THE new cadet at the National Military Academy, whether he has come from the little country school with its home-made flag and staff, or from the city school where floats sometimes a flag big enough to cover half the roof of the other school, has been taught to respect the beautiful emblem of his country; but he will learn at West Point, as soon as he begins his career as a future officer of the army, how thoroughly he is to be trained to honor it in his daily life. The laughing school-boy salute he has perhaps given the Flag from time to time now becomes a matter of sober ceremony, so rigidly required and handsomely ordered that it at once sets him to thinking; and the good, sound patriotism that was in him all along soon envelops every glimpse and ceremony of the Colors with a sacredness that will deepen day by day.

One of his first lessons is to doff his cap each time he passes the "Color-line" where the Color is guarded by a sentinel. Every summer the cadets pass several months in camp on the lovely banks of the Hudson, and beneath the grand old trees of the academy grounds.

During certain hours of the day a long line of stacked rifles extends along the front of the camp. Across the two stacks in the center of the line is laid the Color, rolled about its staff. Up and down by this flag marches a natty

cadet sentinel, and woe be unto the unlucky cadet who tries to pass this sacred trust without raising his cap.

So during his life at the academy this lesson of respect is continued, and when he has "doffed the cadet and donned the brevet, and changed the gray for the blue," and reported for duty with his regiment, he finds the same lessons being taught the enlisted men, and then probably for the first time does he realize the full importance of those early lessons taught in that faraway school-house.

There is nothing that more conduces to make a good, true, and loyal soldier than to inculcate in him love and respect for the Flag he has sworn to uphold and defend. To bring about this end, there are certain ceremonies in the army that are intended to impress the wearers of the uniform with the dignity of the Flag. One of these ceremonies is called the "Escort to the Color," and it is the finest and most impressive of all military observances. Every regiment carries two flags: one the National, the other the Regimental, which carries the number and name of the regiment. These flags are kept at the residential quarters of the colonel, or at his office, where they are zealously cared for. It is when the regiment parades, and these flags are to be brought to the troops, that the Escort to the Color is carried out.

When the regiment has formed line on the parade, the colonel details a company to bring the Colors and escort them to their place in the line. The company marches in column of platoons, headed by the band, which does not play as the march down the front of the line is made. The two color-sergeants, old and faithful soldiers appointed to these desired places by reason of long service and military bearing, march between the two platoons. Upon arriving in front of the building where the flags are kept, line is formed, the band standing on the right of the escort.

The first lieutenant, with drawn sword, and the two color sergeants, or color-bearers, who are followed by a sergeant armed with a rifle, enter the building and receive the flags. When the color-bearers appear, followed by the lieutenant and the sergeant, they halt at the entrance and form line, facing the escort. Arms are presented, and from the field music (the trumpeters) comes a thrilling call named "to the Color," during the sound of which all stand motionless with arms at the present. After the sounding of the Color has ended, arms are brought to the order, and then column of platoons is reformed, the two color-sergeants taking places between the two platoons; and, thus guarded, the march is taken up, the band playing a spirited air.

Around the shady main avenue of the post marches the escort, each soldier erect and appearing as if he felt that the flags were entrusted to him alone instead of to the company of which he forms so small a part. How each man steps out to the strains of the march, probably Sousa's inspiring "Stars and Stripes Forever!" Down past the officers' quarters, the porches of which are filled with the wives, daughters, and sweethearts of the officers parading, goes the escort. The respect shown for the Flag is not confined to the wearers of the army blue; for as the escort passes each house, these true and loyal women cease their talk, and stand quietly till the Flag has passed, when the interesting discussion or the latest news is resumed. Past a group of enlisted men not required to attend the parade marches the escort. Each man stands at "attention," and removes his cap. A group of small

boys at play is next passed. Every one, a true soldier's son, stands, cap in hand, till Old Glory has passed. I have seen this same small boy grow up, pass through the "Point," and command one of the platoons in the escort after graduation, and maybe in the same company commanded by his father. This march around the post has at last brought the escort opposite the right of the line of paraded troops, when the colonel commands attention, and down the line passes the glittering guard.

On reaching a point in the front of the center of the paraded command, the escort forms line facing the regiment, the two color-sergeants marching to the front till twelve paces in front of the colonel and his staff. Arms are then presented to the Flags by command of the colonel, and while the trumpeters again sound "to the Color" the Flags are allowed to fly to the breeze, the lances are lowered in acknowledgment of the "present," and now the moment is one to fill the soul of every lover of his country with a thrill that is indescribable. The silk and tasseled flags, caught by the rays of the sun, shine and glisten in front of the solid ranks of blue-and-gold uniforms massed across the deep green sward of the parade-ground — a picture difficult for any pen to portray.

After the sounding of the Color, the two sergeants march to their places in the parade; and the escorting company, having faithfully carried out its sacred duty, now wheels into column of platoons, and headed by the band with inspiring music, proceeds on down the line and around in the rear of the regiment, whence, without music, it goes to its proper place in the line, and the formal dress-parade is begun. After parade the Color-guard escorts the Flags to the place where they are preserved.

There is in the army no ceremony so imposing, nor any that is watched with so much interest by the visitor to the army post, as the one described, nor one so much liked by those whose pleasant duty it is to perform it.

There is another ceremony that, while not so formal as that described, is but little less impressive, and a very beautiful one. At sundown the trumpeters assemble, and when the companies on their barrack esplanades have assumed the "parade rest" the "retreat" is