[Illustration: REVOLUTIONARY FLAGS USED BEFORE THE ADOPTION OF
THE STARS AND STRIPES]
“I can’t seem to make this flag-staff do what I want it to,” said
the boy named Billy.
“Let me help you,” said Somebody; “I’ll hold it while you clamp
it to the window-sill.”
“Just when did we begin to have Flag Day, please?”
“Flag Raising Day is one of the youngest of our National
anniversaries, but is fast becoming one of the most popular,”
said Somebody. “The custom came about at the request of the Sons
of the Revolution that a day be set aside for honoring of the
Flag, and was first observed on the 14th of June, 1894, on the
117th anniversary of the adoption of the Flag by Congress, when
the Governor of New York ordered it to be flown on all public
buildings in the State.”
“Please tell me just how the flag became,” said Billy.
“Previous to the year 1777,” said Somebody, “each state had its
own flag. But at a convention of the Revolutionary statesmen,
which was held in Philadelphia in that year, a committee was
appointed to consider the report upon the subject of a flag which
should be the standard of all the colonies; and on June 14th,
1777, Congress passed a resolution that the flag of our country
should bear thirteen stripes, one red and the other white, and
that the union should be thirteen white stars on a field of blue.
General George Washington, who was a member of the committee,
with Robert Morris and Colonel Ross, made a rough sketch of the
flag and took it to a Mrs. Betsy Ross who was famed for her
skillful needle work, asking her if she could make such a flag.
“I can,” said Mrs. Ross, “but a true star has but five points,
where yours has six,” and picking up her scissors she deftly cut
a five-pointed star. It was at once seen that the star of five
points was much more beautiful and the committee commissioned
Mrs. Ross to make a sample flag.
The first flag made was raised in Philadelphia, but was soon
copied and flown over the entire land.
“Where it still flies,” said the boy named Billy, saluting, “and
will always continue to fly. But when was it changed? The field
is now full of stars, though it has only thirteen stripes.”
“When Kentucky and Vermont were admitted to the Union,” said
Somebody, “the flag was changed to fifteen stars and fifteen
stripes; but in 1818 Congress voted to restore the thirteen
stripes and to add a new star for every state, on the first
Fourth of July after the state had been admitted to the Union.
“There is a story to the effect that at a Fourth of July dinner
given some years ago in Shanghai, the English Consul, in toasting
the British flag, said: ‘Here’s to the Union Jack, the flag of
flags, the flag that has floated on every continent and every sea
for a thousand years and upon which the sun never sets.’”
“Did he get away with that?” asked Billy.
“Not very well,” said Somebody. “Eli Perkins, the celebrated
American humorist, who was present, rose to his feet and said,
“_Here’s_ to the Stars and Stripes, emblem of the New Republic.
When the setting sun lights up its stars in Alaska, the rising
sun salutes it on the rockbound coast of Maine. It is the flag of
liberty, never lowered to any foe, and the _only_ flag that has
ever whipped the flag upon which the sun never sets.”
“I guess that held him for a while!” said the boy named Billy,
saluting.