Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 162, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1920 — INSPIRED BY LOVE [ARTICLE]

INSPIRED BY LOVE

Remarkable Flag Made by Young American Giri. , i ■ — 1 -7Country's History, From the Birth of Independence, Woven Into Emblem in Honor of Heroes of Span- ‘ Ish-American War. Peace unfurled a million flags throughout the world, but not one of them was as remarkable and romantic as that which Josephine Mulford wrought with her own hands a score of years ago in honor of the heroes of the Spanish-American war, observes LonJnn Answers. x The flag on which Josephine toiled night and day for more than a year, with a great love to Inspire her fingers, is so large that three battalions of soldiers could be massed on it, and so heavy that half a dozen strong men •ould barely raise its folds from the ground. But it is the romance of Its fashioning that places it so far above all its rivals. It was begun on the first day of July, 1898, In the parlor of an old homestead in New Jersey, and from the first stitch to the last it was never for a moment out of the hands or thoughts of the young girl who had set herself this patriotic task. Every stitch was counted as it was made; for it represented an American soldier who was fighting in Cuba. The Pennsylvania star was partly made In the room in which, a century and a quarter earlier, Betsy Ross worked, under Washington’s guidance, on the very first American flag which proclaimed the Independence of the states and the star was finished in the room where the first continental met. To make Virginia’s star she traveled to Mount Vernon and stitched it in one of the rooms of Washington’s home. The Maryland star was made at Fort McHenry, historically associated with “The Star-Spangled Banner” of Francis Scott Key, and New York’s star was made partly in the very room in which Washington said goody-by to his officers, and partly on board the flagship New York. And thus, making as possible each stitch historic, the colossal task proceeeded, until the last of the 325,000 stitches was made, with loving, il trembling, fingers, and she rose front her year’s work triumphant, but shattered in health. Josephine lived to see her flag proud ly floating over Madison Square gar den, to thunders of cheers from 8 hundred thousand throats. Then cams a terrible reaction from the long strain and within a few weeks the handt that had toiled so long and lovinglj were still In death. But the spirit of courageous lov< which Josephine Mulford breathed int< her work lives on—for courage canno die.