Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-11-22
THE DAILY
SHORT STORY.
A Birdless Bonnet.
ByiEdward 2. Clark.

/
that morning. and as Henry Sparks
| rose from tile break table prepare
tory to lighting his cigar and starting
for the GIice In. said 10 his wife: Eliza.
| you MAY la vetthe fall, hat you've been
yearniug for. Here's the ten dollars,
but please in, making your purchase
remember myf prejudice against birds
| in bonnet is
Eliza belmed. ''All right, Henry"
Mime. CaIotess this morning. L can get
a beauty forften dollars. l know, and I
won't have Il single song bird OH it,
That might after dinner Mrs. Sparks
sent thetmaid of all work into the front
bedroom To bring Il box that had ar
rived shortly before from Nine. Ca
pOte's. Mrs. Sparks opened the box,
lifted the wonderful creation and said
the usual' womanly thing; Isn't it
| dream"
Henry eSparks looked,at the hat quiz
ideally. There was nDt perhaps ex-
pressed In his face the admiration and
entire approval that Mrs. Sparks had
| hoped for.
| Henry" she said, "Itknow there's n
birds head or two and q, lot of feathers
in 1t. but Nine. Capote told me they
were all made up things. mostly barn
yard fowls. This head with the slate
blue neck and just Il tumch Of brown at
| the place where Ii was separated from
the breast. she told me. was the head
OF n common domestic fowl in China.
| This other head. neck and brenst with
the soft gray plumage- Nine. CapOte
said. formed the upper parts of one Of
/ the birds that have been eating up the
/ East Indian crops so fast that the poor
natives have been starving 10 death.
| To buy one Of these birds she declared
was like dropping money into the con-
tribution box for the benefit of the
heather. She quite touched my heart.
| Now. dent look that way. Every
body's wearing feathers, and l don't
see why | shouldn't wear the plumage
OF the birds that we eat and of birds
/ that are q pest. Yes, | know there are
other feathers here, too, bnt they are
all made up things. Nine. Capote said
so. and she knows"
Henry Sparks rose from the table
and took the befeathered haT out of his
wife's hand and looked at it through
| his glasses.
This" he said. pointing with one
finger at birds head with beautiful
steel blue feathers. lis, as ] understand
| Nine Capote. the head of Il common
Chinese domestic fowl.
Eliza. when YOU wander along by
some tumbling stream in the spring
time you will hear now and then rat
Ting cry. II is birds voice. 1t is as
much a part of the time and place and
III. l..
trees. the stream or even the April
clouds overhead.
wander along the same stream in
the heat OF summer. and you hear the
same rafting cry. \ bird form dashes
by. then stops suddenly in midfight
and hovers lightly over pool beneath.
Then there is a sound of the plash OF
waters as a feathered form descends
and plunges. There is sensation of
GOODNESS in the sound of that plunge
that tempers the heat of the August
day TO the wayfarer.
Perhaps you have a legal right to
wear this bird because ii may have
been killed in New York, where the
wise Legislators Withdrew from this
creature the protection of the law. The
men who urged that ii Ice exempt from
protection were men OF the kind who
go into the northern woods and drag
seines. dynamite streams and catch
and kill thousands OF fish that they
may pick out the big ones for the mar
ket The souls Of these men are in their
pockets.
This bird catches few small fish
for. the sustenance of itself and it's
young. 1t adds. when not on bonnet. a
-
"a. your Chinese domestic fowl is an
American kingfisher."
Henry. Nine
Eliza. this bird that has been eaS-
ing up the crops in India, thus causing
a famine in that country, was Matched
in nest in an Illinois tree. Perhaps
you have the legal right 10 wear it.
The wise legislators of Illinois recently
added this bird to the game list, so
that 1t may be slaughtered and made
into pies. The souls of the legislators
We're situated in their stOmachs.
This bird has stood as the emblem
of peace since the world was, and yet
every pot and millinery hunter in the
land makes war upon il. You are II
good Episcopalian. and you sometimes
tell me that there is nothing more
beautiful than all that pertains to the
church and its teachings.
do you. Trinitarian that you are,
know that it was I'm the living form
of one Of these murdered innocents
I'm your bonnet that the Holy Spirit
descended upon our Saviour as he
stood at the side of the Baptist by
the waters of Jordan? Eliza, this East
Indian crop destroying. starvation pro-
ducing bird Is an Illinois mourning
dove.
Doubtless Mime. Capote told you
that this little bunch of feathers that
clasps the upturned brim of the hat
came from a bird harry of some re-
mote region, whose daily practice it is
to carry off and devour the sweet babes