326 State Horticultural Society. 



the birds are busied in mating, and in rearing and feeding their young. 

 It is a comparatively easy thing to disturb birds and to drive them away 

 at the period of nest building. When the helpless young are in the 

 nest, nothing short of catastrophe will induce their desertion. This is 

 the time chosen by the plume hunter for his harvest. Now he realizes 

 that the cries of the hungry birds will surely bring the parents back at 

 short intervals, no matter how frequently disturbed and frightened away. 

 The almost noisless Flobert rifle, with its tiny charge to speed the fatal 

 ball, the gun, whose report is scarcely louder that the snapping of a 

 twig, is his weapon. Stationed within ten or twelve feet of a nest both 

 parents are secured in a very few moments. Continuous work of this 

 kind from daylight to dark results in two things, a vast pile of carcasses 

 of the dead parents, stripped of their beautiful plumes, and thousands 

 of young birds left to starve to death in misery in their nests." Can any 

 woman ever wear an aigrette again after knowing this? Her first im- 

 pulse will be to dispose of everyone in her possession; to cast them into 

 the fire, not give them to others that the wrong may still be indorsed, 

 but to burn them up, one by one, rejoicing as she does so, that her 

 action may sometime enable two snow-white parent birds to rear their 

 young in peace and safety. 



One is often confronted by the argument that many of the breasts 

 used for millinery purposes are manufactured from chicken feathers. 

 This is probably true. But we are also assured that plumage is torn 

 from the live bird in order that it may retain its brilliancy of coloring. 

 As long as vi^omen will wear this unnatural trimming, bird life will 

 be sacrifieced to a fashion that does not discriminate. 



Few women are indifferent to cruelty. They do not always know 

 what cruelty is. In many instances a particular sense of mercy, like 

 the seed in mother earth, lies dormant to await the quickening that comes 

 from an impulse to reach the light. Although but entering upon the 

 Lenten season, the time for spring bonnets will soon be here. Easter, 

 that great feast of the resurrection, should have a higher significance 

 than ever before. Easter speaks alonC of life. Its message is that life 

 is the law of God. May every Easter bonnet testify to a quickened 

 sense that will not permit needless sacrifice of life. Cover the Easter 

 hats with flowers. Help the church to herald Life instead of death. 

 Show that a bonnet can be an artistic creation without destroying a 

 necessary and beautiful part of creation. If you cannot buy a new bon- 

 net, remove an aigrette or a wing from an old one. For although 



"The voice of tbe curate be gentle : 

 No sparrow shall fall to the ground." 

 I If you wear a poor broken wing on j-our bonnet, 



'twill but mock the merciful sound. 



