every State then in the Federal Union, and for those that would be admitted an extra star to be added on the 4th day of July after the admission of the State. Now, by a late act, the State is not admitted until the 4th day of July after the passage of the act admitting her to statehood. The act reads as follows: "An Act to establish the flag of the United States. Sec. 1. Be it enacted, etc., that from and after the fourth day of July next the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes alternate red and white; that the union have twenty stars white in a blue field. "Sec. 2. And 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. "Approved April 4, 1818." The use of stars by the Colonies on their flags was first suggested by a little piece of poetry in a newspaper called the "Massachusetts Spy," published in Boston on March the 10th, 1774. It was as follows: "A ray of bright glory Now beams from afar; The American Ensign Now sparkles a star." [Illustration: Figs. 6, 7, 10 and 11] This piece of poetry was the cause of a flag being made in 1775 by a patriotic vessel owner of Massachusetts having thirteen white stars on it in a blue union, the body of the flag being white, with an anchor upon it having over the top the word "HOPE" (see Fig. 1), already mentioned. It was hoisted on the armed schooner Lee, Captain John Manley (see also Rhode Island Colonial Records, Vol. X, p. 14. A similar flag is now in the office of the Secretary of State. It was carried by a Rhode Island regiment during the Revolution). Either this or the stars on the Washington book plate, in the absence of any record, may be taken as reasons for the adoption of the stars in the union in place of the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George. I have also referred to the claim that the combination of the stars and stripes was probably adopted out of love and respect for Washington. If this claim is true, then we would have, according to the Ross claim the spectacle of Washington complimenting and honoring himself, when, as a matter of fact, his whole life disproves such conduct on his part. Now, let us see if this argument as to the origin of the combination is born out by facts. We find in a book printed in London in 1704 by J. Beaumont that the English East India Company had a flag of thirteen red and white stripes alternating (see Fig. 6) the same as ours, only it had the red cross of St. George in a white union. In 1705 they reduced the stripes to ten; but in another work on ship-building, published in 1705, by Carl Allard in Amsterdam, we find that he fixes the number of stripes at nine. Also in a book published by Le Haye in 1737 we find that the number of striped flags in existence in Europe were as follows: Bremen, nine