THE HELPLESS. 



ELANORA KINSLEY MARBLE. 



T\ S the nesting-season of our feath- 

 lY ered friends approaches the 

 Ji Y mind naturally reverts to the 

 grief in store for so many of 

 them. Notwithstanding the efforts of 

 the several Audubon societies, the 

 humane journals, and in rare instances 

 earnest pleas from the pulpit, fashion 

 decrees that the wearing of bird plum- 

 age, and the birds themselves, is still 

 de rigueur among women. The past 

 season, certainly, showed no diminu- 

 tion of this barbarous fashion — a hu- 

 miliating thing to record — and so the 

 beautiful creatures will continue to be 

 slaughtered, not by hundreds or thou- 

 sands, but by millions upon millions, 

 all for the gratification of woman's van- 

 ity and a senseless love of display. 



Alas, that the "fair" sex in whom the 

 quality of mercy is supposed to exist 

 in a high degree, should still wear 

 above their serene brows often bowed 

 in worship — the badge of inhumanity 

 and heartlessness. That mothers who 

 have experienced all the pangs as well 

 as joys of motherhood can aid in break- 

 ing up thousands of woodland homes 

 by wearing the plumage which makes 

 the slaughter of these birds one of com- 

 mercial value and necessity. Soon ac- 

 counts will be published of the fabulous 

 sums to be gained by the heron hunt- 

 ers, and in order to supply the demand 

 for the filmy, delicate aigrette to adorn 

 my lady's bonnet, the nesting colony of 

 these snowy egrets will be visited by 

 the plume-hunters and the work of 

 slaughter begin. Love and anxiety for 

 their nestlings will render them heed- 

 less of danger, and through all the days 

 of carnage which follow, not one parent 

 bird will desert its nest. Fortunately 

 the birds are instantly killed by the bul- 

 let, else, stripped of the coveted plumes 

 they will be thrown in a heap, there 

 slowly to die within sight and hearing 

 of their starving, pleading little ones. 

 These have no value for the plume- 

 hunter, and so off he goes with his 

 spoil, leaving thousands of orphaned 



nestlings to a painful, lingering death. 

 And all this for a plume, which, in 

 these days of enlightenment marks the 

 wearer either as a person of little edu- 

 cation, or totally lacking in refinement 

 of feeling. It is trite to say that moth- 

 erhood no more than womanhood neces- 

 sarily implies refinement in the individ- 

 ual, but surely in the former, one would, 

 in the nature of things, expect to find 

 engendered a feeling of tender pity for 

 any helpless animal and its offspring. 



It is this phase of the question which 

 particularly appeals to people in whom 

 love, as well as compassion for all 

 helpless creatures is strong, not a senti- 

 ment newly awakened, or adopted as a 

 fad. That genuine love for animals is 

 inherent and not a matter of education 

 the close observer, I think, will admit. 

 Not that a child cannot be brought to 

 recognize, when caught in any act of 

 cruelty to some defenseless creature, 

 the wanton wickedness of his act, but 

 that no amount of suasion can influence 

 him to treat it with kindness for love's 

 sake rather than from the abstract moral 

 reason that it is right. 



How can this love for animals exist 

 in a child who has never known the joy 

 of possessing a household pet? In whose 

 presence an intrusive dog or cat is ever 

 met with a blow, or angry command to 

 "get out?" When somebody's lost pet 

 comes whining at the door, piteously 

 pleading for a kindly pat, and a morsel 

 to eat* and is greeted with a kick, or pos- 

 sibly a bullet, underthe pretensethat the 

 exhausted, panting little animal might 

 go mad? How can a child who has 

 witnessed these things view a suffering 

 animal with any other feeling but calm 

 indifference, or a brutal desire to inflict 

 upon it additional pain? In his esti- 

 mation every dog is subject to rabies, 

 and every cat infested with fleas. 



Paternal apathy in this direction may, 

 to some extent, be remedied by the 

 child's instructors, especially in the 

 kindergarten, where the foundation of 

 character is supposed to be laid. But 



