The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-05-19
HEARTLEss DESTRUCTION.

HEARTLEss DESTRUCTION.
fhs Butchery Of the Birds and the Fear
full Ravages Of Intemperance.
This warfare on birds of plumage is
extending all over this country. Rob-
ins, gold-winged woodpeckers, hum
ming birds, thrushes, orioles, blue birds
and meadow larks are shot by the thou
sands and the shine and plumage sent
to the shops to be used for the female
head dress. There is talk of society
to prevent this slaughter, to prohibit
this butchery of birds - this bloody
offering to the cruel goddess of fashion.
A case Is mentioned of a lady who
had on her hat the heads of fifteen
birds, and who for one moment had
not thought that 50 many sweet songs
had been hushed that she might shine
in borrowed plumage. confess that
there is something pathetic in that
statement which finds its way to my
heart.
So many sweet voices hushed forever.
When was q little boy about seven
years of age, one summer evening I
was driving home the cows on my
fathers farm. / threw stone at
beautiful bird which was resting upon
the top of the stone wall. That bird had
as much right to live in its rural home
there beyond the Hudson az l had. l
heard its twitter before l threw that
stone. 1t acted as though its summer
day had been happy one and was
resting from its joyous activity. With
hnv hn, vnl hat
and knocked it from its perch. ran
and picked it up; it quivered for a
moment and was still, and then a feel
ing of regret came over me that threw
shadow over that other shadow of
! evening time. l touched its little head
and smoothed its shining plumage of
its slender neck, and then thought that
had hlshed voice which ought to
have been allowed to add to the glad
ness of the morrow. Forty years have
passed, but still I can not forget that
evening when I hushed that voice of
song. I hid that little bird in cleft
in the wall and for days afterward as I
passed that way l watched its withered
and shrunken form and my young
heart felt as though had been at a
funeral.
Oh, the madness of our so-called
civilization which permits $4,000
human voices to be hushed by intem-
perance every year IN this land of ours
and the majority of them working
men-voices hushed before their time,
voices which once had all the sweet
| tenderness ofinnocent childhood, voices
| which once rang with well-rounded
laughter of playful and gleeful youth,
voices which once declared that this
world was to them full of the inspira-
ton of bright hopes, voices whose
tones were once charged with the ex-
pectations of happy immortality,
now hushed forever.
You miss the robin and oriole and
the sea swallow, the birds of golden
plumage which fall victims to human
| avarice and human vanity-you miss
them. When their voices are hushed
some one comes forth and asks you to
be human and spare them.
Go to that home made wretched by
that drunkard who died few weeks
| ago. Is that wretchedness banished
because death overlook him in his wild
| delirium, and smothered that voice
which first grew husky and then
weaker, and then with sigh or q
groan charged with spirit anguish be-
came silent.
Go to the grave-he is harmless
now. He doesn't need any policeman
now to tell him when to be quiet. He
will not come out of his grave now to
utter any complaint or indictment
against the age which made him its
victim.
No, sir; his voice is hushed. Let
that silence frame its own argument to
brand the so-called civilization, which,
taking advantage of human weakness
and the power Of appetite, will roll the
ponderous wheels of its juggernaut
over $4,000 human beings and hush
their voices forever-60, 900 hushed
every year to garnish the homes of
liquor sellers and to elevate the poll
ticians who fatten off of their infected
wealth. Recent Sermon by DIR.
& McChesney, Topeka, Kan.