The ‘"Banner with a strange Device."’
--A good joke about the Richmond ladies is told by ‘"Dixie,"’ in the columns of the Memphis Appeal, which, though never before published, was ventilated quite extensively in this section not very long ago. An order was received from the Army of the Potomac for seventy-five regimental flags of an entirely new and ‘"strange device."’ They were to be made and forwarded to Manassas in forty-eight hours. The whole matter was to be kept a profound secret. So the making of the flags was entrusted to seventy-five ladies, who were expected to hold their seventy-five little tongues for the space of two days and nights at the least. It need scarcely be added that the fact, and the pattern of the banner, and the short time in which the order was to be filled — in brief, all about it, was known to everybody the next morning. The ladies of Richmond are zealous and patriotic, but does Gen. Johnston expect them to perform. impossibilities ?
