The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-06-16
LET EVERY LOVER OF BIRDS

Read the following, written by Pew. DR..
T. De Witt Talmage, of Brooklyn:
"This morning l had put in my hand
leahet from the Massachusetts Society
for prevention OF cruelty to animal. 1t
contains letter from Pundita Ramabai
of India, in which she says there is more
wrong done the birds in America than in
India.
We want more birds, millions of them,
multiplied by other millions, that shall
sing in every tree-top and futter out
of every grove and nest under the
caves of every house. We are barring the
orchards and gardens and the harvest
fields of America to an exposure that Is
awful beyond calculation. So the ornith-
ologist tell us, SO the agricultural depart
ment of Washington tell us, SO Legislative
committees tells US. so our own common
sense tell u.s. The laws on this sub
ject are insufficient. Those we have al
ready upon our books are not executed.
What is most needed and what will be
most effective will be the establishment
OF a public sentiment In American wo-
manhood that shall be opposed to this
bird slaughter. IL once they realize the
wrong they will extinguish it.
The kindly and songful birds have
enough enemies without human antag
onism. No creatures of God have a
harder time to live than they. First,
they have enemies in the animal kingdom,
as man has in his. The eagles. the crows.
the squirrels, the weasels are their assail-
ants. Then the hurricanes dash them
against the rocks and beat them against
the rocks, and beat them against light.
houses, and tangle them in the telegraph
ic wires, and toss them into the sea, and
drive them back in their semi annual mi
grafton. Aud they have their own dis
tempers to contend against, and what
gauntlet of earth and sky they run before
they come within range of sportsman or
taxidermist. For Gods sake and the
hsrvest's and the orchards and the gar
denis, of which they are the natural de-
| tenders, let them live, and remember,
that while you have navies and armies to
keep off other enemies, against whole
kingdoms Of singing, besoiling and
| beautiful animalcul@, there is only one
weapon that has ever been formed, or
ever will be formed, that is birds beak.
DO not pull doaon gour oacn fortreSses.
DO not spike yoatr oson guns.
DO not cdrbige gour ot1n cavalry.
Instead of this perpetual shooting and
stollng of your festhered friends, feed
the snow.birds from your window, and
listen quietly to the song in the forest,
and coax the advances OF these bright
creatures OF God.
shoot the orchestra. Do not assassin
ate these prima donnas of the sky. The
world has enough groans, but not enough
roundelay; enough Sigh, but not enough
carol; enough dirges, but not enough an
them. God again and again announces
his sympathies with these beautiful Gre at
ures of his hand. Christ points to the
brilliant plumage, and says: Behold
the fowls of the air; for they SOW not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns, yet our heavenly Father feedeth
Them And again he says: Are not
two sparrows sold for a farthing, and yet
one OF them is not forgotten before God
You could easier forget to feed your
children at the breakfast or the dining
or the tea-table than God could forget to
feed the smallest humming bird.
The wife of a Uuited States Senator
told my family the following incident :
She, said to the great Alexander II.
STEPHENS -
Come and see my canarybird that has
just died.
NO. said Gov. Stephens, Il cannot
look at dead bird with any composure;
it makes me cry
Surely, if God declares his deep inter-
est in The birds, we need not be ashamed
of having a feeling OF regard for them.
How 1 sympathize with them, especially
in the autumn, when they have TO move.
In many a tree-top they, day after day,
hold their semi annual cow ention, NOV
ing and passing resolutions on the subject
of migration; some proposing to go to-
! morrow, some moving TO go to-day; some