OCR Text |
Show THE FENIAN FLAG. ; A Relic of the Irish, Volunteers la the Canadian Raid of 1856. Int a gypsy camp at the corner of Cottage Cot-tage Grovel avenue and Sixty-first street, Chicago, is the Ions lost banner of the Fenians. Yellow with age. wtained with the weather, bereft of its. heavy gold fringe and cord, the flag of the Irish, volunteers' in. t'h Canadian raid cf 1S65 has found a strange owner. Thisi is the only flag ever made combining the American, emblem, of the eagle with the Irisli shamrock anri harp. It was the standard stand-ard of the Fenians in the battle of Ridgeway, which, put an., end to the somewhat grotesque campaign made by a little squad of Iristi-Amerioans ir Canadian territory just after the civil war. The flag is owned now by Mme. Millner, queen of American gypsies, who is camping with her husband: in a littie tent off Sixty-firsC street. "Twenty-seveni years agxx" said the gypsy queen. "I camped one summer in the village of St. Stephen, Canada. Can-ada. Stopping there off and on for yeara, I got to know Captain. O'Brien. I told his fortune, and he liked it. It was the kind of fortune a gallant man like that deserves. "Faith, aiV the mactemi was a and-scme and-scme woman them days," chimed in her husband. "One day." continued the madam, "I saw this flag hanging in the hall at Captain O'Brien'g house. Gypsies like bright colors; there's no fable about that. 'I'm- goin' to see what that nice flag is,' said. I to the captain's wife. "That's the Fenian flag, she said, and! told mei all about the raid andi the bat-tlf-a and the volunteers. " 'I'm going- to ask Captain O'Brien to give me that flag.' I said. "When I die, madam, the flag's yours, with Mrs. O'Brien's permissKnk answered the captain, laughing a big laugh and. bowing low. "The next spring when we camei through St. Stephens I found that the captain was dead. In hia will he had! left the 'Fenian banner to Mme. Millner, Mill-ner, queen, of the gypsies." 'I've carried car-ried it with me in all of my travels.. It's- been in every country on the globe and in every state in the union." The banner was presented by ladies, of Philadelphia to. the first organization organiza-tion of Fenians in the United States,, the Clan-na-Gael society of America. That was April 4. 1842, so the flag is now fifty-seven years old. It was made bv Catholic nuns in a convent in Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. It is of white satin, now creamy with age. On the face the j American eagle, the harp and the sham-I sham-I rock are wrough t in reddish, brown andi i green chenille, and cover almost the entire side of the flag. On the rerverse is a shamrock wreath encircling thia 1 Inscription in gold spangles: "Presented to the; Irish Volunteers, by the Ladies of Philadelphia, April 4. 1S42." ' The standard w-as mounted; with a gold eagle and the flag was finlshctV with gold fringe eight inches, deep. |