THE Flag of Virginia was a rattlesnake with blue tongue forked like lightning, and with thirteen rattles, looking like a fierce Anaconda coiled, but with head and tail up, painted on white silk, having the motto, “Don’t tread on me!” It was considered as an emblem of wisdom, and of endless duration as a representative of America, an animal found in no other part of the world. The eye of this creature excels in brightness that of any other animal; it has no eyelids and is therefore an emblem of vigilance. It never begins an attack nor ever surrenders, it is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. It never wounds until it has given notice to its enemies of their danger. Its wounds, however small, are decisive and fatal. The power of fascination attributed to it resembles America. Those who look steadily in its eyes are delighted, and involuntarily advance toward, and having once approached it, never leave it. THE FLAG AT YORKTOWN. AT the battle of Yorktown, October 19, 1781, the French troops triumphantly carried our American Stars and Stripes, with the spread eagle on the blue field, for the eagle was their adoration, and they stormed the redoubts, led on by the chivalric and heroic Generals Muhlenberg and Lafayette, who immediately hoisted that Flag upon the turret of the fortifications. The instant that Lord Cornwallis spied it, he was terror stricken. The waving of that Flag compelled him to surrender; for that Flag was the proclamation of Victory! and IT ended the war in a blaze of glory. THE FLAG WITH ITS MESSAGE. WHEREVER the Flag of Betsy Ross went, it waved majestically and above suspicion; no temptation or opposition could deter it, for her godly prayer went with it, and upon every Flag she forwarded, she pinned her printed message, viz: “EVERY MAN THAT IS AGAINST THIS FLAG IS A TRAITOR.” Aye! where the battle was the hottest, and amidst the hail of fire where the bullets fell the fastest and thickest, that Flag cheered the wounded and dying patriots to shout “FIGHT ON! FIGHT ON! FIGHT ON!” And when the brave Commander Lawrence saw that the Flag on his Frigate still waved, though wounded and dying, he cried out, in these immortal words, “Don’t give up the ship!”