Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1904-04-15
A FAMous B1Rp pEr1r1oN
How the Birds Might Address
Their Deatroyers

Their Deatroyers
Perhaps one Of the most remark
able legal documents on bird prctec-
tion that the world has ever known
is that given below by Senator Hoar
Of Massachusetts. II passed both
Houses of that state Ikea whlrlwind.
To the Great and General Court Of
the Commonwealth Of Massachu-
sets, We, the s0ng-blrds Of Massa-
chusettsand their playfellows, make
this our humble petition:
We know more about you than
you think we do. We know how
good you are. We have hoped
about the roofs and looked in at the
windows Of the houses you have
built for poor and sick and hungry
people and little lame and deaf and
blind children. We have built our
nests in the trees and sung many a
song as we fiewsabout the gardens
and parks you have made so beauti-
ful fQr your own children, especially
your poor children, to play in.
Every year we fly a great way
over the country, keeping all the
time where the sun is bright and
warm; and we know that whenever
you do anything, other people all
over the great land between the seas
and the great lakes find it out, and
pretty soon will try TO do the same
thing. We know; we know. We
are Americans just as you are. Some
of us, like some Of you, came from
across the great sea, but most Of the
birds like us have lived here a long
while; and birds like us welcomed
your fathers when they came here
many years ago. Our fathers and
mothers have always done their best
to please your fathers and mothers.
No we have a sad story to tell you.
Thoughtless or bad people are trying
to destroy US. They kill us because
our feathers are beautiful. Even
pretty and sweet girls, who we should
think would be our best friends, kill
our brothers and children 80 that they
may wear their plumage on their
hats. Sometimes people Kill us from
mere wantonness. Cruel boys destroy
our nests and steal our eggs and our
young ones. People with guns and
snares lie in wait to kill us, as if the
place for bird were not in the sky,
alive, but in a shop window or under
glass case. If this goes on much
longer, all your song birds will be
gone. Already, we are told, in some
other countries that used to be full Of
birds, they are almost gone. Even
the nightingales are being all killed
in Italy.
Now we humbly pray that you will
stop all this, and will save us from
this sad fate. You have already
made law that no one shall kill a
harmless song bird or destroy ouI
nests or our eggs. VIII you please tC
make another that no one shall wear
our feathers, so that no one will kill
us to get them? We want them all
ourselves. Your pretty girls are
pretty enough without them. We
are told that it is as easy for you tC
to do it as for Blackbird to whistle.
If you will, we know how to pay
you hundred times over. We will
teach your children to keep them
selves clean and neat. We will show
them how to live together in peace
and love and to agree as we do in ouI
nests. We will build pretty houses
which you will like to see. We will
play about your gardens and flower
beds-ourselves like flowers on wing,
without any cost to you. We will
destroy the wicked insects and worms
that spoil your cherries and currants
and plums and apples and roses. We
will give you our best songs and
make the spring more beautiful and
the summer sweeter to you. Every
June morning when you 60 out into
the field, Oriole and Blackbird and
Bobolink will fly after you and make
the day more delighted TO you; and
when you go home tired at sundown,
Vesper Sparrow will tell you how
grateful we are. When you sit on
your porch after dark, Fife Bird and
Hermit Thrush and Wood Thrush
will sing TO you; and even Whip
pOor-will will cheer up a little. We
know where we are safe. In a little
while all the birds will come to live
in Massachusetts, again, and every
body who loves music will like I,
make a summer home with you.
Entertained His Glass
DIR PersifOr Frazer entertained tn,