Part 1 (1/2)

How the Flag Became Old Glory.

by Emma Look Scott.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THE author acknowledges her indebtedness to the following authors and publishers for their courtesy in allowing the use of copyright material: to Mr. Wallace Rice for ”Wheeler's Brigade at Santiago”; to Mr. Charles Francis Adams for ”Pine and Palm”; to Mr. Will Allen Dromgoole for ”Soldiers”; to Mr. John Howard Jewett for a selection from ”Rebel Flags”; to Mr. John Trotwood Moore for ”Old Glory at s.h.i.+loh”; to Mr.

Henry Holcomb Bennett for ”The Flag Goes By”; to Mr. Clinton Scollard for ”On the Eve of Bunker Hill”; to P. J. Kenedy and Sons for ”The Conquered Banner” by Rev. Abram Joseph Ryan; to David MacKay for ”Death of Grant” by Walt Whitman; to J. B. Lippincott Company for ”The Cruise of the Monitor” by George H. Boker; to B. F. Johnson Publis.h.i.+ng Company, publishers of Timrod's Memorial Volume, for ”Charleston” by Henry Timrod; to the Century Company for ”Farragut” by William Tuckey Meredith; to Mr. Harry L. Flash and the Neale Publis.h.i.+ng Company for ”Stonewall Jackson” by Henry Lynden Flash; to Mr. Will Henry Thompson and G. P. Putnam's Sons for ”The High Tide at Gettysburg”; to Mr. Isaac R. Sherwood and G. P. Putnam's Sons for ”Albert Sidney Johnston” by Kate Brownlee Sherwood; to Mrs. Benjamin Sledd and G. P. Putnam's Sons for ”United” by Benjamin Sledd. An extract from ”Home Folks” by James Whitcomb Riley, copyright, 1900, is used by permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merrill Company. The poems, ”Lexington” by Oliver Wendell Holmes, ”The Building of the s.h.i.+p” and ”The c.u.mberland” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ”Yorktown” by John Greenleaf Whittier, ”Fredericksburg” by Thomas Bailey Aldrich, ”Kearny at Seven Pines” by E.

C. Stedman, and ”Robert E. Lee” by Julia Ward Howe are printed by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

HOW THE FLAG BECAME OLD GLORY

THE FLAG GOES BY

HATS off!

Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, A flash of color beneath the sky; Hats off!

The flag is pa.s.sing by!

Blue and crimson and white it s.h.i.+nes, Over the steel-tipped ordered lines, Hats off!

The colors before us fly!

But more than the flag is pa.s.sing by.

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great, Fought to make and to save the State.

Weary marches and sinking s.h.i.+ps; Cheers of victory on dying lips.

Days of plenty and years of peace; March of a strong land's swift increase; Equal justice, right and law, Stately honor and reverent awe;

Sign of a Nation, great and strong To ward her people from foreign wrong: Pride and glory and honor--all Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off!

Along the street there comes A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, And loyal hearts are beating high: Hats off!

The flag is pa.s.sing by!

HENRY HOLCOMB BENNETT.

OLD GLORY

WHILE every American citizen recognizes the significance of the term ”Old Glory” as applied to the national flag, when and where and by whom the nation's emblem was christened with this endearing and enduring sobriquet is a matter of historic interest less understood.

In the early epoch-making period of the nation's history William Driver, a lad of twelve years, native of Salem, Ma.s.s., begged of his mother permission to go to sea. With her consent he s.h.i.+pped as cabin boy on the sailing vessel _China_, bound for Leghorn, a voyage of eighteen months.

On this first voyage the courageous spirit of the youth manifested itself in a determination to disprove the words of the s.h.i.+p's owner, made to him at the beginning of the voyage: ”All boys on their first voyage eat more than they earn.”

In appreciation of the mettle shown by the lad, the owner presented him, upon the return from the cruise, with twenty-eight dollars in silver, besides his wages of five dollars per month. He carried the money to his mother, who wisely admonished him to do the very best he could under every circ.u.mstance, a charge he never forgot.