Middletown transcript., 1901-07-20
THE BIRD ON THE HAT

Volumes have been WRITTEN OH Ine eup-
! iect of the bird on the hat, and 1t some
times asserted that in spite OF 1T all, tins
decoration is more than ever. But this
may be doubted. At any rate, any
woman who chooses, and great many
do choose-to wear hat unadorned with
the defunct body of bird, can do SO
nowadays without appearing either SIN
gular 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 de-
cided 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 1t
need only go 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 fash
ion, would wear them without more COM
junction than an Iroquois warrior felt in
putting on his necklace of cutoff human
fingers.
The custom of decorating women's
hats with the plumage of birds is prob
ably as old as headgear itself, and may
have arisen in part from the notion COM
mon to many savage tribes that the quai-
ties of an animal slain become the pro-
perty of the slayer, Moreover, before
the invention of velvets, cause and lace,
the feathers of birds were among the
most beautiful things available for the
adorment of the humane head. Tradi-
ton is partly responsible for the persis-
tence of the custom in these later days.
But there is nothing pretty in its later
developments, however appropriate the
wings or body of bird have seemed on
the head of the hunters wife. The mod
ern hat is constructed to fit the modern
face, and there is no beauty in the juxt-
aposition of fair, intelligent, essentially
civilized countenance and the body of a
blackbird with its neck in a suggestive
twist 1t hints at ugly possibilities ex-
listing underneath 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, spSared with a hat
pin and surrounded with bows of ribbon,
lend to such visage an aspect positively
sinister.
1t would be unjust, of course, to as
sumo 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 of sense and feeling might be
contented without shocking the sensibi-
lities of the Audubon Society and out
raging the fitness of things by demand
ing yearly sacrifice of bird life to adorn
their heads. There was much sense in
the retort of the little boy who, when re-
proved by his pretty Sunday School
teacher for robbing bird nests, and asked
in pathetic tones, where the poor mother
was, "She amt sufferin' none, miss
she's on yer hat" There is no excuse of
ignorance to be pleaded. The public has
been told over and over again that wear
ing ospreys means the death of multi
tudes of helpless little birds, since the
feathers are best at the breeding season
and the parent bird must be shot then.
The fact that birds of particularly fine
plumage are often skinned alive has also
been made known; and the silence OF
woodlands and meadows, where the mil
liners agent has been speaks for itself.
1t is about time this senseless and cruel
fashion should go the way of nose-rings
and war-paint.