The Original Rattlesnake Flag.
Pennsylvania’s State museum, at Harrisburg, has just received one of the most precious of the historic relics housed there. It is the original rattlesnake flag of the Revolutionary War, the oldest banner representing what is now the United States.[{66}]
The flag was donated by the heirs of Samuel Craig, of Westmoreland County, who died six years ago. One of the forbears of the Craigs carried it in the early days of the Revolution.
Edmund S. Craig, of New Alexandria, and P. M. Hill, of Greensburg, two of the donors, took the flag to the museum. Jesse E. B. Cunningham, ex-deputy attorney general and a former Westmoreland County man, accompanied the pair and presented the relic to Thomas Lynch Montgomery, State librarian and curator of the museum. The flag is red, with the coiled rattlesnake and the “Don’t Tread on Me” warning in the center.
The Weekly 101, Most Unique Paper.
Robert R. Fitzgerald, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., is the editor of the most unique newspaper in the world—The Weekly 101. It is printed in lead pencil throughout, though the editions run from eight to twenty pages of standard newspaper size. The advertisements, illustrations, comic section—everything about the paper is hand-lettered by the editor, who prefers to hide himself behind the pseudonym of “Mooney Mingles.”
Fitzgerald is twenty years old, and started his paper more than a year ago. Two editions are turned out weekly, and, thus far, more than 170 editions have been printed. The regular editions are penciled on white print paper, but the baseball extra is generally done on paper of a better quality and known as the “green sheet.” In this supplement the baseball events of the week are briefly and ably reported.
A special edition was recently turned out to become a part of the Indiana exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Another special number was sent to President Wilson, who congratulated the editor upon the patience and ingenuity necessary to produce such a newspaper.
The Weekly 101 is prepared during the editor’s spare hours, and these are limited, because Fitzgerald works ten hours a day in a local factory to support his mother and a family of five.
The ambitious young man is anxious to own a real newspaper plant, because, as he complains, the press he now uses frequently breaks down through an attack of writer’s cramp.
Those who have received sample pages of the pencil editor’s work say that the young man seems to be competent to take his place among the live editors of to-day. Lawrenceburg is already proud of his remarkable and unique weekly, but the thriving little city will probably be doubly proud when the young editor launches forth into the regular channels of newspaper work.
The following paragraph is from one of the sample sheets submitted by our correspondent:
“The 101 Weekly newspaper will be just one year old next week. Mooney Mingles, the little editor, has planned to put out a big special edition on that day. During this whole year Mooney has not, like hundreds—yes, like thousands—of other boys, wasted his time, but during all of his spare moments has published just 160 of these copies, all printed by hand. The young editor has sent copies of this penciled newspaper to the exposition at San Francisco, Cal., to Chicago, New York, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Detroit, London, England, and many other large cities, and figures that it has been seen by 10,000,000 people.[{68}][{67}]”