38 Life and Sport on the Pacific Slope 



The Stars and Stripes floated from the top of every 

 house. Upon hundreds of thousands of windows 

 were pasted paper flags. The girls encircled their 

 hats and waists with ribbons of red, white, and 

 blue. The boys bought badges and buttons. The 

 men wore tiny enamelled scarf-pins. Some Eng- 

 lishmen took exception to this perfervid patriotism. 

 They said that love of country was cheapened 

 when a man wore it in his cravat instead of in his 

 heart. In England, continued these critics, the 

 flag was held too sacred to be defamed to calico 

 uses.^ I can quite sympathise with this point of 

 view, but I can also sympathise with and apprehend 

 the spirit of a new country which exacts, and exults 

 in, a demonstration. And a demonstration is neces- 

 sary, — the confession of faith of a heterogeneous 

 people. Englishmen can well take the patriotism 

 of their fellow-countrymen for granted ; they are 

 and have been Englishmen for nearly a thousand 

 years. But in the West is it not common prudence 

 to demand from the Kelt, the Teuton, the Latin, 

 the Slav, an answer to the question, " Are you truly 

 of us, or merely with us ? " Fifty years hence the 

 Stars and Stripes will be still the beloved flag, but 

 it will not be seen twisted around the hats of the 

 maidens, or pasted in paper upon the windows. 



The men of the West may be divided into three 

 classes : those who live by the seaboard, those who 

 live on the plains, and the stockmen and miners 

 who dwell in the mountains. 



* Since these lines were written the author has witnessed the 

 scenes in London after Ladysmith and Mafeking were relieved. 



