The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-11-04

Are from Over the ocean.
This is a bird year, not for birds. but
for milliners. A glance at the shop win
dows gives the impression hat the
woods and marshes of the world have
been made to give up their entire feath-
cred population.
Those who are panied at the idea of
this wholesale slaughter, and who write
letters of protests to magazines and
newspapers, though they write in good
faith, are aStray in regard to the
source of the feathered supply.
For instance, in a we'll known maya
zine a writer deplores the fashion of
trimming hats and wearing capes made
of grebe breasts. Whenever" he a
you see a woman with a band Of white
plumage almost invisibly tinted with
blue and green. nd more strongly with
golden brown, crnamenting her hat,
know that fror- one to six of these
harmless. lovab sweet voiced little
grebes were stri, ed from chin to vent
to supply it,"
The grebe is L : a song bird; it is a
duck. 1t is true tIat it is harmless, but
it is not lovable, n it is not sweet
voiced.
The real fact is that American song
birds are in no danger at all from man
u~factureres of feathers. That birds are
wantonly slain there can be no doubt,
but the slaughter is not inStigated by
the merchants. Birds have three nat
ural enemies: Civilization, which rObS
them of their woods n fields, and W.
inevitable followers of civilization, the
English sparrow and the Italian labor
o~ TI4 0nnoo IVY +hnto ont IF tho
community, and the latter spends his
Sundays in the country sharing n
shooting them for food. These enemies
have done more than fashion to Danish
the songsters from settled parts of the
country.
Their are no better friends of the
birds than many of the feather manu-
facturers, according to the Millinery
Merchants Protective Association. The
association is strongly opposed to using
the feathers of protected birds, or of
birds whom public opinion indicates q
desire to spare. They would frown up
on any manufacturer who sent agents
to buy skins Of American birds.
This is so we'll recognized that the
four or five great London firms which
supply the trade of Europe and Amer
lea with raw feathers send their buyers
to Africa, India, the islands of the Pa
cific, South America, everywhere ex-
cept to the United States. Practically
the only feathers obtained in this u
try for millinery purposes are those of
domestic fowls. Even these are largely
imported, as the American farmer has
not found out that he might save his
chicken and go~ose-feathers and sell
them at q good profit, as the large
marketmen do.
The beautiful colored feathers one
sees in the shops come from China.
Japan, and the islands of the Pacific
South Seas. East India, Africa, and
South America send a great quantity
Of paradise birds, herons, cockatoos,
and parrots, although most parrots
| skins come from China, where the
| small, green parrot is so common as to
be almost a pest. The irridescent imp
ion and the little merle come from
South Africa. White pigeons from
Japan take the place Of the gull, now
protected on American shores.
If one is distressed at the thought Of
wearing these foreign birds, a little
comfort may be taken from the sug'
gestion of the manufacturers that
many of them are slain for food as well
as plumage, and no quarrel can be had
with that. Again, say they, these birds
could nave lived only until civilization
appeared anyhow. With the levelling OF
the forests and the draining of the
4 ia lIISN luSl iIdNC Z oAICd.
1t is still more r~eassuring to remem-
| Der that the great mass of made-uT
feathers grew originally OF the bodies
OF chickens, ducks, geese, and game
birds. Chickens his yea are often not
! even disguised. Cocks feathers are es-
p~ecially fashionable, and the most real.
iStic rooster heads are seen, with combs
of scarlet cloth or velvet. Tn long tai
/ feathers are trimmed to initiate The
curving plumes of the paradise bird
which az too expensive for the aver
age buy :. Pompons are made Of the
downy I 3thers of the chickens.
Wings are manufactured, as head:
are in lost cases. Birds are never
stuffed ,orpSes as indignant person:
called ITEM. They are buckram form:
with feathers pasted on, and painted
with the hueS Of nature. The shops d.
not show very many of these birds thi!
season. There is no demand for small
birds. Breasts are largely made-ul
creations
The finest made feathers still com,
from abroad. In spite of the enormou
tariff there has been little attempt t
manufacture the best goods on thi
side. Models are made up in Paris, an,
Germany manufacturers largely, am
designs a little. Raw feathers prac
tically all come from England. Ton
of them reach this port every year
The only feathers which come directl,
from the forests here are egrets, an
there are not many of them. Merchant
who deal in South American hide
sometimes have boxes Of egrets sent {
them.
There are some thirty large feathe
factories in New York, and innumer
bly, small ones. The girls work fror
. imported squarrels-New York Post.