The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-06-17
BIRDS.
A Strenuous Protest Against the Slaughter
of the InnOcanta.

/ of the Innocents.
The story of the butcher who looked
out in the soft summer moonlight and
announced that something ought to be
done on so fine night, and he guessed
he would go and starter" was told to
Melissa, who calculated pretty Obs and
Abs, and said, But how vulgarr' Yet
had some dreadful Nathan heard the
words, and beheld Melissa as she spoke,
he would have raised his voice and
pointed his finger and said: Thou art
the womanr' For the delicate lady
was the wearer of dead birds in her hat,
and encouraged the ''slarter" of the
loveliest and sweetest of innocent song
birds merely to crafty her vanity. The
butcher, madam, may be vulgar, but
at least he does not kill in order to wear
the horns and tails of his victims.
How hideousr' exclaims Belinda. as
she sees the pictured head of the savage
rings in his nosel how hid
eous" And the gentle Belinda shakes
the rings in her ears in protest against
such barbarism- Sylvia, too, laughs
gayly at the wife of the Chinese ambas-
sador stumping along upon invisible
feet; and Sylvia would laugh more free
III
preposterOus to squeeze your feet, she
remarks; it is a deformity; it outrages
nature. And the superb and benignant
Venus of Milo smiles from her pedestal
in the corner, and with her ewes fixed
upon Sylvia's waist, echoes Sylvia's
words: lit is deformity; it outrages
nature"
The Puritan preacher who, somewhat
nQrUpFtInn hia foxt at
come down" declared war upon the
innocent ribbons that, carefully trained
and twisted and exalted into a tower
ing ornament, doubtless nodded from
the head of Priscilla to the heart of John
Alden and melted it completely, while
the preacher could not even catch his
wandering eye. The preachers course
was clear. Top-knots must come down
if they allured to sweeter worship
than he inculcated. But those ribbons
were made for that pretty purpose of
adornment. They were not victims.
They silenced no song; they hardened
no heart; they rewarded no wanton
cruelty; they destroyed no charm of
field or wood. They were not memoir
ials OF heartless slaughter. They We're
simply devices by which maidenly
charms were heightened, and a little
grace and taste and beauty were lent to
the sombre Puritan world.
But the top-knots of to-day are bought
at monstrous price. Carlyle SAYS of
certain enormous fire-fiies on an island |
of the East Indies that, placed upon |
poles, they illuminate the journeys of |
distinguished people by night Great |
honor to the tire-fiies he exclaims; but |
1t is great honor to the golden-winoed |
woodpecker to be shot and then daintily |
poised upon the hat of Cyrilla, rs, envei- |
oped in a cloud of dudes, she promena-
des the Avenue on Sunday AFTERNOON
great honor to the woodpecker, but:
The naughty dog in the country which |
hunts and kills chickens is made to |
wear dead chicken hung round his
neck, and at last is shamed out of his |
murderous fancy. How if Cyrilla, stroll
ing in the summer fields, haply with
young Laurence hanging enthralled
upon her sweet eyes. her low replies,
should meet the cur disgraced with the
dead chicken around his neck, she with
the dead woodpecker upon her head!
The lovely lady puts premium upon
wanton slaughter and unspeakable
cruelty. She incites the murderous
small boy and all the idlers and vagrants
to snare and shoot the singing birds,
and silence the heavenly music of the
summer air. She cries for ..slarter,"
and, like the white cat enchanted into
the Princess, who leaps to the floor in
hot chase when the mouse appears, the
Queen of Beauty, with feathered CORPSE
for a crown, begins to seem even to
Laurence unhappily enchanted.
Henry Bergh is one of our great
modern benefactors. If beasts could
speak, or knew to whom they owe the
deepest gratitude, his path would be
hallowed by the prayers and blessings
of the innocent and helpless whom Se
has relieved. But the birds of the air
are not less our dependents than the
beasts of the field. 1t is as plainly the
duty of humane and Christian civiliza-
ton to protect the birds as we protect
the beasts against the wanton cruelty OF
human savages. And Melissa, Belinda,
Sylvia, Cyrilla, and their mates-..the
rosebud garden of girls they
make themselves accumplices
IN crime against the innocent? Let
them not ask whether the pearl hanging
upon their boSomS or fixed in their rings
IS any less proper ornament or less
beautiful because 1t is called IA diseased
There is no cruelty in the
making or taking of the pearl. 1t does
not consciously diminish the life and
beauty and melody of the world. But
the dead bird upon Cyrilla's hat does
all that, and it brutalizes those who do
The mischief.
Like many fashion, the wearing of
dead birds is thoughtless wrong, and
he protest against it which is now not
only raised, but organized, as one of the
most effective methods of staying the
massacre of the innocents. will suggest
o many gentle heart that unconscious
y it has aided and abetted an offence
against which every humane and gener- ,
'us feeling protests; and as the offence
8 swiftly removed from hat and bonnet, !
N the sweet and happy voices of the !
birds of this summer their hearts will :
lear a hymn of gratitude George =
William Curtis, in Harper'S Magazine :