A significant punishment was administered recently to a man
in Hoboken, N. J., for an act of disrespect to the Stars and
Stripes. He was returning from an entertainment in the early
morning hours, when he noticed a large flag flying from a pole
in a citizen’s yard. In a spirit of mischief he opened his
pocket-knife and cut the halyards and the flag came fluttering
to the ground. A policeman saw it fall and promptly arrested the
man. When asked by the recorder before whom he was arraigned
why he had done the mischief, he had nothing to say but that he
objected to see the flag flying at that time in the morning.
The recorder answered that it was right to have that flag
flying at any time, and he would pass a sentence that would
teach the offender a lesson of respect. He ordered him to climb
the forty-foot pole and replace the flag, and instructed two
policemen to see that it was done. The news of the sentence
attracted a crowd and the man was jeered as he clumsily climbed
the pole and put the flag back. It is a curious fact that the
man who cut the flag down was an American, but it was flying in
the yard of a Frenchman, and the arrest was made by an Irish
policeman, and the recorder who pronounced sentence is said to
be of English descent.
Every one has a contempt for a man who lowers the symbol of his
nation’s honor. But it is too often forgotten that dishonorable conduct
and unprincipled trickery do more to dishonor the nation to which a man
belongs than any insult to his flag.
(2320)
=Patriotism Scorned=--See MEMORIALS OF PATRIOTISM.
=Patrons Cared for=--See DEPORTMENT.