Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-03-29
Friday, March %, 1907.
The Aisrette on the Easter Bonnet

'he sho"y al8rette, plume torn from
the bleeding back Of an almost exter-
minated breed of birds The aigrette
will not figure in Easter millinery here
IN Maine, for this is one of the states
which has laws forbidding the sale of
1t by milliners, but in New York, the
national fashion center. and in large
number of states. there is no such legal
prohibition. Backed by the General
Federation and State Federations of
clubwonen throughout the country as
well as by every humane and sports
mans organization, the National Asso-
citation Of Audubon Societies is now
laying extensive plans for campaign
which will finally put an end to the
sale Of the aigrette and the massacre of
the snowy heron, to whom nature has
given it as a decoration in mating time.
In Louisiana the Audubon workers
have just won a hard legal battle and
secured I'm higher court a verdict on
appeal, which 1t is believed has estab-
lished good legal precedent upon which
all milliners may be severely punished
for the sale or possession of these
bloody trophies of the wholesale butch
cry Of the heron in the Florida wids.
Judge Chretien of the First City Grim
ina! Court of New Orleans has sus-
tanned the verdict Of lower court and
sentenced a millinery store proprietor
of that city to $50 or a term of thirty
days in prison. The opinion upholds
the force of the model law, which
the Audubon societies have succeeded
in having passed in all but eight states
in the Union, and within the next few
months every milliner who deals in
aigrettes will be prosecuted by the
society along the same lines.
More effective even than this cam
against the commercial bird butchers,
the Audubon officials believe. will be
the stand which has just been taken by
the women of this country through the
various federations of clubs and other
womcn's organizations. The following
pledge is today being circulated to
women by the General Federation. two
leading members of which-Miss Alice
]. Fletcher and Mrs. Sara S. Plat
Decker-have issued a strong appeal
against the wearing of aigrettes in the
Official bulletin Of the organization.
Whereas. the number of our beauti-
full snowy herons is rapidly diminish
ing with a likelihood of their becoming
extinct: and, whereas. the demand for
aigrcttes for millinery purposes is re-
sponsble for the slaughter of these
feathered innocents. and the consequent
death of the nestlings:
Therefore. resolved. that we, the
undersigned pledge ourselves to refrain
from wearing any such badge Of cruel
ty as the aigrette or the plumage of
any wild bird. and that we will use all
possible influence to restrain from
doing So
In the face Of the general invitation
Of this movement the milliners of New
York are now not only offering to equip
Easter bonnets with any amount Of
heron plumes but causing fashion notes
to appear saying that the "wisp of
aigrette is still considered an appro-
pirate garniturc for bonnets." To those
ladies' who question the propriety of
adding the scalp of a mutilated mother
bird to their head-6ress. they protest
that the aigrettes are artificial. though
ii has been repeatedly proven an i'm
possibility to counterfeit the plumes of
the snowy heron.
Reports from the Everglades Of Flori
ia, where the heron congregate for the
mating and breeding season. are daily
reaching the headquarters Of the
National Association OF Audubon So
Cieties IN New York. They show that
the destruction of the birds for their
nuptial adornment is going on even
more extensively than ever. The mu-
tilated carcasses of the females strew
the ground while their young starve
to death nearby. Often the wholesale
butchery of a whole colony of these
birds. who grow tame and domesticated
at the mating season, will yield only a
handful of the aigrette plumes.
President Roosevelt has already per-
sonally assured William butcher. presi-
dent of the Association. that Mrs.
Roosevelt is even more DESTROYS than he
to support the new movement, while
Queen Alexandra of England has
offered the use of her influence for a
similar movement in Great Britain.
The wide popular support that has al
ready been offered to the Audubon
societies in the opening of this cam
paign is considered an assurance of its
ultimate success.