Los Angeles herald., 1908-06-01
FEATHERS USED AS
HAT DECORATIONS
MATINEE GIRLS WEAR BODIES
OF BIRDS
Humane Societies of Country Prepare
to Take Steps Against Practice
and Old War Will Be
Renewed
BY SARAH FRANCES wINsLow

Have you noticed that women are
wearing birds and feathers on their
hats this year to a greater extent than
ever?
This was the query of a country
cousin as we watched the crowd Of
matinee girls filing out of the theaters
recently. OF course l had noticed 1t,
but I was rather surprised that a
mere man should.
The Merry Widow hat, the Merry
Widow burlesque hat, the Garden hat
in fact all the merry hats of a belated
spring-are plentifully adorned with
plumes, artificial whole birds and flow
ers, but especially with plumes. Very
few of the birds are recognizable as
belonging to American varieties, but
nevertheless birds are again being ex-
tensively employed for decorative pur-
poses, and the Sunday newspapers are
facetiously describing mesdemoiselles,
the modistes, as that gardeners"
The term seems justified, for, all
though milliners are compelled to seek
their effects in a somewhat smaller
space than landscape gardeners. both
work on the same principles and ap-
parently have an equally rich variety
of fora and fauna to draw upon.
Ostrich PIumes Used
to be the prime favorites, and since
they are really beautiful and there is
no grave cruelty involved in securing
them 1 fancy neither the Audubon So
ciety nor the American Society for the
Prevention Of Cruelty to Animals will
object.
DIR. J. A. Allen, curator of the Amer
lean Museum of Natural History, told
me some time ago that so far as he
had been able to observe none of the
American song or game birds were
being used in the millinery trade, and
that he believed most of the artificial
birds were imported.
This statement, however, did not al
lay the fear of one of the women in
terested In the work of the S. z. G. A.,
for, as she put it, craze for birds
is likely to spread as quickly and
as widely as it did some years
ago, and since the way to prevent is
to prevent, and in giving the whole
subject wide publicity now will make
this traffic in cruelty Improbable to
the milliners in advance. Then we
shall be spared its revival precisely as
we were spared the revival of the
crinoline craze couple of seasons ago.
Women More Humane
Understand me-" this woman con-
tinued, women are naturally more
more thoughtless. 1t is only because
they don't think of the combination of
cruelty and absurdity involved in
wearing dead birds on their heads that
milliners were ever permitted to set
such a fashion. Now is the time for
you to utter a word of warning, and
unless somebody does we shall prob
ably have to begin all over again the
campaign which resulted in a complete
victory for all bird lovers five years
ago, u :, S,a,
ing countries have grown to appre-
ciate the subtle humor Of George Ber-
nard Shaw. Sometimes the greater
than Shakespeare" becomes brutal
rather than subtle but what he had to
say regarding the slaughter of birds
when the last epidemic was at its
height is worth repeating now. Mr..
Shaw wrote after attending perform
ance at Covent Garden.
Describes Woman
"At 9 o'clock (the opera began at
81 a woman came and sat down very
in my line of sight. She
remained there until the beginning Of
the last act. do not complain of her
coming late and going earlier. For this
lady, who had very black hair, had
stuck over her right ear the pitiable
corpse of a large white bird, which
looked as If some one had killed 1t by
stamping on its breast and then had
nailed it to the woman's temple, which
was presumably of sufficient stolidity
to bear the operation. am not, hope,
q morbidly squeamish person; but the
spectacle sickened me. l presume that
IL 1 had presented myself at the doors
with a dead snake aroupd my neck. a
collection of black beetles pinned to
my shirt front and grouse in my hair
I should have been refused admission.
Why, then, is a woman to be allowed
to commit such public outrageT
But what Mr.. Shaw says, while 1t
will appeal to persons of culture and
will be objected to by many
people on the ground that 1t is imprac-
tical. Business is business" milliners
and importers have to live, and It is
more important that the thousands of
hard-working, self-supporting girls en-