APT Pgs. 56–57 "Flag Day"
American Primary Teacher, September 1911, sharing "A Fairy Story" (about the US Flag), a personal blurb at the end, and featuring Whitney Houston singing "Star Spangled Banner."
Note: For easier reading, I am typing the story out; however, I will be leaving the punctuation and spelling pretty much as they are in the original. Although I will be breaking up a few of those ridiculously long paragraphs. 😶🌫️
THE AMERICAN FLAG
A Fairy Story
By Mary Hannah Johnson (Nashville)
A Nation’s flag is the symbol of all the ideals of the nation. It is not merely a painted piece of cloth, it is the embodiment of a principle. When it is saluted, when it is honored in any way it means the salutation and honoring of the Constitution, the laws, the principles, the ideals for which a nation stands, the things which constitute a nation’s life and history. When an enemy treats our flag disrespectfully, he is not hurting or insulting us by tearing a piece of cloth which can easily be replaced, but he is insulting our ideals, principles, laws, constitution, our liberty-loving ideas, and our honor. Our children should be taught at the hearthstone the love of country, inspiration of patriotism, and respect for the flag which stands for our ideals.
One of the most potent ways by which a child can be impressed with the flag and its significance and the spiritual meaning of it is through the “story-telling hour.” “Story telling” serves to hold the attention, to strengthen concentration, and impress the child with famous facts and beautiful truths, yet it interests and entertains.
The following fairy story of the flag will serve to impress the child with the beauty and glory of our American flag and to teach him that the structure of it is purity, strength, liberty, and truth, the flag of the dawn, the red, white, and blue:
-FAIRY STORY OF THE FLAG-
Once upon a time a long time ago a fairy met in the woods two little girls and a little boy; they engaged in conversation. The fairy told them she was just on her way to a beautiful woodland, and was going to do some weaving. They asked to go with her. She said: “I am going to weave one of the most beautiful and sacred pieces of cloth in the world.” Then they begged to help her do it. She told them before they could help her they must go through the town and country, over the hills and valleys, and seek and bring to her the greatest and the best thing they could find to weave into her fabric.
They wandered in different directions from village to village, through the woods and valleys, and over the mountains. The first little girl almost dropped in exhaustion, but just then she heard a coo! coo! over her head, and, looking up, she saw a dear little dove as white as snow. The little girl was crying, and the dove perched on a limb over her head and said: “What is the matter, little girl?” “Oh,” she said, “I am so tired, and I can’t find anything worthy to take to the beautiful fairy to weave in her piece of cloth.”
“Well,” said the little dove, with a sweet coo, coo, “I will give you a feather from my wing, white as the snowy clouds in the heavens, and you take it to her and probably she will be pleased with your find.” So off flew the dove and off ran the little girl, and in a little while she came to the fairy and said: “Dear fairy, I am so sorry this is all I could find; I am afraid you will not like it and not use it, and worst of all, you will not believe I worked hard and hunted long.”
But the good fairy said: “I am greatly pleased; you are a faithful little girl, and in that you worked hard and was faithful to the task given you, and you have done better than you think, for this white feather from the dove is just what I needed, it means purity, and the dove is the emblem of peace.” So the little girl was very happy because she had done the best she could.
Just now in the distance they saw the other little girl coming, and she also seemed very sad. She hurried up to the fairy and said: “I am afraid you will be angry, but I could find nothing but this in all my long, long journey. I felt so unhappy and sat down, and was about to cry when the sun came out, and I looked up at the beautiful blue heaven above, and a cloud said: “Don’t cry, little girl, I will give you a present to take home.” So, without further ado, the cloud ripped off the ceiling above a long piece of glorious blue sky, and it fell right into my lap, so I was very glad to find something, and ran at once to you.” The fairy said: “This is very beautiful, and you have done well, and the blue shall stand for truth.”
Then just as the fairy finished speaking to the little girl, the little boy ran up, and he was not pleased or happy over his gift either. He felt he might have done better; his hard work and many efforts should have been better rewarded, but at any rate he brought what he had to offer. He had wandered long and far in the heat and wind, and just as he was becoming very discouraged and had almost given up hope, he looked down at his feet and a red rose nodded in the breeze at him, and seemed to smile and welcome him as her delicate petals opened and closed.
He stooped and plucked the rose and nestled it close to his heart to protect it from the weather as he ran through the woods to find the fairy. The fairy welcomed him joyously, and told him not to be discouraged, for it was just the color she wanted. She said: “You know, dear, the red is for strength, and now we need only one more thing to weave in this fabric,” and she raised her eyes to the heavens and down came thirteen stars and landed right in her lap.
Then the fairy, with the two little girls and the little boy, sat down and began to weave, and the fairy wove and wove and wove. She wove the red, which was strength, and white, which was purity, into thirteen long stripes, and then she made a beautiful bed from the blue sky, which stood for truth, and in that bed of blue she placed in a circle the thirteen stars, and stars are the emblem of liberty, and now she held the sacred fabric up for the children to see.
She had woven together truth and liberty, purity and strength, and it was the great American flag, the flag of our country, the red, white, and blue.
My commentary:
I must say, after becoming so used to our short-handed version of language, this article was a bit cumbersome. So many unnecessary words and mis-matched grammar stuff. It’s still interesting to see how ideas and conversations were articulated on the page during a different time, though.
Not to mention, where I once thought of fairies as magical and benevolent, my listening to the LORE podcast and my penchant for the macabre (as well as my somewhat morbid sense of humor) has brought me to a place of being quite terrified of such a creature.
You know—it’s like the “wisps” on the Disney movie, Brave. A movie which I absolutely adore for its life lessons and my love of bears, but the wisps?! Hecka NO. Give me the bear.
On the other hand, I very much appreciated her opening paragraph, for the most part. Our kids are rarely taught the values that used to mean so much to us, to our Nation, as a People. Liberty and Honor are seemingly rare these days, and, as mentioned in a previous post, hate and greed seem to be growing (dare I say “metastasizing”?). It’s quite heart-breaking.
You know, maybe some fairies are alright. I’ll try not to generalize by making one sweeping motion that they’re all bad. 😅
Thank you for popping in. You are so much appreciated. Make it a great day and see you again soon!
That first paragraph puts it into words nicely. Thank you for another page of this book!