76 THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



the only part of the equipment that had a money- 

 value. It is not a little remarkable that what 

 first impressed the trustees of the institution which 

 later employed me was what I could do with my 

 hands. 



It is certainly a great advantage to the pos- 

 sessor to be so well drilled in some handicraft 

 that he can achieve practical results. All this, 

 aside from the undoubted mental discipline that 

 accrues to any one through an apprenticeship de- 

 manding manual training. He in time arrives at 

 a place where such handicraft (and I believe that 

 all handicraft must lead to that point) becomes a 

 real pleasure. 



The other point is the change in public senti- 

 ment with regard to the use of birds for millinery 

 purposes. Legislation has not been so vital a 

 factor in this achievement as public sentiment. 

 Anything in the way of study or reflection which 

 brings home forcibly to the student or thinker the 

 economic and aesthetic values of organic life, is 

 productive of a solicitude only now beginning to 

 be awakened. So far-reaching are our uninten- 

 tional acts in changing the fauna or the flora of 

 a given region that great care and foresight must 

 be exercised. The ensuing results are prodigious. 

 The extinction of a given kind of plant or animal 

 may be the result. Hence all consideration 

 should be given to positive intentional acts, for 



