The youngest nation has the oldest flag. It is of historical interest that our flag is older than the present flag of Great Britain, which was adopted in 1801, and it is nine years older than the flag of Spain, which was adopted in 1785. The French tricolor was decreed in 1794; then comes the flag of Portugal in 1830; then the Italian tricolor in 1848; then the flags of the old empires of China and Japan, and of the empire of Germany, which represents the sovereignty of fourteen distinct states established in 1870. Prior to the Revolution, and indeed during the evolution of a nation through the crucible of war, separate and distinct flags were popular with the colonists. Nearly every colony had at least one. They were not abandoned until it became apparent the colonies were never again to be colonies, but to form a nation with one flag, one set of institutions and laws, a fact which inspired the visit of Washington to Betsy Ross as told in the foregoing papers. Many of the colonial flags were interesting. GROUP OF COLONIAL FLAGS, NO. 1. The two upper flags of this group represent those used at Bunker Hill July 18, 1775, and bore these inscriptions: On one side, “An Appeal to Heaven,” and on the other, “Qui Transtulit Sustinet”—He who transported will sustain. These were beautiful flags, and research shows that both colors were used. Trumbull gives the red in his celebrated painting in the capitol at Washington, and other authentic accounts show that the blue flag was carried also—the color being the only difference in the two. THE PINE TREE FLAG. The pine tree flag which was a favorite with the officers of the American privateers, had a white field with a green pine tree in the middle and bore the motto, “An appeal to heaven.” This flag was officially endorsed by the Massachusetts council, which in April, 1776, passed a series of resolutions providing for the regulation of the sea service, among which was the following: Resolved, That the uniform of the officers be green and white, and that they furnish themselves accordingly, and that the colors be a white flag with a green pine tree and the inscription, “An appeal to heaven.”—Harper’s Round Table. [Illustration: COPYRIGHT 1898, BY ADDIE G. WEAVER.] The striped Continental flag opposite the pine tree flag was of red and white stripes without a field. THE RATTLESNAKE FLAG. The device of a rattlesnake was popular among the colonists, and its origin as an American emblem is a curious feature in our national history. It has been stated, that its use grew out of a humorous suggestion made by a writer in Franklin’s paper—the Pennsylvania Gazette—that, in return for the wrongs which England was forcing upon the colonists, a cargo of rattlesnakes should be sent to the mother country and “distributed in St. James’ Park, Spring Garden and other places of pleasure.”