The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-10
A DemoraIixed bird.
(FrOm the Bos,on JOurnal.l

] From the Boston Journal.)
| Richard LIE Caffeine in his Travels In
| England compares the night-jar to
| Browning and the nightingale to Tenny-
| SON.. He speaks OF the relative unpop-
! ularity'' of this bird; Of his ugliness; Of
| the important references to him in the
books of George Meredith; of his growing
! reputation. He is the bird of the gen
| GRAFTON that demands the sincere voice. the
| cri de occur, however rugged that voice
| may be; a generation weary OF the rou-
! ladies' of the professional nightingale" And
here is paragraph that reveals the much
abused LIE Gallienne at his best:
For the night-jsr is very great poet.
and when a man gets the mysterious.
yearning melancholy Of the evening earth.
the ache Of it. the brackeny smell of 1t,
the moths fitting, the dew rising, thu
shadows massing. the stars tinkling out,
the moon somewhere-wheu man gets
these things into words as the night-jar
gets them into his one note, a note which.
though one. ia saved from monotony by a
mastery meditation and a subtle expan-
sion and retracticn Of its volume; when a
man does that, and further charges the
whole with the sense OF a hopeless ete--
nally patient passion, then We may call
him poet indeed.
Now. in Boston. in the Common. and in
the Public Garden. there is bird that
once was an exemplary poet. We refer to
the night hawk. a relative of lie Gall
ienne's friend. The story Of his downfall
is enc of the saddest Known to humani-
tarians. The pity of it is that he is
victim of what is vulgarly known as civil
| ization.
Before the introduction of electric lights
the night-hawk was faithful spouse, an
| affeetonate yet discriminating father. a
| citizen of irreproachable demeancr. With
! the going down Of the sun he thought OF
home and hied him thitherward. He often
went to bed at haf-past seven. Even on
| holidays and occasions OF national reioic-
/ ing he sought his slippers and candle at
o'clock. He awoke in the morning. re-
| fre5hed. ready to indulge himself in recre-
alton with his wife and to superintend
the education of his young. Other birds
held him up as an example of correct de-
pertinent to their maynard children and
sporty uncles.
The ruin of the night-hawk followed i'm
medately the introduction OF electric
light These gather insects about them:
and the night-hawk gathers in the insects.
Net that he really needs them but he is
Incorporate: he has given the rein to his
appetite. Nine o'clock. 10 o'clock mid
night. is sounded. The night-hawk needs
not the flight of time. He flies from tight
to light. as the inebriate wanders from
bar to bar. The hour of II strikes for the
benefit of the human night-hawk: the
feathered one awaits the putting cut OF
the lights.
Nor does he injure only himself by this
dissipation. He vexes mankind by per
ssting in his cry at impertinent hours.
The cry is not musical in the lyric sense;
it is hyper modern. intense; there is fore
boding: there is remorse: there Is the iro-
ny Of despair: there is knowledge CT
wasted opportunities; there is the thought
of iron-footed fate. The weary vagabond
snoozirg on the bench beneath shafders ct
the call of his ELECTROMAGNETIC. he recog-
nizes the last cry of an abandoned soul.
Think of the return of the night-hawli
to his home after the break of day. There
is the heavy. sodden. or ftful sleep OF a
bird that has eaten immoderately. There
IL the sudden start at waking. without full
consciousness of the surroundings. There
is the dancing nerve. the queer taste in
the mouth. the desire for bromo-selzer.
that soothing granular effervescent- At
breakfast the night hawk Is irritable: he
finds fault with the coffee and the edito-
rial articles in the newspaper. He spurns
the affectionate care Of his wife; the sim
pie joys Of his chipping brood jar him. nor
is he in the vein to advise them in mat
ters of educational progress. And then. in
spite OF tears and duplication. the fatal
fascination draws him to the common. He
sees the electric light even in the garish
day: he longs for the night and the bale
full glare.
Thus does applied science work the de-
struelicr OF bird. Thus does il turn
respectable feathered thing into a tiny
counterpart of the man that lives only at
night.