Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-10-15
ARTIFICIAL FEATHERS.
For the Salvation of the Birds of
Song.


Song.
If the society to bring back the
BIRDS would induce some enterpris-
ing factory folk to start up an arti-
fetal feather establishment, perhaps
our little brothers of the air" would
sooner render their secret of how to
fly, for very gratitude. What an ideal
Easter, if when we sing 'Ressurexit"
our little brothers should respond,
"Alleluiah!" and still those lovers of
bird bonnets should have head adorn-
ments as real cas- in looking glass"
and no birds worse for the decora-
tions! Surely few years hence wo-
men will be as ashamed to wear a
humming bird not artifcially con-
structed as to dine on nightingales'
tongues.
The thought of a voiceless spring,
the dismal woods, no birds-it is a
slaughter of domestic fowl. How
the witless fashion disappears of
wearing dead birds Happily, often
times the monstrosities are not real
birds, but birds of the imagination,
manufactured from market waste, the
slaughter of domestic fowl. How
these are cleansed, dyed and mounted
are secrets of the trade, and they
only suggest some artistic exploita-
tons of other fields and fabrics which
might be pursued legitimately with
better results.
Straw, hair, spunglass, hbers of
many plants, silk and all kinds of
dainty tissues, not to mention preci-
GUS stones and gold and silver, might
be used to initiate feathers and birds
without hushing this voiceful aspira-
ton toward freedom and the skies, or
pain or loss to our winged brethren,
it must be charming task, a delight
full imagination, a happy skill, that
can make of common waste feathers
a wreath of roses so like as to make
you feel you could smell the spicy
fragrance of the velvety Jacqueminot,
and yet such a wreath I saw the other
day.
Some jewelry found in the tombs of
Egyptian princesses- placed there
thousands of years before the Chris
tian erals a revelation of the deli
cacy of the goldsmith's art. The
sacred hawk is wrought in gold and
precious stones; the birds not half an
inch high, yet perfect. The soldering
of the minute parts of the gold is alb
solutely invisible. The figures Of the
hawks are made up of dozens of mi
crosocopic pieces of colOred stone
laZuli turquoise, carnelian-every one
cut to the form of feathers, and every
piece having a tiny cell or soldered
strip to hold it in place; yet the
whole bird only half an inch high. The
finest colOred enameling ever made
would be child's play compared with
a piece of this jewelry. The exquisite
grace of form, harmony of coloring
and sense of perfection leave the
mind richer by fresh emotion after
seeing such a new world Of skill.
These treasures of a lost handi-
craft Prof. Petrie describes in re-
cent article in a scientific magazine,
along with descriptions of other
Egyptian wonders, buried from sight,
until recently, longer than we have
been in the habit of supposing the
age of the world to be.
But very wonderful workers live
now-the japanese orshipers of
nature and her reverent imitators.
When American restlessness be-
comes interested in really artistic en-
deavor and construction we shall
hear more about Japanese industries,
which, we are assured, are happifying,
and not the tedious slavery of our fac
tories, requiring and inducing brain