The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1906-07-07
UNTHINl<iNG CRUELTY.
Attention Called to the Response.
bility of Women for the De-
struction Of Birds.

bility of Women for the De-
struction Of Birds.
IhlS41S an age in which as never in
any other, women are coming before
the world as workers for reform. They
exhibit in an ever-increasing degree
( the divine, unrest" dissatisfaction
with wrong, desire to right it. But
there is one form of wrong cruelty,
which women are not consistently try
| ing to remedy. 1 say not consistently.
The same woman who will interfere in
behalf of an overloaded or ill-treated
! horse, and who would perhaps rescue
starving cat or dog, is often to be
seen with a f1ayed-alive seals skin on
her back, and on her head the plum
age OF slaughtered birds. To all ap-
pearance unconscious of her culpabil-
ity. she advertises the fact that she
either will not read or does not regard
| the statements SO we'll authenticated,
and IN the case of bird plumage so
widely and repeatedly published, con-
corning the barbarities perpetrated in
obtaining these things
| Last October, Mr.. William butcher,
OF New York city, president of the
National Association of Audubon So,
cletles, made an address in Philadel-
ph1a at the annual meeting of the
American Humane association, in
which after mentioning what has been
! often repeated-the fact that to OBJ
tain the white aigrette so largely worn
involves not only the destruction of
parent birds, for these plumes grow
only at the time of nesting, but the
death OF their young from starvation
he spoke also of the brutal murder
OF one of the wardens in the employ
OF the association by a plume hunter
at Oyster Key, Fla. This law breaker,
! for whose nefarious trade feather
wearing women are responsible, re-
sented the interference of the warden,
and killed him. Such women may now
reflect if they will, on the fact that the
thoughtlessness and vanity of their
kind have incidentally been the means
of numbering a man, and leaving his
wife a widow, and his children or
phans. They are also responsible for
encouraging trade of the most bru-
talizing tendencies. No man can
spend his time killing, with all the
haste and recklessness possible limo
cent birds at the nesting period, leav-
ing the young to starve, without him
self losing the last remnant of feeling.
Such man is getting the education
of criminal Women who wear the
products Of his evil work are before
God responsible, whether they think
about it or not
Much of the capital in the millinery
trade is invested year by year in. bird
plumage because it is very profitable
part OF the business. So the sale of
feathers is industriously pushed in the
retail stores, and everything is said
which will f1atter the vanity of the
woman buyer, and soothe her con-
science, should it show signs of awak-
ening. The birds and plumes are
manufactured limitations Every
clever copies of the genuine, but never
theless only copies" 1t is pity that
women are not better ornithologists,
or else gifted with better Judgment.
Audubon societies in every state and
Wardens to protect birds would not
, be needed if milliners did not use
them, nor would it be necessary to
enact more and stricter laws for their
preservation. Many varieties of birds
are slaughtered every year by thou
sands and millions, and the feathers
in the shops are the feathers of these
same birds. as the ornithologists in
the Audubon societies will testify. No
woman has a shadow of excuse for
wearing as much as one quill, for the
Audubon societies have discovered
that these are obtained by trapping
the birds, the quilts being then ruth
lessly torn from their wings and the
disabled creatures turned loose; I'M
able in most cases to fly, and present
ing piteous spectacle. When it is
wings that are sought, the brutal hunt
ers, grown callous through habit, tear
them off without in the least caring
whether or not the bird is dead.
One Of the most incomprehensible
| IuluSS COuucCLeu WlLn Clo SenSeleSS
and cruel bird plumage fashion, is the
silence of ministers of the Gospel.
Why can they not see that for a wom-
an to deck herself with the results of
cruelty and brutality is inconsistent
with Christian profession? There is a
crying need that people in all the
churches should be told definitely and
specifically what applied Christianity
is. Participation in cruelty is a sin
ffrom which protesting Christians are
far from being exempt, and it consti-
tutes serious and we'll grounded
cause for criticism among outsiders
who are humane. They laugh at a
Christianity which harps continually
on Gods mercy to us, but says little
or nothing about the mercy which we
in consequence should show to every
living creature. Can the Justice of
!, this criticism be denied?
MARY F.. LOWELL
Secretary of American Humane Associa.
/ ton. n
DoN'Ts FOR THE NURSERY.