The Portland daily press., 1886-05-25
The slaughter of the Innocents.

George William Curtis in Harper's Magazine fol
June.)
The story of the butcher who looked out in
the soft summer moonlight and announced
that something ought to be done on so fine a
night, and he guessed he would go and ''slar-
ter" was told to Melissa, who calculated
pretty Obs and Abs, and said "But how vul-
garI 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
womanw For the delicate lady was the
wearer of dead birds in her hat, and encour-
aged the Starter" of the loyeliest 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 orderto wear
the horns and tails of his victims.
"How hideous" exelaims Belinda as she
sees the pictured head of the savage islander
--srings in his nose! how hideouS ~ And
the gentle Belinda shakes the rings in her
ears against such barbarism. Sylvia, too,
laughs gayly at the wife of the Chinese am
bassador stumping along upon invisible feet /;
and Sylvia, would laugh more freely, except
for her invisible waist. 1t is so prepOsterouS
to squeeze your feet, she remarks; it is de-
formity it outrages nature. And the superb
and benignant Venus of Milo smiles from
her pedestal in the corner, and with her eyes
fixed on Sylvia's waist, echoes Sylyia,,s words
'sIt is deformity; it outrages nature"
The Puritan preacher who, somewhat per-
yerting his text, cried, "Iop-knot, come
DOWN. declared war upon the innocent rib
bod that, carefully trained and twisted and
exalted into towering ornament douptlesS
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 was
clear. Top-knots must come down If they
allured to a sweeter worship than he incul-
Gated. 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 memorials of
heartless slaughter They were simple de-
vices by which maidenly charms were
heightened, and little grace and taste and
beauty were lent to the sombre Puritan world.
But the top knots Of to-day are bought at
q monstrous price. Carlyle says Of certain
enormous fire-fies on an island of the East
Indies that placed upon poles they illuminate
journey Of distinguished people by. night
Great honor to the fre-fies he ex-
claims built is great honor to the golden
winged woodpecker to be shot and then
daintily poised upon the hat of Cyrllla as,
enveloped in cloud of dudes, she prom
eDades 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 around his neck, and at last is shamed
out of his murderous fancy. How If Cyrllla
strolling in the summer fields, haply with
young Laurence hanging enthralled upon
the cur disgraced with the dead chicken
around his neck, she with the dead wood
pecker upon her head!
The lovely lady puts premium upon wan
ton slaughter and unspeakable cruelty. She
incites the murderous small boy and all the
idlers and Migrants to snare and shoot the
singing birds and silence the heavenly music
like the summer. She cries for starter, "sand
of 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
he 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 a humane
and Christian civilization to protect the birds
as we protect the beasts against the wanton
cruelty of humanlsayages. And Melissa, Be
linda, Sylvia, Cyrilla and their mates-''the
rosebud garden of girls will they conscious
ly make themselves accomplices in crime
against the innocent? Let them not ask
whether the pearl hanging upon their bosoms
or fixed in their rings is any less a proper or
nament or less beautiful because it is called
"a diseased secretion There is no cruelty in
the making or taking of the pearl. 1t does
not consciously diminish the beauty and mel
ody of the world. But the dead bird upon Cyr-
illa's hat does all that, and it brutalizes those
who do the mischief.
Like many fashion, the wearing Of dead
birds is thoughtlessly wrong, and the protest
organized as one of the most effective method
of staying the massacre of the innocents, will
suggest to many gentle heart that uncon-
sciously it has aided and abetted an offense
against which every humane and generous
feeling protests; and as the offense is swiftly
removed from hat and bonnet, in the sweet
and happy voices of the birds of this summer
their hearts will hear hymn of gratitude.