God ; its devout confidence in a just cause ; its devo- tion to right ; its determination to die rather than to submit to injustice or to wrong. Any trivial boastfulness, any childish delight in the pomp and circumstance of war, any pleasure in vengeance, is unworthy and un- dignified. The national song of America should breathe the spirit of a Washington and of a Lincoln, not that of a Caesar or of a Napoleon. Of late years, some enthusiasts have taken to calling the flag of our country by the name of " Old Glory." There is no question that those who use this name intend to ex- press their affection for the national symbol, and in so far no objection can be made to 50 THE AMERICAN FLAG. the epithet. But there is also no doubt that the excessive familiarity and lack of respect in the phrase offends, to some de- gree, against good taste. It expresses a part, but only a part, of the true feeling of the nation. There is certainly a shade of boastfulness in the " Glory " ; and there is too much triviality and familiarity in the " Old." There is a total lack of dignity in the combination. A flag represents an ideal that is, in its degree, sacred, somewhat as the symbol of the cross is sacred. Respect, reverence, devotion, are called for, such as serious men can give ; not the trivial endearments of boon companions or of thoughtless children. President Lincoln was a true martyr and hero ; he became the idol of his countrymen. No doubt some of those who really venerated his virtues and hisrh-mindedness expressed their belief in his wisdom and patriotism by some such phrase as, "Old Lincoln — Old Abe — will rule the country right." There is nothing but praise to give to the spirit that prompted homely words of the sort. Even the form of it might be pardoned so long as the great President was still with us. After NATIONAL SONGS OF AMERICA. 51 he was laid in Lis martyr's grave who can doubt that a phrase in this form would urate —solely on account of its form — most harshly on the ear ? A trivial phrase of homely aud affectionate familiarity is no longer ade- quate. Language at once more respectful, more serious, more dignilied, more formal, is demanded. In the same way our flag, which is, we hope, not for a day but for all time, must not be spokeu of as if it were a boon com- panion, but rather a sacred symbol of great ideals. As we demand for our American ideals the respect that they deserve, so we should exact the forms of respect for the flag that represents them. The nag is not the familiar possession of any man or of any company of men. It is the symbol of the whole nation and it represents its long his- tory in the past and the totality of its aspira- tions for the future. It should receive from each one of us every kind of respect ; the re- spect of dignified and measured phrase as well as the interior reverence which can only find its fit expression in this way. 52 THE AMERICAN FLAG. THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. By Fkancis Scott Key.* Oh ! say, can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming ? And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our Hag was still there. Oh ! say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ? * Francis Seott Key, the poet, was born in Maryland in 1779, and died in 18455. During the war of 1812-15 between the United States and Great Britain the English fleet bom- barded Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, on September 13, 1814. During the whole of that day and night he witnessed the Brit- ish bombardment of the fort: and on the following morning he and his American friends saw with delight that the fort was still ours; and thai the American flag, torn with shot and shell, was still waving in its place. The story is told in the poem. The flag that flew at Fort McHenry still exists, and was exhibited at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 187G full of rents made by the enemy's cannonade. A statue to Francis Scott Key stands in Golden date Park in San Francisco, NATIONAL SONGS OF AMERICA. 53 II. On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, AVhere the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes ; What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream — 'Tis the star-spangled banner ; oh ! long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. in. And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion, A home and a country should leave us no more ? Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. IV. Oh ! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between .their loved homes and the war's desola- tion; Blest with victory and peace, may the Heav'n-res- cued land Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation. 54 THE AMERICAN FLAG. Then conquer we must when our cause it is just, And this be our motto, " In God is our Trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. THE AMERICAN FLAG. By Joseph Rodman Drake.* I. When Freedom from her mountain height, Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night, And set the stars of glory there. She mingled with its gorgeous dyes The milky baldric f of the skies. And striped its pure, celestial white With streakings of the morning's light; Then from her mansion in the sun She called her eagle-hearer down, And gave into Ins mighty hand The symbol of her chosen land. ii. Majestic monarch of the cloud ! Who rear'st aloft thy eagle form To hear the tempest trumpings loud And see the lightning lances driven, * Joseph Rodman Drake, the poet, was born in New York in IT!)."), ami died in 1820. The poem was written in 1819. + Baldric = a shoulder belt for a sword. NATIONAL SONGS OP AMERICA. 55 When str'de the warriors of the storm, And rolls the thunder-drum of Heaven ! Child of the Sun ! * to thee 'tis given To guard the banner of the free ! To hover in the sulphur smoke, To ward away the battle stroke, And bid its Mendings shine afar, Like rainbows on the cloud of war, The harbingers f of victory. ill. Flag of the brave ! thy folds shall fly The sign of hope and triumph high ; "When speaks the trumpet's signal tone, And the long line J comes gleaming on, Ere yet the life-blood, warm and wet, Has dimmed the glistening bayonet, Each soldier's eye shall brightly turn To where thy sky-born glories burn ; And, as his springy steps advance, Catch war and vengeance from the glance ; And when the cannon-mouthings loud Heave in wild wreaths the battle shroud, And gory sabers rise and fall, Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall — Then shall thy meteor glances glow, And cowering foes shall sink beneath Each gallant arm that strikes below That lovely messenger of death ! * Child of the Sun = the eagle, that can gaze upon the sun without averting its eyes. f Harbingers = forerunners ; heralds. \ The long advancing line of soldiers. 56 THE AMERICAN FLAG. IV. Flag of the seas ! on Ocean's wave Thy stars shall glitter o'er the brave ; When death, careering on the gale, Sweeps darkly round the bellied sail, And frighted waves rush wildly back, Before the broadside's reeling rack,* Each dying wanderer of the sea Shall look at once to Heaven and thee, And smile to see thy splendors lly In triumph o'er his closing eye. V. Flag of the free heart's hope and home ! By angel's hands to valor given ; Thy stars have lit the welkin f dome, And all thy hues were born in Heaven. Forever float that standard sheet ! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us. THE MEANING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. Many eloquent speeches have been made that recite what the fla«: should stand for to a citizen of America. Anions: them two are here selected : * The waves rush back affrighted before the smoke of the cannon of the broadside guns. f The welkin = the hollow vault of the sky. THE MEANING OP THE AMERICAN FLAG. 57 "As at the early dawn the stars shine forth even while it grows light, and then, as the sun advances, that light breaks into banks and streaming lines of- color, the glow- ing red and intense white striving together and ribbing the horizon with bars effulgent ; so, on the American flag, stars and beams of many colored light shine out together. . . . "It is the banner of dawn. It means Liberty ; and the galley slave, the poor op- pressed conscript, the down-trodden creature of foreign despotism, sees in the American flag that very promise and production of God: 'The people which sat in darkness, saw a great light ; and to thern which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up.' "In 1777, within a few days of one year after the Declaration of Independence, the congress of the colonies in the confederated states assembled and ordained this glorious national flag which we now hold and defend, and advanced it full high before God and all men as the flag of liberty. It was no holi- day flag gorgeously emblazoned for gayety or vanity. It was a solemn national symbol. . . • " Our flag carries American ideas, Aineri- 58 THE AMERICAN FLAG. can history, and American feelings. Begin- ning with the colonies, and coming down to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glori- ous insignia, it has gathered and stored chiefly this supreme idea: Divine rigid of liberty in man. Every color means liberty ; every thread means liberty ; every form of star and beam or stripe of light means lib- erty ; not lawlessness, not license ; but or- ganized, institutional liberty — liberty through law, and laws for liberty ! " It is not a painted rag. It is a whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the Government. It is the free people that stand in the government on the Constitution." — From the address of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher to members of the Fourteenth Regi- ment of New York State Troops in 1861. " There is the national flag ! He must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds rip- pling in the breeze without pride of country. If he be in a foreign land, the flag is com- panionship, and the country itself, with all its endearments. Who, as he sees it can think of a State merely ? Whose eye, once fas- tened upon its radiant trophies can fail to THE MEANING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 59 recognize the image of the whole nation ? . . . Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it represents all that all gaze upon it with delight and reverence. . . . "Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen States to maintain the Declaration cf Independence. Its stars, white ou a field of blue, proclaim that union of States constituting our national constellation which receives a new star with every new State. The two together signify union, past and present. The very colors have a language. . . . White is for purity ; red for valor ; blue for justice ; and all to- gether — bunting, stripes, stars and colors, blazing in the sky — make the flag of our country, to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands."— Charles Sum- ner, Senator from Massachusetts. The speeches of Sumner and of Beechcr show the meanings that eloquent and patriotic civilians find in the flas;. Soldiers show their devotion to it in more direct and immediate ways. Out of a thousand incidents that might be quoted from the history of the wars of the United States, one is here set down. It exhibits the passionate devotion of loyal (}0 THE AMERICAN FLAG. soldiers to the standard under which they serve, which is to them the symbol of the cause and the country that they give their lives to defend. In the year 1863 the Sixteenth Eegiment of Connecticut volunteers, after three days' hard fighting, was forced to surrender with the rest of the command. Just before the enemy swarmed over the breastworks that they had defended for so long, the colonel of the regiment shouted to his men to save the colors — not to let the flag fall into the hands of the enemy. In an instant the battle flags were stripped from their poles and cut and torn into small fragments. Every piece was carefully hidden in the best way possible. The regiment, some five hundred strong^ was sent to a prison camp where most of the men remained until the close of the war. Each piece of the colors was sacredly pre- served. When a soldier died his piece was intrusted to a comrade. At the end of the war the weary prisoners returned to their homes, each bringing his bit of star or stripe with him. All these worn fragments were patched together and the regimental colors. THE MEANING OF THE AMERICAN FLAG. 61 nearly complete, are now preserved in the State House at Hartford. No devotion could be more simple, more resolute, more absolute, than this. And their love of the nag was not shown alone by their willingness to die for it on the field of action. They lived for it through long years of im- prisonment, and brought it back whole to the State that gave it into their hands to honor and defend. The adventurous sailors of the United States have displayed the flag in every part of the world where commerce called them, from the Arctic to the Indies. Our navy has made it respected in peace and in war. It has been planted in foreign coun- tries by armed force, in Tripoli (1805), in Mexico (1846), in Manila, Porto Rico, and Cuba (1898). The exploring expedition of Commodore Wilkes carried it through the Pacific Ocean and to the Antarctic regions (1839). The Arctic expeditions of Kane (1850-53), Hayes (1860), Hall (1871), De Long (1879), Greely (1881-'83), Peary (1891-98) have unfurled the flag among the icebergs of the extremest North. Stanley has carried it to the heart of 62 THE AMERICAN FLAG. Africa (1871 and later). It is respected everywhere, and everywhere it stands for American freedom, energy, vigor. THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. Every American child ought to read a little book written in 1863, during the war of the Kebellion, by the Rev. Edward Ever- ett Hale, called The Man without a Country. This masterpiece recites the story of a young officer of the army, Philip Nolan by name, who had joined in Aaron Burr's plot to over- throw the Government of the United States in 1805. When Nolan was tried by a mili- tary court he exclaimed, in a moment of pas- sion, that lie wished he might never hear the name of the United States again. The sentence of the court on Nolan, who was misguided and not willfully a traitor, was that his wish should be carried out, and that he should, in fact, never hear the name of his country spoken, nor know anything of her history so long as he should live. According to the story, Nolan spent a long life, always at sea on some one of the naval vessels of the country, always in com- THE MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. 63 pany with the officers of the fleet, always well treated and even loved by his compan- ions ; but never hearing the name of his country spoken, never allowed to see a book or a newspaper that told of her prosperity, never permitted to converse with any stranger who might tell him of her progress and of her glory. He lived a long life, always a man without a country, knowing nothing of home or friends. At last, when he came to die, the flag was brought to him, and one of his faithful com- panions told him the story of each star in the Union, star by star. The whole of her glori- ous history was unfolded amid the old man's tears. During all the long years of his life he had thought of this history, guessed it out bit by bit, and had loved his country as none but an exile can. His heart had been changed long before, but he had submitted to his just punishment with manly resignation. His whole life had been an expiation for the folly and mistake of his rash youth. This pitiful tale is not true. It is a mere piece of imagination. But it pictures the misery and suffering of a man who has will- fully separated himself from his comrades 64 THE AMERICAN FLAG. and who has cut himself off from ail the benefits and joys of association with his fel- low meu. It teaches, as no other writing can, the meaning of patriotism, and the significa- tion of a flag. PART II. THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. CHAPTER III. ANCIENT STANDARDS AND BANNERS EMBLEMS SYMBOLS TUE CROSS ANCIENT ELAGS. The very earliest standards were the symbols of the power of a king or of his military commanders. The god Hercules was the standard of Alexander the Great. A city, like Athens, had an emblem of its own. The owl of Athens stood for the power of the city. Such emblems were often of religious origin, and had a sacred signifi- cance. The Egyptians, for instance, bore sacred emblems on their military standards, and these emblems were devised by the priests. Sometimes they carried a tablet in- scribed with the king's name. The ancient Hebrews had standards for the various tribes. The Old Testament re- 65 66 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. cites (Numbers i, 52) that every man pitched his tent by his standard. Each of the twelve tribes of Israel had its own emblem : Judah, a lion ; Reuben, a man ; Dan, an eagle ; Ephraim, an ox ; etc. The Chaldeans used for an emblem a dove standing on a naked sword. Xenophon says that the Persians of his time (400 b. c.) bore an eagle, with wings displayed, on the end of a long lance. The disk of the sun was an an- cient Persian emblem also. When the rays of the morning sun struck the brazen standard in front of the general's tent it was the signal to march. The emblems of modern Persia are the lion and the sun. The Parthians employed the figure of a dragon as an emblem. The serpent was a common emblem among heathen tribes. In the early days of the Roman republic Fig. 15. — An eagle displayed. Single-headed eagles are found in the arms of the ancient Roman Empire, France, Prussia, etc. ; dou- ble-headed eagles in the arms of Russia and Aus- tria. (See Plates VI and VII.) ANCIENT STANDARDS AND BANNERS. 67 the troops went into battle bearing a wisp of hay bound to a pole. The standards of the different divisions of the army were various until after the time of Marius (died b. o. 86) when the legions received their eagles. The cohorts and centuries of troops had flags with the general's name embroidered upon them, and these flags were given to the brav- est and to the oldest sol- diers to cany, and they were sacredly guarded. Whoever lost his flag in battle was put to death. The flag was the Fig. 16.— Eagle of the Ro- man Legions. S. P. Q. R. stands for Senatus Populusque Quirites Romanus — i. e., the senate and the people of Rome, and the Qui- rites, who were those Sabines that became Roman citizens. symbol of the majesty of Rome and of the valor and loyalty of all the troops. The Roman soldiers swore their oaths of allegiance on the flags. The reverence and devotion with which the modern soldier regards his flag is a direct consequence of the feeling of the Roman legionary for his standard. 68 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. The idea of the Roman soldier has de- scended to us and become our inheritance, just as the ideas of duty and of law of the Roman citizen have been transmitted through centuries and adopted in our private and public conduct. You can read in your Caesar's Commenta- ries (Book IV, chapter xxix), how one morn- o \? Fig. 17.— Eagle of the Roman Legions. Fig. 18. — A Roman banner or standard. ing, early, Caesar found himself under the cliffs of Albion. The Britons of Kent were gathered on the beach to oppose his landing by force. Two hours after noon the preparations of the Romans were all made and the landing was attempted. The ships were so large that they could not come close to the shore, and the heavily ANCIENT STANDARDS AND BANNERS. G9 the the armed legionaries had to leap into sea and there to light the waves and enemy. " Our men," says Caesar, " with all these things against them were not so alert at fighting as was usual with them on dry ground." Then the eagle bearer of the tenth legion — Caesar's favorite legion — jumped into the sea, proclaiming that he, at least, would do his duty. Unless they wished to see their eagle fall into the hands of the enemy they must follow him. " Jump down," he said, "my fellow soldiers, un- less you wish to betray your eagle to the enemy. I, at any rate, will do my duty to the repub- lic and to our general." When he had said this with a loud voice, he threw himself out of the ship and advanced the eagle against the enemy. Seeing and hearing this, the men leaped forth from that ship and from Fig. 19.— The standard of the Gauls or of the Goths, who were legionaries of Rome — the cock was their emblem, and was used by France in modern times (1830). YO THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. others. There was some sharp fighting, but at length the Britons fled. In the first centuries of the Christian era the standard of the emperors of Rome was a purple banner hanging from a beam slung crosswise from a long lance. The banner of the early emperors bore the eagle. A color - guard of fifty men carried it before the Caesar when he took command of his army. It was his per- sonal standard, and represented his impe- rial power (see Fig. 18). Constantine the Great, before his con- version to Christianity in a. d. 312, bore a banner (called a lab' arum) with his likeness and those of his children emblazoned upon it. It was reported that on his conversion he received a new labarum as a miraculous gift from. Heaven. The point of the lance was replaced by the mono- Fig. 20.— Standards of the Roman Legions. The lowest picture shows the monogram, XP, of Christ. ANCIENT STANDARDS AND BANNERS. 71 gram of Christ XP (Ch, r) in Greek letters* (see the picture of the labarum of Constan- tine in Fig. 34) and after a time the cross replaced the portrait of the Emperor, and the symbol of Christianity glittered on the helmets of his soldiers and was engraved on their shields. This was the first Christian ban- ner in Europe. It represented a new idea. The tempo- ral and earthly power of the Em- peror was then openly acknowl- edged to be de- rived from the spiritual power of Christ. In all Catholic countries to this day the flags of an army are blessed by the priests, and flags captured from the enemy are usually hung in cathedrals. Religious banners came into general use in the early centuries : the blue hood of St. Martin, in the first part of the fifth cen- tury, and the orijlamme of St. Denis (a. d. * The first two letters of XPI2TO2 (Christos). 72 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. 630), in France ; the three banners of St. Peter, St. John of Beverley, St. Wilfred of Kipon, in England (a. d. 1264), and so forth. We shall hear more about these religious banners when we read the history of the flags of France and England. They came to have places of honor because the spiritual power of the Church was more and more felt to be behind the earthly power of the king. Christ's name on the labaruvn of the Roman Emperor Constantine was the earliest symbol that expressed this belief. The Greeks in the most an- Fm. 22.— Egyptian c i en t times carried a piece of standard. . „ armor at the point oi a spear be- fore their armies ; in later times they displayed standards and banners charged with the em- blems of their cities. The emblem of Athens was the owl or the olive. The Lacedemonians used the Greek letters alpha (A) or lambda (a) on their banner. The Thebans adopted the sphinx as an emblem, in memory of CEdipus.* * OEdipus was the King of Thebes who slew the sphinx, ac- cording to the legend. EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS. T3 The Corinthians employed the winged horse — Pegasus. Carthage bore a horse's head. Fig. 23. — Two Mexican standards (ancient). Such emblems as these have been used by nations and tribes from the most ancient times down to the present day. Trajan's column in Rome was erected in the early years of the second century a. d. The shields of the Dacian warriors that are sculptured upon it bear their personal emblems — the sun, the moon, and so forth. Our own Red Indian tribes have a totem — an emblem — for each clan, and each war- rior has his own badge, like a coat of arms. From the very earliest times the white horse was the emblem of the Saxons. It was used by King Alfred the Great (a. d. 900), and is 7 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. Fig. 24. — A dragon passant. Fig. 25. — A wivern. still the cognizance * of the royal house of Hanover. The kingdom of Wessex bore a golden dragon. The wiv- ern was the emblem of the Vandals ; the raven, that of the Danes (see Figs. 24 and 25). The oak is a symbol of strength, the trident of Neptune, and so forth. In the year 1013 the pope presented to the Em- peror Henry II a globe surmounted by a cross to symbolize the power of Christianity and of the cross over the world. The globe without the cross had been em- * The cognizance = the emblem = the heraldic mark by which a family or a person is known. Fig. 26.— The "mound." A symbol of imperial or royal power, and of the supreme power of the cross over the world. EMBLEMS AND SYMBOLS. 75 ployed as a symbol by the Emperor Augus- tus a thousand years earlier. There is no emblem more familiar and more sacred than the emblem of the cross. It is far older than Christianity, as we may see (see Fig. 27) ; but after it was once adopted by the Church as a sym- bol, it stood for Christianity as the crescent stood for the power of the Saracens. The Crusades were wars of the cross against the crescent, just as the wars in Eng- land (a. d. 1455- '71) between the houses of York (whose emblem was a white rose) and of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose) were the Wars of the Roses. Since the world began emblems and symbols like these have represented causes, hopes, aspira- tions ; and men have died under such ban- Fig. 27. — A Grecian banner. From a mural painting. 500 B. c. No- tice that the banner bears the symbol of the cross. 76 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. ners for the ideas shadowed forth in the symbols. Flags that represent national and social ideals are emblems almost as significant as the symbols of religion — the deepest feeling of men's hearts. It is well worth while to try to under- stand exactly how a symbol comes to repre- sent — to stand for — an idea. How, for exam- ple, the cross really represents Christianity to our thoughts, not merely to our eyes; or how a flag, which is nothing more than a bit of colored cloth to our touch and to our sight, really comes to stand for the idea of our whole country. Suppose that you try to think of our country, what sort of an idea do you have ? You can think of its vast expanse between the two oceans, between the Gulf and the Great Lakes ; of the various States and cities, one by one; of the millions of people that inhabit it ; of the desires, the hopes, the aspirations 'of each one out of all these millions ; or you can even have an idea of the desires and hopes and aspirations that each person of all the millions has in com- SYMBOLS— WHAT THEY EXPRESS. 7? mon with every other one of his fellow countrymen. It is possible to think each one of these thoughts separately, or even to think them together in a way. These ideas and a hun- dred more are all included in the notion of " our country." For instance, when we say " our country," we know, at the very instant, that it is a country devoted to freedom, obedient to law ; that it has a character of its own just as a person has a character. We think of its free- dom, or of its obedience to law, as part of our country's character, just as we feel that one of our friends is kind, and truthful, and courageous, and trustworthy. All such separate facts go to make up the character of our friend ; and the idea of our country contains a thousand separate facts of the same sort. Our country is like a person. And just as we feel that one of our friends has a certain character and would act in a certain way if he were tried in certain circumstances, so we feel that our country has a character; that it is more than a vast expanse of land, more than millions of separate people ; that it has desires, and virtues, and faults, and 78 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. hopes, and aspirations of its very own that make it what it really is. When we look at a photograph of our friend, or when we speak his name, we are vividly reminded of his character. And when we speak the name of our country — America — or when we see its flas: waving in the breeze, we seem to know the country as a whole. The word America and the flag, are symbols that imply its whole character. Back of the word that can be heard, or of the flag that can be touched, there is an idea which either of these symbols serves to call up in our minds. Whenever we see the flas; it stands for the whole country and for the whole of the country, just as the name America stands for every part of our national character — for its bravery, its honor, its kindness, its energy, its devotion to law, its obedience to order. The flag is a symbol of the whole country and represents its character. When we see this symbol we know our country just as we know our friend when we hear his name spoken. As years go on we know our friend better and better. We become more and more acquainted with his virtues, and we find SYMBOLS— WHAT THEY EXPRESS. 79 new excellences in hiin. He still Las the same name ; but this name comes to mean more and more to us as we understand him better. The form of the symbol (his name) remains the same, but it stands for more and for different things. It is the same with the name of a country, or with its flag. As we learn to understand better and better what the character of a country really is, the symbols that represent it take on new meanings. The symbols themselves usually remain unchanged in form ; but they stand for new things. Some symbols have a long history. The cross now stands for Christian- ity and represents the whole Christian history. But the symbol is far older than the Christian era. It has come to represent a new thing. It is very instructive to trace the history of any symbol of the sort. It helps us to un- derstand the impulses that move the minds of men. Let us take a few examples of sym- bols with long histories. Learned men have proved, by w T ays that are too complicated to be written out in this little book, that the two symbols in Figs. 28 and 29 mean much the same thing, and have much the same history. 80 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. If we should stop to write out the proofs that the learned men used, this chapter would be very long and rather T uninteresting. But if you will take their proofs for granted and only pay Fig. 28. Fig. 29. & . \ } J attention to the things that they have found out, you will not think what they say uninteresting at. all. On the contrary, you will begin to see what wonder- ful things symbols are, and how they have a kind of life of their own. These two sym- bols have lived for at least thirty centuries, and they are young still, and will live much longer yet. The symbol of a kind of cross with three points was used centuries ago to represent the motions of the sun in the heavens in its daily course from rising to setting. People looked on the sun as the source of all the life of plants and beasts and of men, as indeed it is in a way. They did not look farther than the sun for a God who created it ; they thought of the Sun himself as a god, and they represented his course in the heavens by this three legged cross. One of the arms of the cross represented THE SYMBOL OF THE CROSS. 81 the morning sun, one the sun at noon, and the other the sun in the afternoon. The three arms together pointed out the whole journey of the Sun in the heavens : the daily miracle of his rising, his culmination, his setting. This symbol was known in Eastern coun- tries for a very long time before the Chris- tian era begins. The first time that it ap- peared in the AVest was on the coins of Lycia,* about four hundred and eighty years before Christ. All the nations and cities about the Mediterranean Sea were trading with each other, and the symbols of one country or tribe were known' to other tribes or countries in the neighborhood. Coins, especially, would pass from hand to hand. Now, Sicily was a fertile country engaged in trade. Ceres, the patron goddess of agri- culture, was born in Sicily, and the ancient name of Sicily was the land of the three capes (Trinahria). Some Sicilian sailor, or merchant, or law- giver, saw one of these coins of Lycia, and it seemed to him that this curious device of a three-armed cross was precisely the symbol * Lycia was a province of Asia Minor bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. 82 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. for his own country of three capes ; there was an arm for each cape. So, as early as b. c. 317, the coins of Sicily bear the three- armed cross as a symbol. It was a symbol of the three capes, and no longer a reminder of the course of the Sun-God in the heavens. The Crusades brought many English and Scottish knights to Oriental countries and to Sicily, between the date of the first Cru- sade (a. d. 1095) and of the last (1270). It was just at the time of the Crusades that warriors be^an to assume coats of arms as marks of knightly bravery and distinction, and it is about this time that the three- armed cross first appeal's in the Fig. 30.-The , F r , . ■ three-armed coats oi arms oi English iaini- cross of the ij es . The Crusaders totally lost arms of the • 1 < <> , i i . * „ -, isle of Man. S1 © ht 0± tne real meaning of the symbol, and took the three arms of the cross to be three human Ws, as in the o 7 picture. They were the three legs of a man ; and in the year 1266 this symbol was intro- duced into the Isle of Man, near England, and to this day forms a part of the coat of arms of that province. Here is a symbol that has preserved its THE SYMBOL OP THE CROSS. 83 form for centuries, though its early meanings were soon lost. It was never a sacred sym- bol to the Crusaders or even to the Sicil- ians ; but its shape has been preserved, like that of a ily in amber, for centuries. So long as coats of arms continue to be used, it will remain an English heraldic device.* The three-armed cross is only a special form of the four-armed cross shown in the last picture. This was likewise a symbol of the sun in very early times, though it has now quite lost this meaning. The learned men tell us that this symbol was found in the Troad — on the plain of Troy — at least thirteen centuries before Christ — that is, thirty -two hundred years ago. It was known in Greece twelve centuries before Christ ; in India and in Sicily, three centuries before Christ ; in Britain, about the beginning of the Christian era ; in China, Persia, North Africa, Europe, about the same time ; in Tibet, a few hundred years later ; and it had penetrated to remote Iceland by the ninth century. It stood for a symbol of the sun in the * See the paragraph Korea in Chapter V for another ex- ample of a very ancient symbol still in use. 84 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. beginning ; for a symbol of the religion of Buddha, in India and Japan; and for a sym- bol of Christianity in European countries. Its form remained unchanged, but its mean- ing varied. Men used it ito symbolize their beliefs, as these slowly changed through many centuries, from heathenism to Chris- tianity. Whatever the belief of any century may have been, there was a symbol ready at hand to stand for it. To the heathen it was a symbol of the sun; to the Oriental, a symbol of Buddha; to the European, a symbol of Christ, who died on the cross. In every land it was rev- erenced. The Japanese Buddhist to-day sees in it a reminder of the founder of his religion, just as the Christian sees in it a reminder of Christ's sufferings. It is a sacred symbol to both ; it represents a world of ideas ; it em- bodies a belief. The flag of a country is a symbol of the same sort. A flag stands for the personality of a country, for its character, its virtues, its hopes, its aspirations. Men die for a flag to uphold the ideals that are embodied in their country, just as thousands of martyrs have died for the cross. DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE CROSS. 85 The picture that follows gives a few of the many forms of the cross since it became a Christian symbol. In the very first cen- turies after Christ the favorite symbol of the Christians was a fish, not the cross. The Greek name for a fish is IX©T% and the let- I"l"T*fX+ / 2 3 4 5 6 7 3 9 10 II 12 13 14- Fig. 31. — Some of the many forms of crosses: 1, Cross of Cal- vary; 2, Latin cYoss ; 3, Tau-eross (like the Greek letter tau); 4, Lorraine cross; 5, Patriarchal cross; G, St. An- drew's cross (the Scottish cross); 7, St. George's cross (the English cross) — it is also called the Greek cross: 8, Papal cross (its three arms symbolize the ecclesiastical, the civil, and the judicial jurisdictions (if the pope); 9, cross nowy- quadrant; 10, the cross of Malta; 11, cross fourche (that is, forked); 12, cross forme or cross patte; 13, cross po- tent (the cross in the ancient arms of Jerusalem) ; 14, cross flory. ters of this word make the initials of the Greek phrase " Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour." The fish was the favorite Christian symbol until the tenth century. 86 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. The cross was always one of the symbols of Christianity, but after that time it became the chief among all. After the sixth century the cross began to be drawn in the very shape of the cross of the crucifixion (Fig. 1 of the picture), and it thus became an image, something different from a symbol. A victorious nation often adopts, with a changed meaning, the symbols of the con- quered. Symbols travel from land to land, and they are fossil history. The Franks— the French — took the eau'le of the Romans. The Romans took the dragon from the barbarians, and in later times the Normans took the dragon symbol from the Romans themselves. The last chapters of this hook give brief his- tories of the flags of the sovereign states of the world — that is, of the symbols which nations have chosen to represent their nationality. The history of the flags of Denmark, England, France, Japan, Wtirtemberg, among others, will serve to illustrate by historical examples what has just been said about symbols. Every knight of the times of chivalry bore a flag of some sort. Those of the lower ranks carried a pennon (see B of Fig. 84) on the end of a lance. A knight banneret DIFFERENT FORMS OF FLAGS. 87 was of higher rank and carried a square ban- ner (see O of Fig. 34) which was sometimes hung from a lance, but often was attached to a trumpet. As Shakespeare says : " I will a banner from a trumpet take And use it for my haste." Standards were much larger flags and were only borne by kings, princes, command- ers in chief, or by the higher nobles. They were huge flags several yards long (see D of Fig. 34). The bandrol was a small banner, and the penoncel or pensil, a small narrow pennon. In Sir Walter Scott's poem of Marmion he describes (in canto iv) the camp of Scotland before the battle of Flod- den, with its wilderness of tents, each marked by the banner of some knight — " A thousand streamers flaunted fair : Various in shape, device and hue — Green, sanguine* purple, red and blue, Broad, narrow, swallow-tailed and square, Scroti, pennon, pensil, baudrot,\ there O'er the pavilions % flew. * The color of blood, f Ancient forms of flags, t Pavilions = large tents. 88 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. Highest and midmost was descried The royal banner, floating wide ; The staff, a pine tree strong and straight, Pitched deeply in a massive stone, Which still in memory is shoivn.* Yet beneath the standard' 's weight, Whenever the western wind unrolled, With toil, the huge and cumbrous fold, Ami gave to view the dazzling field, Where, in proud Scotland's royal shield, The ruddy lion ramped in gold.' n f The flag, the ensign, was in Shakespeare's time called " the ancient," and the same term designated the officer, the ensign, who bore the banner. " more ragged than an old-faced ancient (en- sign)." — Firs/ part of King Henry IV, ir, 2. Speaking of Iago, it is said : " This is Othello's ancient (ensign) as I take it." —Othello, v, 1. Our knowledge of the forms of antic pie flags and banners is derived chiefly from old paintings and illuminated manuscripts, and * Which is still to this day shown as a memorial. f A red lion, rampant, on a gold field is the arms of Scot- land (see the upper right-hand colored flag in Plate III). ANCIENT STANDARDS AND BANNERS. 89 from a very remarkable piece of needlework, "the Bayeux tapestry," that has been pre- served to tins day. It is said to have been worked by Matilda, Queen of William the Conqueror, and by the ladies of her court. Fig. 32. — Two figures from the Bayeux tapestry. Notice the form of the flag and the symbol that it bears. ' However this may be, it is certain that the tapestry is very old, and that it represents the history of England from the time of Kino; Harold's visit to the Norman court till his death at the battle of Hastings in 1066. The tapestry is nineteen inches wide and more than two hundred feet long, and con- tains something over ten thousand separate figures of ships, castles, warriors, flags, horses, 90 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. dogs, etc. The flags are mostly of the pen- non form, and they usually have three points to the tail. They are covered with the em- blems of the warriors, and it is from just such emblems that the heraldry of the Cru- sades took its symbols. The war ships of the Middle Ages bore emblems on their sails as in the accompanying illustration. Fig. 33. — Ancient war ships with banners on their sails. CHAPTEE IV. THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS ENGLAND- — SIGNALING BY FLAGS — -SALUTES FRANCE. The history of the flags of England and of France will be given with some fullness. England has an historic relation with Amer- ica, and her story is in some sense our own. The variations that have occurred in the banners of France during the past fourteen hundred years illustrate in the most complete way the manner in which the symbols of a nation may alter as their national ideals and institutions change. Even for these two en- signs only an outline history can be given; there is no room for more. Other national flags are referred to in Chapter V in short paragraphs that give the most interesting facts regarding them. The colored plates throughout the book illustrate what is said in the text, and they should be constantly consulted. 91 92 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. The reader must uot forget that each and every one of these flags has a long and event- ful history. A flag is, and always has been, a symbol of beliefs and aspirations. As these have changed the symbols have usually changed with them. Sometimes a changed belief is fitted to an ancient symbol, as Ave saw in Chapter III. If we have leisure to study any set of symbols whatever, we shall always find warm human life back of them. The history of any man or of any nation, with its beliefs, its actions, its passions, its joys, its sorrows, its successes and misfortunes, is always full of interest. The symbols of such a history are only uninteresting when we are ignorant of their meaning. Nothing can be less interesting than the flag of Bulgaria, for instance, to one who is ignorant of her long history. But if you know the relations of the Bulgarian nation to the Roman Empire, the wars of the king- dom of Bulgaria with the Empire of the East, the conversion of the Bulgarians to Greek Christianity, their centuries of suf- fering under Turkish rule, their release from that rule by Russian intervention, and their recent struggles to form an independent THE FLAGS OP ENGLAND. 93 state, you will see an historic continuity in it all, and the uew flag of Bulgaria will come to have a deep meaning. (See Plate VIII and Chapter V.) THE FLAGS OF ENGLAND. William the Conqueror, Duke of Nor- mandy, invaded England in the year 1066, and defeated the Saxons at the battle of Hastings. The standard of the Saxons at that memorable battle was a dragon stand- ard. It was not a painted banner, nor a sculptured image, but a floating figure in the shape of a dragon made of cloth. The wind filled the double walls of the figure, which was made like a bag, and the standard ap- peared solid and lifelike. Such dragon standards had been used on the Continent of Europe long before this time, and they are employed in China and other eastern coun- tries to this day. The banner of William the Conqueror was sent to him by the pope. It was a white banner bordered with blue, and it bore a golden cross. It is figured on the Bayeux tapestry (see Fig. 32). Richard the Lion-hearted, King of Eng- 94 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. land, displayed a dragon standard in 1191, and it was in use in England as late as 1264, and by English armies on the Continent dur- ing the fourteenth century. King Henry III, in 1244, gave an order for the making of a standard: It was to portray "a dragon, of red silk sparkling all over with fine gold, the tongue to resemble burning fire, and the eyes to be of sapphires." The standards of early times were huge affairs, and they were often set up in the midst of a chariot drawn by oxen or horses. The Italians of Milan, in 1035 a. d., carried the banner of their city in this fashion on a red car supporting a red mast with a gilded ball at the top. The banner floated from a pole hung crosswise from the mast. In 1188 King Stephen of England had such a chariot. It supported a mast carrying a silver pyx,"' and the pyx contained a consecrated wafer of the Blessed Sacrament. In 1264 a chariot of the sort displayed from its mast the three sacred banners of St. Peter, St. John of Bev- erley, St. Wilfred of Bipon — three patron saints of England. * The pyx is the box or vase used to contain the consecrated wafer of the Holy Sacrament. THE FLAGS OF ENGLAND. «»;, The banners and standards of the West- ern world were profoundly changed by the wars of the Crusades. Heraldry — the set of rules governing the use of emblems, badges, coats of arms, flags, and all honorary distinc- tions — grew into form during the Crusades. It was found to be a useful and even a neces- sary thing to have a kind of a science or doc- trine of the sort in the huge crusading armies where men of many nations were gathered together. Emblems of one sort or another had been used from the earliest times, as we have said. A badge was employed to distinguish the little band of soldiers who obeyed a single chief. The chief himself had his own personal banner or flag. The Crusaders of different nations were distinguished by crosses of different colors sewed on the sur- coats that covered their armor. The English bore a white cross, and the French a red cross, for instance. The white cross continued to be the cross of Englishmen during the Crusades, but it was changed soon afterward. During all their wars in France under the Black Prince, and during the fifteenth century, the English 96 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. cross was red and the French cross white. In a miniature showing King John of France as a prisoner of King Edward III of England (about 1350), the French king holds in his hand a little red flag with a white cross, and the King of England holds a white flag with a red cross — the cross of St. George. During the third Crusade (1189) coats of arms were usually borne by all the great nobles. They had proved to be useful in time of battle. The knight could be distin- guished in the press of men by the high crest on his helmet, by the coat of arms em- blazoned on his shield or on the trappings of his war horse. Mis followers and retain- ers wore his badge or emblem. His banner was embroidered or painted with his armorial bearings. When King Richard, the Lion-hearted, returned from Palestine (11!>4), the three lions (often called leopards) of his coat of arms became the royal arms of England. They are shown on the first and third quar- ters of the royal banner of Great Britain in Plate III. The royal arms of Great Britain and Ire- THE FLAGS OP GREAT BRITAIN, ETC. 97 land fill the four quarters of that banner. The arms of the separate countries are shown on the royal standard thus : I. England. II. Scotland. III. Ireland. IV. England. Wales was joined to England in 1283, and does not appear in the arms. Scotland's arms entered in 1603, at the time of the union, and Ireland's entered at the same time, though the act of union for Ireland was not passed by the Parliament until 1801. The royal banner of Scotland, a red lion rampant on a golden field, within a double tressure flory-counter-flory, is separately shown in Plate III. The royal arms of Scotland are very ancient. The lion is borne within a double tressure ornamented with fleurs-de-lis. It is said that these were added to record the alliances between the French and Scot- tish kings. The cognizance of Ireland is comparatively modern. It is a golden harp with silver strings on an azure field (see Plate III). Its flag has a green field. King Edward III of England claimed the kingship of France, by virtue of his descent from his mother, a French princess, and added fleurs-de-lis to the royal arms to 98 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. mark his claim. The fleurs-de-lis were the royal arms of France. They were borne by all English kings from 1340 until 1801, al- though the English lost all their French pos- sessions (except the town of Calais) as early as 1431. The royal banner of England is a per- sonal standard, not the flag of the country. The flag of Englishmen is the banner of St. George, a red cross on a white field (Fig. 3 and Fig. 35). There are legends relating how this saint rendered great aid and service to King Richard, the Lion-hearted, who placed himself and the English army under the saint's protection; and during the twelfth century St. George became the patron saint of England. From the year 1222 onward, his feast day was regularly kept as a holiday. The dragon of St. George is a pagan myth, adopted and made over anew. St. George of England has a church dedi- cated to him in Rome (San Georgio de Vela- bro), and his banner of red silk is still dis- played there once in every year. St. George is also the patron saint of Russia, and his symbol (the saint overcoming a dragon) is borne on the royal coat of arms. Plate VII Fig. 34. — Various forms of early standards and banners. A =the labarum of the Emperor Con- stantine'(A. d. 312). The monogram of Christ is at the head of the staff, above the banner, and below it is a serpent. B = the pennon of a knight of the Middle Ages; it is a blue pennon with a silver chevron. C = a banner of the Middle Ages — a lion rampant on a blue field. D = the royal standard of King Henry V of England, who reigned from 1413 to 1422. The standard was eleven yards long; the cross of St. George is displayed for England, and the ancient dragon also; the roses are emblems of the House of Lancaster; the upper half of the standard is white, the lower blue, and the border is white and blue. 99 100 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. shows the effigy of St. George and the dragon on the red shield in the center of ;the Rus- sian imperial standard. The legend of St. Andrew's cross declares that a white cross appeared on the blue sky during a famous battle of the year 940, when the Scots and Picts defeated the Eng- lish and left their King Athelstane dead on the field. A better opinion is that it was adopted as the Scottish symbol in the time of the early Crusades (thirteenth century). It is exceedingly doubtful whether St. An- drew was crucified on a cross of this shape, as the legends declare ; and St. Patrick was not crucified at all, though a saltire has been attributed as his symbol also. Ireland was united with Great Britain (that is, with England, Wales, and Scotland) in 1801, and the cross of St. Patrick was added to the old Union Jack to form the present one. The Union Jack is composed of the symbols of three saints; and it is to this day the royal colors. It is display cd on all ships of war, by every regiment, and at every fortress. The main changes in English flags are shown in the pictures that have been erils, however, even in late times. In 1878 affairs in France were in confusion. There is little doubt that the Count of Chambord (grandson of Charles X) could have taken his place upon the throne as King Henry V if he had been willing to accept the tricolor as his flag — that is, if he had been willing to rule as a king chosen by the French people, and not as a king 136 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. by divine right of succession from otter Bourbon kings, bis ancestors. It was comprehended by every French- man in 1878 that the tricolor stood for one theory of government, and the majority of Frenchmen were determined to have a gov- ernment of this sort. It was equally well understood that the white flas; of the Bour- bons represented a theory of government that France had rejected, once for all, in 1789. The real issue was between two theories of government: Shall the French people be governed in this way, or in this other way ( The question discussed was nut a question of real issues, but a matter of symbols. Under which of two fla^s shall the kins; reign, if so be we have a king? The heir to the throne made a choice of a symbol — of a flag — and instantly the matter in hand was settled. The French people would not ac- cept the chosen symbol. The history of the flags of France affords a most striking example of the power of symbols. It shows that a symbol has a life of its own and a character ; that it has some- thing like a personality and may represent THE FLAGS OF FRANCE. 137 the cause or the aspiration of a people in much the same way that a chosen leader might do. The oriflamme of St. Denis stood for the age of simple faith. The soldiery unques- tiooingly followed this religious banner to many victories. At the time of the Cru- sades the matter in men's minds was the struggle of the Christians to possess the sa- cred city of Jerusalem and the holy sepul- cher of our Lord. In these times a cross was added to the plain red surface of the oriflamme. The cross went forth to subdue the crescent. The symbol of Christ was at war with the symbol of Mohammed. The oriflamme was borne alongside the personal banner of the king, and it added force to his power. As years went on the real force of the kingdom was more and more concentrated in the king. All men saw that if the kingdom were to endure the king must be powerful. The Maid of Orleans — Joan of Arc — though most religious, advanced the king's banner and not the oriflamme. Louis XIV gathered the whole power of France into his own hands. The white flag of the Bourbons was a symbol that the semi- 11 138 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. independence of the provinces of France had been replaced by an authority centered in the person of the king. The wild outburst of the revolution of 1789 overturned forever the ancient theory that the monarchs of France ruled by divine right. It threw the doors wide open for the admission of new ideas. The French nation — the solidarity of the French people — was born then, and the tricolor was its symbol. The idea of nationality took a firm hold of the imaginations of Frenchmen at that time, and it has never been lost. They have held fast to its symbol — the tricolor — with equal tenacity. The inscriptions on the flag — Liberty, equality, brotherhood, or Honor and our country — have not endured simply because they were not adequate to symbolize the permanent aspirations and ideals of the people. The tricolor has persisted because it represents the feeling of all Frenchmen. If a full history of these symbols were to be written, it would be a history of France, or rather of the aspirations and beliefs of French- men. CHAPTER V. ( THE FLAGS OF FOKEIGN NATIONS — THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. (The different countries are arranged alphabetically for con- venient reference.) The present chapter contains a brief de- scription of the flags of most of the sovereign states of the world, and of a few flags that belong to states not sovereign. Most of these flags are shown in Plates I to X in their true colors. If there is any discrepancy between the plates and this chapter, the text is to be pre- ferred to the plates. Andorra. — The little state of Andorra has a flag divided by a vertical line into two halves. The half nearest the staff is gold, the other red. This flag floats over a state one hundred and seventy-five square miles in area and a population of six thousand per- sons. The colors are those of the old Counts of Foix, protectors of the state. 139 140 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. Abyssinia. — The coat of arms of Abyssinia is a lion bearing a cross and wearing a crown surmounted by a cross. Its ilag probably bears this symbol. Annam. — Annam has a flag of its own. It is a black flag nearly covered by a large yellow figure like an oblong diamond with flashing points. The king- dom is a protectorate of France. Algiers. — Algiers has been a French colony since 1830. Its flag has seven horizontal stripes, white* (uppermost), blue, red, white, red, blue, and white. (See Plate V.) Arabia. — Arabia is now under Turkish rule. Its flag is shown in Plate X. The flag of Mohammed (and of the Fatimite caliphs) was green. The first flag was the green turban of the prophet, and was un- furled in a. D. 626. The green flag was preserved in Cairo till A. d. 1215, and is now in Constantinople together with other relics. When a "holy war" against unbelievers in Mohammedanism is declared this banner is displayed to the " true believers." The Abbaside caliphs of Bagdad (a. d. 750-1258) used a black flag. The Ommiade caliphs in Arabia (661- 750) and in Spain (755-1031) had a white banner. Argentine Republic. — Its flag is composed of three horizontal stripes — blue, white, and blue, and the mid- dle stripe bears a sun nearer the staff than the draw- ing in Plate IX. The merchant flag omits the sun. Australia. — The flag of Australia is the flag of St. George (white, with a red cross) and the canton is blue, and bears a red cross, bordered white, and four white stars. It is the same as the flag of New Zea- land, shown in Plate III. See British Colonies. 1 THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. HI Austria-Hungary. — See Flute VI. The flag of Austria is red, white, and red, arranged in three hori- zontal stripes. These are the ancient colors of Aus- tria and of the Hapsburgs. The Hag of Hungary is a tricolor of horizontal stripes, red (uppermost), white, and green.. The war nag of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy is red, white, and red, with the Austrian coat of arms on the middle stripe. The Hag of the merchant ships of the kingdom has its top stripe red, its middle stripe white, and its bottom stripe red for half the length, green for the rest, and the white stripe bears the coat of arms of Hungary as well as that of Austria. The coat of arms of Hungary is not well shown in Plate VI. It is somewhat plainer in Plate X. Every province of the empire, as Bohemia (two horizontal stripes, the uppermost white, the lower one red); Moravia (two horizontal stripes, yellow and red) ; Si- lesia (two horizontal stripes, black and yellow) ; Dal- matia (two horizontal stripes, yellow and blue) ; Bos- nia (three horizontal stripes, red, blue, and white) ; Croatia (three horizontal stripes, blue, white, and red), etc., has its own flag. The multitude of minor states that make up the dual monarchy have separate flags also. Some of these flags stand for a history centuries long. The red and white of Austria is certainly as old as the fourteenth century. The flag of the Holy Eoman Empire was yellow with a black eagle. The eagle was single-headed till the fourteenth century, when it was changed to a double-headed eagle. The arms of the Greek emperors of Constantinople in the 142 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. thirteenth century contained a double-headed eagle, and the returning Crusaders brought this symbol with them. The symbol itself is far older, and goes back, in Asia Minor, to centuries before the Christian era. Baden. — See Germany. Its colors, gold and red, were adopted early in the thirteenth century. Bavaria. — See Germany. Belgium. — See Plate VIII. The colors of the ancient Duchy of Brabant were black, yellow, and red. In 1831, on the foundation of the present kingdom, the tricolor flag of Belgium was established. At sea, at a distance, it has a strong resemblance to the ensign of France. The plate shows the royal standard. The merchant flag is the same, omitting the coat of arms. Bohemia. — See Austria-Hungary. The ancient arms of Bohemia were a silver lion on a red field, and these colors are perpetuated in the flag. Bolivia.— See Plate IX. The flag is divided into three horizontal stripes, red (uppermost), gold, and green. The center of the war flag bears the coat of arms. Bosnia. — See Austria-Hungary. Brazil. — The field of the flag of Brazil is green. On the field is a yellow diamond, which formerly bore the royal coat of arms of Brazil. The flag was copied from the flag of Portugal in the Indies (see Portugal in what follows). The Brazilian Republic has re- placed the royal coat of arms by a constellation of golden stars in a blue field, and a motto Ordem e progresso — order and progress — is now displayed (see Plate IX). THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. 143 Bulgaria. — The flag of Bulgaria is a tricolor of three horizontal stripes, white (uppermost), green, and red. It was established in 1879 to replace the Rus- sian flag that had formerly been in use. The war flag bears on a red canton the crowned golden lion of the national coat of arms. The colors are the same as those of Hungary, but their changed order com- memorates the freedom of Bulgaria from foreign con-, trol (see Plate VIII). The merchant flag of Bulgaria is plain red. Burmah. — Its white flag bears a red circle at the center, and the red circle is charged with a peacock. Canada. — See Plate III. The red ensign of Great Britain is charged with the Canadian coat of arms. See Gkeat Britain, Colonies of. Cape of Good Hope. — See Great Britain, Colo- nies OF. Chile. — The ensign of Chile is divided horizontally into two stripes, white and red, and on the upper stripe is a blue canton bearing a single white star. The national standard bears, in addition, the Chilean coat of arms (see two pictures in Plate IX). China. — See two pictures in Plate IX. The im- perial standard of China (formally established in 1872) is triangular in shape and yellow. It bears a blue dragon and a red ball. Yellow is the imperial color in China, and the dragon is the emblem of the emperor. This flag in shape and in design has been displayed in China for centuries. It is very likely as ancient as the city of Babylon. The merchant flag is blue, bordered with red. Cochin-China. — See Plate V. 144 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. Colombia (Republic cf). — See Plate IV. The up- per half of the flag is gold. The other half is divided horizontally into two stripes, blue and red. On the center of the flag is a red circle inclosing nine, silver stars, one for each of the departments. Costa Rica. — The flag has five horizontal stripes. The center stripe is red and is wider than the others. It is bordered by two white stripes, and the outer stripes are both blue. The war flag bears the na- tional coat of arms (see Plate IV). Congo Free State. — Its flag is blue and bears in the center a single golden star (Plate X). Corea. — See Plate IX. Its white flag bears an ancient symbol in blue and red. This symbol is the Pa-Kwa diagram of China, and represents the system of opposites that runs through all Nature — earth and sky, water and earth, male and female, etc. Croatia. — See Austria-H ingary. The colors are adopted from the ancient coat of arms of Croatia. Red, white, and blue are the national colors of the Slavs. Cuba. — The flag of " Cuba libre " is composed of five horizontal stripes, alternate blue and white. At the head of the flag is a red half diamond bearing a silver star (see Plate II). The flag of the revolution- ary party in Porto Pico (18 ( .)S) is of the same design, but red takes the place of blue in the Cuban flag, and blue of red. Dalmatia.— See Austria-Hungary. Blue and gold, the colors of the flag, are taken from the na- tional coat of arms — three leopards' heads of gold on a blue shield. THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. 145 Denmark. — See Plate VIII, two pictures. The raven was the emblem of the Danes in early times, and one of the banners of the Bayeux tapestry is sup- posed to represent it. In the year 1219 the Danes were Christians and were engaged in war with the heathen tribes of Prussia. In one of their battles the fortunes of the day were against them until a sacred banner — the Danebrog, the flag of the Danes — mirac- ulously appeared among them. Under this banner, a white cross on a red field, they conquered, and since that time this symbol has been the flag of Denmark. Their king, Waldemar, instituted at that time an order of knighthood — the order of the Danebrog — which, under changed conditions, still exists. The flag of Denmark is by far the most ancient of existing European flags. The cross of St. George has been in use as the English ensign since 1327, and the lilies of France were adopted on the coat of arms of the French kings in 1179. The green ban- ner of Mohammed (a. d. 626) is still preserved at Constantinople. The royal flag of Denmark, and that of Sweden and Norway also, terminates in two points like a pennon. Most other modern ensigns are rectangular. The standard of Denmark bears the royal coat of arms. The merchant flag omits it. Ecuador. — See Plate IV. Its flag is divided hori- zontally into two halves. The upper half is gold. The lower half is again divided into two stripes, blue (uppermost) and red. The flag of Ecuador was for- merly white with a vertical central band of blue, on which were seven silver stars. 146 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. Egypt. — See Plate X. The flag of Egypt is red, and in its center it bears a silver crescent whose horns meet and nearly touch a silver star. This flag is the same as that of Turkey. The personal standard of the Khedive of Egypt has three crescents and three stars on a red field. England. — See Chapter IV. The modern flags of Great Britain are shown in Plate III. The flag of England is St. George's cross without the union. France. — See Chapter IV. The flag of France is shown in Plate V. French. Cochin-China. — See Plate V. Geneva Red Cross Association. — A convention was held in Geneva in 18G3 for the purpose of forming an international association for the succor of the wounded in time of warfare. In this and subsequent international congresses a society — the lied Cross So- ciety — was founded, and it is recognized officially by nearly all civilized nations, and has done endless good in the alleviation of suffering. It has a flag — a red Greek cross on a white field — that is everywhere hon- ored and respected. The Swiss flag (Plate X) with its colors interchanged — red for white and white for red — is the flag of the Association. Germany. — See Plate VI. The flag of Germany (1871) is admirably composed to represent the colors of the chief kingdoms united in the empire. The German flag is composed of three horizontal stripes of black, white, and red. The flag of Prussia is two such stripes, black and white ; Bavaria's is two stripes, blue and white; Saxony's is two stripes, white and green ; Wiirtemberg's is two stripes, black and red ; THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. 147 Badeu's is two stripes, red and gold. At least, half of the flag of each of these ancient kingdoms is rep- resented in the ensign of the empire, and several of them are there in their entirety. The flags of several of the smaller duchies — Hesse, Waldeek, Liibeck, etc. — are equally well represented in the combined flag. The imperial standard is shown in Plate VI. It bears the iron cross (the symbol of an order of knighthood), the black eagle (ditto) and four imperial crowns.* The red eagle of Brandenburg displays on its breast the black eagle of Prussia. The flag of the ancient German Empire from the end of the Middle Ages till 180G was a black eagle on a golden field. This ban- ner was certainly used as early as 1336, and probably much earlier. Black and gold were the German col- ors as early as A. d. 1214. The man-of-war flag is also shown in Plate VI. Great Britain. — See Chapter IV and Plate III. The royal standard displays the quartered arms of Great Britain and Ireland. The proper flag of Eng- land is the cross of St. George without the union. The plate shows the banners of Scotland and of Ire- land. Great Britain, Colonies of. — Most of the colo- nies of Great Britain have badges or coats of arms. The revenue cutters and other vessels belonging to these colonies fly the blue ensign of Great Britain with the addition of the proper colonial badge in the middle of the " fly " of the ensign — that is, in the cen- ter of the space between the union and the tail of the * Crowns of Charlemagne. 148 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. flag. These badges are circular disks of various col- ors, with a device of some sort upon the disks. Some of the badges are as follows : Canada. — The Dominion coat of arms. See Plate III for the badge. Cape of Good Hope. — The coat of arms of the colony, and the name of the colony Latinized, Spes Bona. Newfoundland. — A white disk, bearing a royal crown, and the name of the colony Latinized, Terra Nova. New Zealand — A Greek cross of silver stars on a blue disk. New South Wales. — A red cross of St. George w T ith a silver star on each arm of the cross, and a lion at its center. Queensland. — A blue Maltese cross on a white disk, with a crown at the center of the cross. South Australia. — A landscape of rocks and sea, the goddess Britannia and a native Australian. Victoria. — The southern cross on a blue shield, surmounted by a royal crown, all on a white disk. West Australia. — On a yellow disk a black swan. These are the flags to be flown by the vessels of the colonial services, and are presumably the official flags of the colonies. Canada has been granted an official flag, which is the red ensign of England, with the badge as above (Plate III). Greece. — See Plate VIII. The merchant flag of modern Greece has nine horizontal stripes of blue and white, and a blue union charged with a white Greek THE FLAdS Of SOVEREIGN STATES. 149 cross. It dates no further back than 1832, when Otho I, Prince of Bavaria, became King of (ireece, and brought the blue and white colors of his family with him. It would seem that sonic symbols of the ancient glories of a country with so extended a history might have been adopted in its standard. The royal standard ensigns the cross with a golden crown. Guatemala. — Its flag is of three vertical bars, blue, white, and blue. See Plate IV. Hawaiian Islands. — See Plate II. The present flag of the Hawaiian Islands has eight horizontal stripes. The upper stripe is white, then red, bine, white, red, blue, white, and red. The blue union bears St. George's and St. Andrew's crosses in red with white borders. The history of the flag of the Hawaiian Islands (now a part of the territory of the United States) is briefly as follows: In 1793 the explorer Vancouver gave an English flag to the king to be used as his colors, and a traveler reports that the British flag was flying over the king's residence in 1808. In 1810 the flag of the islands was described as " the English Union Jack with seven alternated red, white, and blue stripes." An English naval officer in 1825 de- clares that it consisted of " seven white and red stripes, with the Union Jack in the corner." The present flag has eight stripes, one for each of the is- lands — Hawaii, Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Nihau, Kauai. The latter island was under an independent king until 1821, and it is probable that its stripe was not added until 1845, for the Polynesian newspaper of May 31, 1845, says: "At 150 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. the opening of the Legislative Council, May 25, 1845, the new national banner was unfurled, differing little, however, from the former." It is fully described in that publication, and agrees exactly with the present flag. The first, fourth, and seventh stripes are silver ; the second, fifth, and eighth are red ; the third and sixth are blue. Since the Hawaiian Islands were an- nexed to the United States in 1898 their national en- sign is, of course, the American flag. Their old col- ors will probably be flown as a State or Territorial flag. Hayti. — The merchant flag of Hayti is divided horizontally into two halves — blue (uppermost) and red. See Plate IV. The war flag adds the national coat of arms on a white square at the center of the flag. Holland. — See Neth errands. Honduras. — Its flag has three horizontal stripes, blue, white, and blue, and the central stripe bears five azure stars. See Plate IV. Hungary. — See Austria-Hungary. Iceland. — It is a colony of Denmark and flies the Danish ensign. *yC Italy. — See Plate VII. In early times each city of Italy had its own banner. Milan about the year 1035 displayed its banner from the top of a mast set in a chariot drawn by white oxen. The fashion was /copied by other cities and passed into England soon afterward, as we have seen. The chariot (carriocium in Latin, carroccio in Italian) was guarded by stout warriors and was set in the midst of the troops. So long as it maintained its place the battle was going THE FLAGS OP SOVEREIGN STATES. 151 well. When it was captured or overturned the day was lost. *The Florentine emblem is the lily. The legend recites that the army of Florence was sore pressed in a battle with the barbarians in a. d. 405, when St. Eeparata suddenly appeared bearing a red banner with a white lily for device and turned the fortunes of the day. The lily of Florence was white until a. d. 1251, when it was changed to red in memory of the blood of her citizens that had been shed in the con- flicts between the parties of the Guelphs and of the Ghibellines. The present flag of Italy is a tricolor of three ver- tical stripes of green (next the staff), white, and red. It was established in 18G1. White and red are the colors of the reigning royal house of Savoy, and green was added as the color of hope — hope for a United Italy. The tricolor of green, white, and red was adopted by the provisional government of Venice during the revolution of 1848, and the same colors were given to the kingdom of Italy by Napoleon I. The war flag (see Plate VII) bears the arms of the house of Savoy on the center bar. The royal standard bears the same arms oh a white field bordered blue. The Savoy arms are those of the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and were granted to the Duke of Savoy in 1309 as a mark of gratitude for his help in the defense of the island of Khodes against the Saracens. Ireland. — See Chapter IV and Plate III. Japan. — See Plate IX. For something over twenty-five hundred years Japan has been a military 152 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. nation. Six hundred and sixty years before Christ the present reigning i am ily came to the throne; and the emperor is the one hundred and twenty-second of his line.* If we go back to G60 b. c. in the history of our Western world, it takes us to the time of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, whose story is told in the Old Testament. There is no dynasty in Europe that compares in age with this. The Bour- bons of France date from a. d. 884 only ; the Haps- burgs of Austria from 952. The history of Japan is in many respects like that of Europe in the Middle Ages. The system of gov- ernment was in both cases the feudal system. The nominal head of Japan was the emperor (the Mi- kado). From very early times the real power was usurped by a military chief — the Shogun — who ruled in the name of the Mikado. The first shogun dates from the fourteenth century. One powerful family — the Tokagawas — held the shogunate from 1602 till 1868. In the latter year they were overthrown, and the Mikado is the head of modern Japan, as he was of the Japan of ancient days. The various provinces were governed by the daimios (like earls and counts in Europe), and each daimio maintained a court in his capital city. The great lords of Japan had learned men and artists in their train as well as soldiers, and courtesy and chivalry were practiced everywhere. The Japanese warriors were as fierce and warlike as the Crusaders or as the feudal barons of the Middle * Failing a direct male heir to the throne the family is re- cruited by the adoption of a nephew or of a cousin of the em- peror. ^ 154 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. Ages in Europe. But our own ancestors chose for their emblems beasts of prey, like the lion and tiger, fierce birds like the eagle, fabulous animals like the dragon or the wyvern. The Japanese, on the other hand, with their gentle and cultivated feeling for art and manners, almost always selected beautiful, simple, even humble emblems — flowers, birds, butterflies, geomet- rical patterns. The dragon was a symbol of the em- peror's power in Japan, but it was not taken as the principal emblem of the imperial family. Instead of this, the chrysanthemum, a beautiful flower, was chosen. The Crusaders thought it necessary to emphasize their own courage and strength by choosing emblems among the savage beasts. The Japanese warrior of the same period felt that his courage and bravery would be taken for granted, and he wished his sym- bols to recall beautiful and artistic forms and courte- ous high-bred manners. A curious example of this characteristic difference survives to this day in the Japanese custom of releasing a flight of white doves when a war ship is launched. The European habit is to break a bottle of wine over the prow of the ship. The national flag is shown in Plate IX. The white field of the Japanese flag carries a red circle — " the circle of the sun " — and this emblem was in use by the emperor at least as early as a. d. 1169, though it was not formally adopted as a national flag until 1859. The flags of Japan and of China are the oldest of national flags. The flag of Denmark — by far the oldest in Europe — was not adopted until 1219. THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. 155 The first mention of flags in Japanese history is in connection with the invasion of Corea by her army in A. d. 201. The Japanese standard that foreign countries are most likely to see is the standard dis- played on her ships of war. It is the flag of her armies as well. Its field is white, and the red circle of the sun is the center of a series of red diverging rays that suggest the leaves of the chrysanthemum — the imperial badge. Liberia. — The flag of Liberia is of the same de- sign as that of the United States. It has six red stripes and five white ones. Its blue canton bears a single silver star. (See Plate IX.) Luxemburg. — The flag of Luxemburg is a tricolor of three horizontal stripes, red (uppermost), white, and blue. Madagascar. — While Madagascar was a protec- torate of France it had a flag, as shown in Plate V, and presumably this is still its flag as a French colony. Malta.— The flag of Malta (which is now a British possession) is shown in Plate III. See The Sover- eign Order of St. John of Jerusalem in this chapter. Mexico. — The tricolor of Mexico has three vertical bars, green (next the staff), white, and red. The eagle seizing a snake and the cactus in the Mexican coat of arms is an ancient Aztec symbol. (See Plate IX.) The merchant flag is the tricolor without this coat of arms. The principal banner of the army of the conquistadores of Mexico under Cortez (1519) was of black velvet bear- ing a red cross. A religious banner of the expedition 156 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. is still preserved at the city of Mexico. It is of red damask, and bears on one side a picture of the Virgin Mary, on the other the quartered arms of Castile and Leon (see Fig. 1). One of the banners of Pizarro borne by his army in the conquest of Peru was preserved in Lima until the present century, but it was lost in one of the many revolutions of the country. Monaco. — Its flag is composed of two horizontal stripes, red (uppermost) and white. The territory of the principality is three miles by one and a half miles, and the flag floats over twelve thousand five hundred and forty-eight inhabitants. Montenegro. — The flag of Montenegro is the same as that of Servia, namely, a tricolor of three hori- zontal stripes, red (uppermost), blue, and white. See Plate X. Montenegro has another ensign of three horizontal stripes (red, white, and red), bearing a white cross in the upper and inner corner, which is the flag of its merchant ships. The colors red and white are derived from the coat of arms of the family of Palas- ologus, Greek emperors of Constantinople in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The arms of the Palasologi were a white double-headed eagle on a red field, and these are the arms of Mon- tenegro. The arms of the reigning prince are a golden lion on a green mound in an azure field. The flag sometimes bears one of these coats, sometimes the other. The illustration in Plate X shows the cipher of the prince beneath a crown. Moravia.— See Austria-Hungary. Its colors — gold and red — were adopted in 1848, during the revo- THE FLAGS OP SOVEREIGN STATES. 157 lutionary period, and they repent the tinctures of the eagle on its ancient coat of arms. Morocco. — The nag of Morocco is red, with the device of two crossed scimitars shown in Plate \ 111. The merchant flag is plain red. Netherlands. — (Two pictures, see Plate VIII.) The national flag of the Netherlands has three horizontal stripes of red (uppermost), white, and blue. For centuries Holland had no separate existence. It was a part of the Duchy of Burgundy from 1436 to 1477, then a province of Austria, passing to Spain in 1506. The independence of the Dutch Republic was not recognized until 1648. The colors of the house of Orange (orange, white, and blue) served as the na- tional standard through long and troublous years, until the orange gradually changed, without any spe- cial reason for the change — about 1660 — into red, and since that time there has been no change. Newfoundland. — See Great Britain, Colo- nies OF. New South Wales. — Its flag has a white field with a blue cross charged with five silver stars, and its canton bears the union jack of England. See also Great Britain, Colonies of. New Zealand. — See Plate III. See also Great Britain, Colonies of. Nicaragua. — The maritime flag of Nicaragua has five horizontal stripes, blue, white, red (in the center), white, and blue. See Plate IV. Norway. — See Sweden. See also Plate VIII. Orange Free State. — Its flag has seven horizontal stripes, four white and three orange. A canton (of 158 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. the width of the uppermost three stripes) is divided into three horizontal stripes, red, white, and blue (the lowest) in order. See Plate X. (The Sovereign) Order of St. John of Jerusalem. — The order of knighthood called St. John of Jerusa- lem (Knights of Rhodes, 1310-1522, and after 1522 Knights of Malta) was founded in the year 1048 to be of service to the Crusaders. The order grew rich and very powerful, and it took a flag just as a nation might take a standard. Its flag is red with a white cross, and is at least as old as 1130. As the order still exists its flag has a place in this book. The order is called " sovereign " just as France is called a sovereign state; and in Europe its flag is saluted and respected just as is the flag of France. It is never seen in America. The standard of the order is black, and bears a silver Maltese cross. There were other orders of knighthood of the same kind (the Knights Tem- plars, etc.), but they are now abolished. This one still lives. Any good encyclopaedia gives some ac- count of such orders under the heading of Knight- hood. Papal State. — The flag of what remains of the Papal State is composed of two horizontal bars, the uppermost gold, the lower white. Paraguay. — See Plate IX. Its tricolor flag is di- vided into three horizontal stripes, red (uppermost), white, and blue. The center stripe is the widest, and it bears the national coat of arms. Persia. — See Plate X. The white flag of Persia is bordered with green, and it bears the device of the kingdom, namely, the lion and the sun in yellow. THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. 159 Another Persian ensign is a tricolor of horizontal stripes, green (uppermost), gold, and white. Peru. — See Plate IX. The modern flag of Peru is red, white, and red, in three vertical bars. The war flag bears also the national coat of arms. In the army of the Incas each company had its banner, and the standard of the emperor was emblazoned with the rainbow — the emblem of the " children of the sun.'" Philippines. — The flag ©f the insurgents in the Philippines, 1898, is divided into two halves by a Fig. 49.— The flag of the Insurgent Philippines, 1898. horizontal line. The upper half is red, the lower blue. Next the staff is half of a white diamond. Poland. — The ancient coat of arms of the kingdom of Poland was a white eagle on a red field, and white and red are the national colors. They were adopted by the revolutionists of 1846. The kingdom is di- vided and has no separate flag. 160 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. Portugal. — See three pictures in Plate VIII. The merchant flag of Portugal is half blue and half white, with the line of division vertical, and the royal coat of arms is placed at the center of the field of the en- sign. It was adopted in 1815, but it is a modification of the ensigns of the earlier centuries when Portugal was a great commercial power, and when her hardy navigators opened Africa and the Indies to Europe. The flag of Portugal in the Indies bore an armillary sphere (an instrument used by navigators), and this device was displaced in the ensign of Brazil so long as it was an empire. The royal standard of Portugal is red, and displays the king's arms. Prussia. — See Germany. Puerto Rico had no separate flag, but flew the flag of Spain. The flag of the insurgents in Puerto Rico (1898) is composed of five horizontal stripes of red and white. At the head of the flag is a blue dia- mond bearing a single silver star. The design of the flag is the same as that of Cuba, with the colors inter- changed. Queensland. — See Great Britain, Colonies of. Roumania. — See Plate X. The flag of Roumania is a tricolor of vertical bars — blue nearest the staff, then gold, then red. These colors were adopted dur- ing the revolutionary times of ISIS. Russia. —See Plate VII. The national flag of Russia is a tricolor of horizontal stripes, black (upper- most), orange, and white. This is not shown in the plate. The war flag is white, with a blue St. Andrew's cross. The flag of merchant ships is a tricolor of hori- zontal stripes, white (uppermost), blue, and red. The THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. 161 imperial standard is orange colored, with the double- headed eagle of the empire bearing on his breast the national coat of arms, viz., a silver St. George and the dragon on a red shield. Samoa. — Its flag has a white field with a black cross. On a red canton there is a silver star. San Marino. — The little republic of San Marino has a flag of seven horizontal stripes, alternate bine and white. The republic dates from the fourth cen- tury. It has eight thousand inhabitants. San Salvador. — The flag is like that of the United States in design. It has five blue stripes and four white ones. Its union is red and bears nine silver stars. See Plate IV. Santo Domingo. — The Dominican Kepublic. See Plate IV. Its merchant flag bears a white cross, and the angles of the cross are filled as follows : blue red red blue. The national ensign adds a coat of arms at the center of the cross. Sarawak. — It has a yellow flag on which a cross is displayed. The half of the cross next to the staff is black, and the other half is red. Saxony. — See Germany. The ancient colors of Saxony were black and gold, and since A. d. 1151 a green wreath has been borne on its coat of arms. The Saxon kings of Poland took the Polish colors, red and white. Black and gold were the colors of Saxony until the end of the Napoleonic wars of 1813-15. On the restoration of the king in 1815 white and green were established as the Saxon colors. 162 THE FLAGS OF FOREIGN NATIONS. Scotland. — See Chapter IV and Plate III. Servia. — The flag of Servia is a tricolor of three horizontal stripes, red (uppermost), blue, and white. The flag of Montenegro is the same design. The royal standard bears the coat of arms. See Plate X. Siam. — The red flag of Siam bears in its center a white elephant. See Plate V. Silesia. — See Austria-Hungary. The colors — gold and black — are derived from its ancient coat of arms — viz., a black eagle on a gold field. Society Islands. — See Plate IX. South Australia. — See Great Britain, Colo- nies of. Spain. — The Spanish flags are shown in Plate VIII. Many changes have been made in the standard of Spain, which has usually borne the royal coat of arms. The castle of Castile, the lion of Leon (see Fig. 1), the pomegranate of Grenada, the lion of Flanders, the red, white, and red of Austria, the palle (pills) of the Medicis, the eagle of the Tyrol, the fleurs-de-lis of France, the gold and azure diagonal bars of ancient Burgundy, the red and gold bars of Aragon, and the arms of Sicily — all these emblems appear in the royal shield.* The merchant flag of Spain is a yellow field with two narrow red bars, and is probably derived from the arms of Aragon, though the colors are also those of the shield of Castile. Sweden and Norway. — See Plate VIII. The na- tional flag of Sweden is blue, and bears a golden cross ; the national flag of Norway is red, and bears a blue * Which is not accurately drawn in Plate VIII. THE FLAGS OF SOVEREIGN STATES. 163 cross with a white border. These flags and crosses have been united in modern times (Norway was joined to Sweden in 1814) to form one flag, somewhat in the fashion of the union flag of England. The man-of- war flags of both countries have rjeunon tails (like the royal standard of Denmark, shown in Plate VIII). Switzerland. — See Plate X. The Swiss flag is red, and it bears a Greek cross of white in its center. The Switzers declared their independence in 1307, and at the battle of Morgarten (1315), where the Austrians were defeated, they carried a plain red flag without any device. During the seventeenth century a white cross was added, though it is said that the cross ap- peared on some Swiss flags as early as 1339. The dif- ferent cantons of Switzerland have different coats of arms and different flags. Tahiti. — Its flag has three horizontal stripes of red, white, and red, and on a canton the French tricolor of vertical bars, blue, white, and red. See the last figure in Plate IX. Tonga Islands. — The flag is red ; on a white can- ton it bears a red Greek cross. Transvaal (South African Republic). — Its flag has three horizontal stripes, blue (uppermost), white, and red. Next the staff is a vertical band of green. The drawing in Plate III shows an earlier flag, now super- seded. Tripoli. — See Plate V. Its flag is red. Tunis. — The war flag of Tunis is red. It bears a white oval at its center and a red crescent and star are superposed on the oval. See Plate V. The mer- chant flag is plain red, 164 THE FLAGS OP FOREIGN NATIONS. Turkey. — See two pictures in Plate X. The pres- ent war flag of Turkey is red, bearing near the staff a silver crescent encircling a silver star. The Turks also carry a standard divided horizontally into two bars — one red, the other green. The merchant flag of Turkey is pictured in the last figure of Plate X. The crescent was the emblem of Diana, patroness of Byzantium, and it was used on many Christian banners before the Turks assumed this emblem for their own. From that time forward the crescent became an ex- clusively Moslem symbol, as opposed to the cross, the symbol of the Crusaders. United States of America. — See Part I of this book, Chapters I, II, and Plates I (frontispiece) and II. United States of Venezuela. — The flag has three horizontal stripes, gold (uppermost), blue, and red. At the center is a cluster of seven silver stars, one for each State. See Plate IV. Uruguay. — Its flag has nine horizontal stripes, al- ternate white (uppermost) and blue. On a white canton is a golden sun. See Plate IX. Victoria. — See Great Britain, Colonies of. West Australia. — See Great Britain, Colo- nies of. Wurtemberg. — See Germany. The colors of AYurtemberg are black and red. Its ancient coat of arms contained three red lions. When the heir to the throne of Naples (Conradin of Suabia) was de- feated and beheaded, in 12G8, the lions were changed to black, and these colors are still represented in the flag. THE FLAGS OP SOVEREIGN STATES. 165 Zanzibar has one flag shaped like a pennon, with a swallow tail. All the stripes are horizontal. The top stripe is narrow and is red. The next stripe is narrow and white. The next is narrow and green. Then comes a wide white stripe, with three green crescents. The next stripe is red, and the next grei n, and these two stripes are wider than the narrowest ones and not so wide as the widest one. The middle stripe of the Hay is wide, and has three green cres- cents. Then come red, green, wide white (with three green crescents), narrow red, narrow white, narrow green stripes in order. A plain red flag is also flown. See Plate III. (3) THE END. i 3087 8 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. tPJURL NUV REC'D LWJRL ocrsxMB 3 1158 00881 4534 r / UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 001 216 461 2