Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-12-28
This and That
BIZ Charles Y. TrnceDel


Life cannot be perfect. That is what Heaven
is for.
Here no man ever finds perfection, and no
bird friend will find it in his garden.
Those who start bird feeding operations this
holiday season by angrily desiring to trap
English sparrows are making a very poor be-
ginning. They are entering on q road which
leads too far. For If they want to remove all
the enemies of the better songsters, as they say.
they will have to do all the following things
They must trap the hawks. Then they must
trap the squirrels Next they must trap
pigeons Then all the cats. Then all small
boys with air rifles. There is no end to it.
If these steps seem illogical, well, so was that
nrst one about trapping sparrows There is
no need Of trapping anything. Yet it is an
idea which often comes to the beginner who
falls to realize at first that it is unnecessary.
Hurt to creatures is not real part of con-
servation. 1t Is a curious thing that so many
things are unnecessary. The excess speed of
automobiles, rushing down the street, only to
be stopped by red light, anyway. (And the
man on the radio says, IF 1t were not for
the pedestrians there would only be half the
number of Deaths" Alas, poor pedestrians, to
throw themselves in front Of automobiles. just
out Of spiteD
This odd idea, that English sparrows drive
away rarer and better birds, Is mostly untrue
but 1t almost always comes to the inexperienced
There are many more sparrows, Of course
and they naturally tend to dominate the
scene. But the others are there too. The
first lesson that person with q new interest
In feeding the birds has to learn, II his recre-
alton is to be really happy one, is that nature
somehow intended all her creatures to live
together. This is hard lesson to learn, even
for nations, but nations, too, must learn 1t or
perish together. Killing Is no good It never
really settles anything.
S,~a1
with, in q ruthless manner, all forms Of life
which seem to interfere with the perfect
functioning Of the feeding station. Let the
owner be sure, FIRST that he knows what perfect
functioning is God pities all those who hate.
The Chinese say that those who hate cats
were rats in previous incarnation. Heaven
knows what the sparrow haters were. Prob
ably worms.
The bird conscious person who grows angry
because pigeons eat the food he puts out for
the cardinals will thereby deprive himself of
some Of the happiness which his good deeds
ought to bring him.
It is this way: The real bird friend knows
that trapping sparrows is perfectly thankless
job. Too many people do not know the diff
ference between an English sparrow and
song sparrow, a white throated sparrow and
white-crowned sparrow. Surely, there Is no
more ridiculous thing than to feed birds, out
Of kindness Of heart, and then devote time
aAiO SaiS2 Sy w uoPPAAS &A1O AAAAile SUI VI
bird. It's bird, amt it? The common SPAR
row Is efficient, persistent and in its way
beautiful. When any one tries to be kind
and yet finds it necessary to turn a portion
of his energy toward brutality he is hurting
himself in the place it really hurts most, the
spirit, which we must keep clean or it is nothing
at all. Why should one hurt ones self this
way? The more sparrows trapped, the more
there are to be trapped. It is a never ending
hurt. The Nazis tried it. They hurt all they
could, and what did they get out of 1t? Their
cities are in ruins and their souls In worse
shape. 1t is not such far cry from them to
the sparrow hater
Those who want to correct something in
nature they do not like ought to be sure first
they know what natures intentions are. This
instant shooting of hawks, for instance, is pre-
posterous, for nature wants them there She
has job for them to perform. Almost every
thing that Is has some good reason for being.
Why, If one gets excited about sparrows, he
might as well grow angry over builders in q
neighborhood, whose hammering will keep the
song birds away at times
One can't trap carpenters.
No. there is little need for trapping any
thing 1t is unnecessary. It Ill suits the
nature which finds relaxation and satisfaction
in extending a helping hand to the birds and
other small creatures Of the city winter scene.
Most of these creatures are O real satisfaction,
provided the watcher gets himself in the right
state of mind, so that he can see their interest
and beauty as they really are. To hate Is to
lose.