Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-19


failed to produce more than $4,000: and to-
day the region that the black nation had
made populous Is almost empty of monkey
life.
In 1897 German firm of hatmakers
bought beautiful design for feather orna-
mentation. made by g. nice little artist girl.
Feathers of a certain color were needed to
produce the effect. The mail that night
carried an order to Paris for 5000 skins of
goldfnches. which WAS duly filed. The
fashion lasted for two months, during
which time more fnches were killed every
where. Then my lady turned to something
else, the trimmed hats were put away,
but-400OO odd finches did not come to life
again.
A few years later the ladies OF all the
world became fascinated with the idea of
a love of hat trimmed with the dainty
bodies OF the gentle terns-those most beau
tfful of little gulls which are as the swal-
lows of the green sea. That year 1900
of the most glorious subspecies were killed
along the Baltic and the North Sea coasts
alone Hundreds Of miles of the American
North Atlantic coast were absolutely de-
populated. though the terms had been 50
plentiful along shore before they became
fashionable that the air was filed with
their cIamor from morning till night. To-
day what terms are left saved only be-
cause the United States has issued orders
that every lighthouse and other federal
reservation along the coast shall be an
asylum for the birds where none may kill
or disturb them. So now the naturalist
who wishes to see terms must go to isolated
places, though only a few years ago there
were hocks numbering hundreds every
where from New York to Labrador
or all those millions what remains? A
few worn feathers on dusty old hats tossed
away contemptuously by my lady of New
York London. Berlin. Paric, st. Peters
burg and some hundred thousand other
cities and villages where fashion reigns.
Sport, Appetite and Style.
A quarter of q century ago the world
began to like herring from the great lakes
pretty well. In 1880 man was eating
16 100000 pounds a year. Today the human
animal is killing of herring to the weight
of 5000 Geo pounds annually.
Last year the poor little mole became
highly fashionable. Man swooped down on
the little creature all Europe with
such rapactty that in six months the price
of each tiny fur had risen to almost fifty
cents, where, before that. moleskin had
been so plentiful that three or four cents
was considered good payment for a skin
Sport, though not quite as destructive as
fashion, is doing its share as 1t always has
done. Only recently a hunting party OF
blue blooded Europeans killed 20 reindeer
in one day in Spitzbergen. and a royal
member OF the party had the proud salts
faction of killing forty-seyen of these with
his own hand.
The Barbary lion and the Persian lion
have been made practically extinct by
British and French sportsmen On the
west coast OF America a party of forty hun
ters killed 400 sea elephants IN half an
hour A professional a-elephant hunting
expedition killed /. 0C0 in the same region in
week.
A greater destructive element than sport
is that form of human activity known as
industry" Whatever escapes mans hun
CRY throat or his lady loves bright fash
ionable eye or his sporting weapons slender
muzzle, falls victim to the most Unsuitable
. oil he x-TN.ex OF ~, he
for money
Every beast that he meets, II worthless
otherwise. is slain to De turned into leather
for the great Industries that thrive on
leather. Man goes even into the sea for
hides. or the white whale, or beIuga, alone
more than $4,000 worth Of skins are put
into the tanning watts each year. The weird
walrus furnishes hides to the value of
100000 annually In the United States
alone.
The people OF this country destroy enough
mussels. clans, oysters and other sheIlnsh
each year TO produce one million tons OF
smell. fhe big sea turtles which furnish
the real tortoise shell are killed at the rate
OF 55oooo each year. or almost a thousand
a day.
Even the huge basking shark. the biggest
of all the sharks reaching lengths Of from
thirty TO thfrty-fye feet has been hunte5
so persistently that he has disappeared
rom All the seas OF the world except the
most lonely, and he is scarce enough there
to be classed as fish. Men wanted
the oil from his liver so they placed tha
bashing shark on the doomsday book of
humanity. wherein are written the names
OF the living creatures that are to become
extinct.
The menhaden steamers alone catch more
than 1890 sharks of all kinds year along
the middle Atlantic coast of the United
States. They. don't want these fish. but
they get into the menhaden nets and go into
the oil presses with the other victims.
Killing for Oil.
Nothing is too noble or too mean to
escape man. While he Is killing off the
last of the lions of Barbary for sport, he
is also killing off the humble sawfisn In
Florida waters for the few pints OF oil he
can get out of the llvers. and the skate
and the ray are being slain by the hmm
bred thousand TO be converted into fertil-
izer.
One city alone. Para, receives 80 900 ral-
Ions of turtle OIL in season 1t requires
SEQ turtle eggs to make one gallon so there
are % 600 600 turtle eggs accounted for by
one South American city alone When the
great South American river turtle disap-
pears no worid-catastrophe viii be needed
to explain its extinction. Mans hungry
jaws sufffcienfly account for It,
Mans appetite for animal Oil has quite