playing a banner of thirteen stripes; that the navy yard and
the marine barracks were flying flags of eighteen stripes; and that
during the first session of the preceding Congress the flag floating
over their deliberations had had, from some unknown cause or other,
only nine stripes.

It is small wonder that after such an arraignment as this the
lawmakers aroused themselves. The following bill was passed, and was
signed by President Monroe, April 4, 1818:--

SECTION 1. _Be it enacted, etc._, That from and after the fourth
day of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen
horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; that the union have
twenty stars, white in a blue field.

SECTION 2. _Be it further enacted_, That on the admission of every
new State into the Union, one star be added to the union of the
flag; and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth of
July next succeeding such admission.

So it was that the flag of the United States was finally decided upon.
Captain S. C. Reid designed it, and his wife made a specimen flag,
which was hoisted on the flagstaff of the House of Representatives a
few days after the law legalizing it was passed. Forty-one years
later, in 1859, Congress formally thanked Captain Reid. The one weak
point in this law was that the arrangement of the stars on the blue
field was left to the taste of the owner of the flag. Captain Reid
arranged them in one large star; but it was evident that if this plan
was continued, as new States were admitted, the stars would become too
small to be seen distinctly. The Navy Commissioners issued the order
that in naval flags the stars should be arranged in five rows, four
stars in a row; but for many years merchant vessels paid small
attention to this decree. Indeed, in 1837 the Dutch Government
inquired, with all respect, "What is the American flag?" Twenty years
later an observant man in Jersey City amused himself on the Fourth of
July by noting the numerous fashions in which the stars were arranged.
He said that all flags had the thirteen stripes--though not always in
the proper order--but that he had counted nine different fashions in
which the stars were arranged. They appeared in one large star, in a
lozenge, a diamond, or a circle, and one vessel in the river flaunted
an anchor formed of stars. It was suggested that Congress ought to
order some regular arrangement, but Congress did not take t