The Flag of the U. S. A.

By E. A. Brininstoul.

AGAINST the sky it is fluttering high

In the winds of a tropic breeze;

It swings and dips from the great gray ships
That buffet the foaming seas.

It backs the guns of the Yankee sons,
As its rippling colors sway

To the marching feet down the dusty street-
The flag of the U. S. A.

It flutters free on the land and sea,

With its Red and its White and Blue; Wherever it goes against its foes,

'Tis followed by soldiers true.

To the rattling thrum of the throbbing drum, It gleams in the battle's fray,

And never, as yet, has its match been met —
The Flag of the U. S. A.

It waves and runs with the frowning guns,
No matter in war or peace;

'Midst the cannon's cry it will bravely fly
Till the sounds of the conflict cease,

With its filmy stars and its blood-bought bars, Men follow it day by day,

'And die to defend to the final end

The Flag of the U. S. A.

Through the shot and shell of seething hell,
Where the crash of war is heard,

It grimly waves o'er its gallant braves
With a glory yet unblurred.

It leads the van of the fighting clan,
When raised, it is up to stay,

For by never a foe shall it be trailed low
The Flag of the U. S. A.

The Name of Old Glory

James Whitcomb Riley.

From the Biographical Edition of the Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Copyright, 1913. Used by special permission of the publishers, the Bobbs-Merrill Company.

OLD Glory; say, who

By the ships and the crew,

I

And the long, blended ranks of the gray and the

blue.

Who gave you, Old Glory, the name that you bear
With such pride everywhere

As you cast yourself free to the rapturous air
And leap out full-length, as we're wanting you to?
Who gave you that name, with the ring of the same,
And the honor and fame so becoming to you? -
Your stripes stroked in ripples of white and of red,
With your stars at their glittering best overhead-
By day or by night

Their delightfulest light

Laughing down from their little square heaven of

blue!

Who gave you the name of Old Glory? — say, who

Who gave you the name of Old Glory?

The old banner lifted, and, faltering then
In vague lisps and whispers, fell silent again.

II

Old Glory speak out! - we are asking about
How you happened to "favor" a name, so to say,
That sounds so familiar and careless and gay
As we cheer it, and shout in our wild breezy way
We, the crowd, every man of us, calling you that
We, Tom, Dick, and Harry, each swinging his hat
And hurrahing" Old Glory!" like you were our kin,
When -Lord! we all know we're as common as
sin!

And waft us your thanks, as we hail you and fall
Into line, with you over us, waving us on
Where our glorified, sancified betters have gone.
And this is the reason we're wanting to know
(And we're wanting to so!

Who gave you the name of Old Glory-O-ho!

Who gave you the name of Old Glory?

The old flag unfurled with a billowy thrill

For an instant, then wistfully sighed and was still.

III

Old Glory: the story we're wanting to hear
Is what the plain facts of your christening were,
For your name, just to hear it,

Repeat it, and cheer it, is a tang to the spirit
As salt as a tear;

And seeing you fly, and the boys marching by,
There's a shout in the throat and a blur in the
And an aching to live for you always—or die,
If, dying, we still keep you waving on high.
And, so, by our love

For you, floating above,

eye

And the scars of all wars and the sorrows thereof, Who gave you the name of Old Glory,and why

Are we thrilled at the name of Old Glory?

Then the old banner leaped, like a sail in the blast, And fluttered an audible answer at last.

IV

And it spake, with a shake of the voice, and it said:
By the driven snow-white and the living blood-red
Of my bars, and their Heaven of stars overhead;
By the symbol conjoined of them all, skyward cast,
As I float from the steeple, of flap at the mast,
Or droop o'er the sod where the long grasses nod-
My name is as old as the glory of God:

So I came by the name of Old Glory.

Stand by the Flag

By John Nichols Wilder.

STAND by the Flag! Its stars, like meteors gleaming,

Have lighted Arctic icebergs, southern seas And shone responsive to the stormy beaming Of old Arcturus and the Pleiades.

Stand by the Flag! Its stripes have streamed in glory,

To foes a fear, to friends a festal robe,
And spread in rhythmic lines the sacred story
Of Freedom's triumphs over all the globe.

Stand by the Flag! On land and ocean billow
By it your fathers stood unmoved and true,
Living, defended; dying, from their pillow,
With their last blessing, passed it on to you.

Stand by the Flag! Immortal heroes bore it Through sulphurous smoke, deep moat and armed defense;

And their imperial Shades still hover o'er it,

A guard celestial from Omnipotence.