Evening Star Newspaper, February 22, 1931, Page 69

' Features | Magasine s ol Jhe BIRTH of YA A Salute for Washington's Birthday By ALFRED NOYES “Yankee Doodle,” legend has it, was composed at Fort Crailo, New York, by Dr. Schuckburgh, a British officer. Though Written in derision of the poorly equipped Colomial troops, it later became the anthem of the Contimental Army. Flag of the midnight, glittering now with stars, There was a time, before the stars were born, When all was dark, remember! . . . Flag of that night, Flag of the hob-nailed farmers with rusty blades And flint-lock muskets, loping by old Fort Crailo, Making the Red Coats grin, while Schuckburgh sat Booted and spurred, like a rooster in plump red tunic, With golden frogs, and crowed by the cool well-side His cockerel melody, Yankee—doodle—doo. A blood-stained rag, A blood-stained bandage tied to a hickory pole, Was all they could see of you then. Flag of that night, Flag of the starving ranks that fought and fell And struggled upright, and fought through the blinding drifts, And followed a great Ghost riding through the snows Of blood-stained Valley Forge—a rebel’s shirt, Torn by a bullet, but waving the dead men on, Was all they could see of you, then . . . WASHINGTON, D. C., FEBRUARY 22, 1931, . 24 PNRGES, ODLE Flag of this hour Where evil stalks, and the gates of hell are loosed In the swept and garnished cities and hearts of men— A cerecloth stripped from the rotting limbs of the state And flourished on high, in mockery, over the dead Who once believed in beauty, and truth, and God, Is all they can see of you, now, And yet, and yet, As that immortal ghost comes riding by At a whisper from him, At a single whisper, a breath, My country . . . One great forest of outstretched arms, One sea of faces, lifts to that one light, Flag of the sky, Flag of the four winds, rolling out your folds In a thunder of glory now above all nations Because all nations are in yours made one, Here, in the strong insurgent youth of the yeas, In the insurrection of Spring, resurrection of freedom, The land which once that deathless Ghost called “Home” Salutes you, flag of the darkness, flag of the stars, i Flag of the world-wide dawn.