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Show ft i r A Facti About Old Glory Significance of the Stars: The stai Is an ancient symbol of power and lofty aspirations . . . Stripes alternate alter-nate red and white (instead of white and red) simply because of the Invisibility In-visibility of a top and bottom stripe of white as compared with the sharp visibility of red . . . Several days alter the flag was officially adopted, troops of the Continental army (at Fort Schuyler) hoisted the stars and stripes. It was made out of a soldier's sol-dier's white shirt a piece from a lady's red petticoat and a patch of blue from an overcoat About a century ago a captain was thrilled to see the flag being raised on the mast of his ship. The sight inspired him to describe the national emblem with two classic words. The captain's name isn't well known: William Driver. However, his description of the flag became one of the most memorable memor-able phrases in history: "Old Glory." During a dinner In Shanghai some years ago, the British consul toasted the English flag with: "Here is to the Union Jack the flag of flags. The flag that has floated over every continent and every sea for a thousand years the flag on which the sun never sets." An American named Eli Perkins then arose, looked directly at the Britisher and offered this toast: "Here Is to the Stars and Stripes. When the setting sun lights up her stars In Alaska, the rising sun salutes her on the rockbound coast of Maine. It is the Flag of Liberty, never lowered for any foe and the only flag that has whipped the flag on which the sun never sets." One of the tenderest tributes to the Stars and Stripes was made by Lincoln ... He noted: "I see out flag every day, but I have never re garded it for a moment steadfastly without deep emotion." J. Ellnson wires: "I hear Truman had a lotta trouble on his crosscountry cross-country trip. The porter kept putting put-ting off his bags in Missouri!" Life's editorial says the present congress has built np an Impressive Impres-sive list of accomplishments. Then (under the heading "Business Passed Over") It lists such Inconsequential Incon-sequential matters as price control, con-trol, civil rights legislation, federal aid to education, compulsory health Insurance and minimum wage Increases merely the things that make a democracy work. There's a good movie situation Ir the manner in which the Journal-American's Journal-American's Crosby scooped colleagues col-leagues on the Loncrgan murdci case. He arranged with a police contact con-tact to tip him off when Lonergan confessed. The code was: "It's raining rain-ing like heck." Three hours before the confession the police official passed Crosby on the stairs at headquarters and casually casu-ally said: "It looks like rain." Crosby notified his city desk and a front page was prepared rcportins Lonergan's confession. It was held "for release." An hour later the same police official of-ficial passed and said: "It's raining like heck." Crosby phoned his editor edi-tor and a few minutes later the Journal-American hit the streets with the confession scoop two hours before any of its rivals! News Item: "Dr. A. U. Rice of Berkeley, Calif., says ruptured eardrums can result from an over-sellout over-sellout kiss." Hows that again, Doc? Kin hardly hear ya! Broadway Chop Suey: Jean Dal-rymplt Dal-rymplt flew to London to witness the premiere of her new Jean-Paul Sartre play. She took along a dozen boxes of bubble gum for the Savoy hotel bellhops, who prefer It to tips . . . The town of Dragulgnan, France, has voted to name a street Rue de la Lily Pons . . . Talk about sewing sew-ing up the field, Santa Rosa, Calif., has a publishing firm which publishes pub-lishes its two newspapers. They are the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat and the Santa Rosa Republican. An editor Just back from Washington Wash-ington reported seeing some Mis-aourlans Mis-aourlans around the White House wearing Truman buttons. This time next year," was the retort "they'll be wearing Truman hats." Quotation Marksmanship: E. Hubbard: Hub-bard: One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men. No machine ma-chine can do the work of one extraordinary ex-traordinary man. . . . Don Bland-ing: Bland-ing: A flower watched her dance and learned how to sway. . . . Victor Vic-tor Hugo: Whenever I tee a man with a woman in his arms I think of a gorilla holding a violin. , . . James Burrell: Politics Is like an insnne asylum where people kerp saying things they never mean to other people who are never listening. listen-ing. , . , Richard Harding Davis' No civilized person goes to bed the lame day he gets up. |