Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1901-07-19
THE BIRD ON THE HAT.
A Custom, Which May Have Arisen
from Barbarity, Denounced.

from Barbarity, Denounced.
Volumes have been written on
the subject of the bird on the hat,
and It is sometimes asserted that
in spite of it all, this decoration is
used more than ever. This may be
doubted At any rate, any woman
who chooses-and a great many do
choose-to wear a hat unadorned
with the defunct body of bird, can
do 80 nowadays without appearing
either singular or addressed.
The hope of the Audubon Society
and Of various other organizations
for the protection of birds, is that
the time may come when hat
trimmed with plumage will be as
curious an object as the feather
crown of an Ashanti chief. One
thing is certain, If fashion ever does
take a decided turn in this direction
it is unlikely that the old barbarous
custom will ever come back 1t is
so essentially ugly and unpleasant
in its suggestiveness that it need on
ly 60 out of style for few years to
be abhorred in its true light But
there are people who, if gloves and
belts made of tanned human skin
from the dissecting room happened
to be the fashion, would wear them
without more compunction than an
Iroquois warrior felt in putting on
his necklace of cut off human fingers.
The custom of decorating women 8
hats with the plumage of birds is
probably as old as headgear itself,
and may have arisen in part from
the notion common to many savage
tribes that the qualities of an animal
slain become the property of the
slayer. Moreover, before the in
vention of velvets, gauze and lace
the feathers of birds we're among
the most beautiful things available
for the adornment of the human
head. Tradition is partly responsi.
BILE for the persistence of the custom
in these days.
But there is nothing pretty in its
later developments, however appro-
pirate the wings or body of a bird
might have seemed on the head Of
the hunters wife. The modern hat
is constructed to fit the modern face
and there is no beauty in the jux-
opposition of fair, intelligent, es-
sentially civilized countenance and
the body of blackbird with its
neck in a suggestive twist 1t hints
at ugly possibilities existing under
meath the charm and grace of the
wearer. AS for the face which is not
charming, or intelligent or kind,
the bodies of two or three humming
birds or the head of an owl, speared
with a hatpin and surrounded with
bows of ribbon, lend to such visage
an aspect positively sinister.
1t would be unjust, of course, to
assume that there is real cruelty
under all this passive obedience to
the dictates of fashion. But since
hats and bonnets quite as becoming
and pretty can be evolved without
the bird decoration as can be devised
with it, it does seem that women oi
sense and feeling might be contented
without shocking the sensibilities
of the Audubon Society and outrag.
ing the fitness of things by demand
ing a yearly sacrifice of bird life tt
adorn their heads. There was mu cl
sense in the retort of the little boy
who, when reproved by his pretty
Sunday school teacher for robbinl
birds nests, and asked, in pathetic
tones, where the poor mother was
replied, "She amt sufferin', miss
She's on yer hat" There is NJ
excuse Of ignorance to be pleaded
The public has been told over an(
over again that wearing ospreyi
means the death of multitudes o
helpless little birds, since the feath
ers are best at the breeding season
, and the parent bird must be sho
then. The fact that birds of partic
ularly fine plumage are often skin
ned alive has also been made known
and the silence of woodlands ant
meadows, where the milliner
| agent has been, speaks for itself
. 1t is about time this senseless AM
cruel fashion should go the way 0
nose brings and war-paint.
She Didn't Wear a Mask.
But her beauty was completed
r hidden by sores, blotches and PIN
pies till she used Bucklen's Arnic
Salve. Then they vanished as vii
all Eruptions, Fever Sores, Boils
: Ulcers. Carbunoles and Felons fror
its use. Invaluable for Cuts. Corns