The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-04-05
APlea for Humming Birds.

The London Daily Press says: "Lady Bur-
detts Coutts, out OF that large and bcunteous
goodness of heart which has made her name
a household word, has entered vigorous and
emphatic protest against the idle and wanton
cruelty which uses the plumage of the poor
little humming bird as an ornament OF the
feminine toilet. The fashion in question is
comparatively modern, but it has yet within
the last few years been carried to most I'M
reasonable and outrageous length. Paris con-
fessedly sets the lead in European fashion !;
and readers of our Partisan correspondents
letters may recollect how, at the Due de la
Rochefoucauld- Bisaccia in honor of the Wis
it of the Heir-Apparent to the English throne,
Ole lady appeared in dress composed en-
tirey of the skins of canary birds, another in
a robe which was, to use technical phrase,
quilted with the tiny little blue feathers of
the wing coverts of the jay, and third,
again, whose costume was literally powdered
over with hundreds of the eXquis tie, fairy
like and minute humming-bird. Vitellius, ac-
cording to the veracious chronicler of the
Vita C8sarum' once had served up at his
private table dish which consisted of the
curried tongues of thousand nightingales.
We have no wish to defend Vitellius; but it
is at the same time very nice question in
ethics whether Roman emperor who kills
thousand nightingales to furnish single en-
tree is or is not guilty OF worse and more
wanton cruelty than grd7lde dame de par
le monde-as old Brantome would say-who
condemns a thousand Ehumming-birds to
death to trim single dress. On the whole,
we are inclined to think that the casuistical
balance inclines, if anything, in favor of the
emperor. Vitellius, to do him justice, was
pagan pure and simple, to whom kind
ness to animals hardly presented it.
self. or had ever been presented in
the light of duty. Besides, substitution
in cookery is impossible. Mock turtle is very
we'll in its way; but it is not the real thing.
And so, if dish of nightingale's tongues
has to be served up, nothing will suffice for
the purpose but the real and genuine article;
whereas, when dress is. concerned, it Is
quite possible, as lady Burdett Coutts points
out, to produce a fabric of the loom that
shall not only rival but actually surpass, Ma
lures most exquisite products. Point lace is
more wonderfully and mathematically beauti-
full than the daintiest gossamer ever yet spun
by spider; Genoa velvet is softer and-more
lustrous than the thickest seal-skin; and our
grandmothers knew of embroidered dresses
the weird and strange fancies of which
where each leafet in the flowers and feather
in the bird was wrought by skilled hands
must have eclipsed hundred fold the most
glowing humming-bird toilette that ever yet
left the dtelier of a Partisan m0disie. II cam
not but ask those" says Lady Burdett Coutts,
"who regulate the constantly varying fash
ions, whether they could not and would not
rather encourage the delicate designs of pat
tern in the ribbon trade, now much wanting
support, or the beautiful art work in artificial
flowers which gives bread to many and many
toiing hand-in short, any of those multi
form devices payment for which brings hum
bic comforts to humble homes, and to en-
courage which would scatter the means of
enjoyment abroad ;than mode of ornament
alton which must suggest boodstain on the
delicate hat or cap, and has senced the joy
song In the breast of a fiuttering, harmless
creature. Why not rather encourage the
imitation of the pretty creatures in silk or
iewelry, which would scarcely rival the birds
hues in life, but the brilliancy and beauty of
which are quickly duled when the spirit has
left the wonderful structure the Creator gave