16 



II. 



THE TRADE DEFENCE. 



The trade have been slow in taking serious steps to defend 

 themselves, and the history of the defence is somewhat curious. 

 Feathers having been proclaimed the fashion, it is evident that 

 the feather-importers relied on the belief that the voice of fashion 

 was stronger than the voice of either science or humanity. Some 

 little time, however, after the formation of the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds and of the Selborne Society, when women 

 all over the country were being made acquainted with the facts 

 concerning the " osprey " or Egret plume, the remarkable fraud 

 of the "artificial osprey " came into existence. The Egret feather 

 was no longer to be labelled " real " ; milliners' and drapers' 

 assistants were instructed to assure lady customers that these 

 delicate sprays were manufactured by the million out of quills 

 and other material, by an army of factory- workers, who earned 

 their living by this pleasant and artistic work. That the He was 

 detected and proclaimed by every naturalist who took one of the 

 so-called " artificial " plumes in his hand, made no difference 

 whatever to the persistence and assurance with which it was 

 affirmed and repeated. 



The fraud flourished until the time of the House of Lords 

 Committee, when it became evident that the force of mere 

 assertion and repetition, which had proved so successful with the 

 uncritical public, would not stand investigation before a serious 

 tribunal. The invention of " artificial ospreys " was suddenly 

 discarded for that of " moulted feathers." The " artificial " 

 osprey was admitted to be real, but it was no longer cruel to wear 

 real plumes they had been simply " picked up." 



Fiction versus Fact. 



The possibility of an imitation osprey was never denied by the 

 Society ; that such a thing might be made by ingenious manu- 

 facturers was pretty certain, though it could never stand the 



