FEATHERS. 



W. E. WATT. 



A splendid young- blackbird built in a tree; 

 A spruce little fellow as ever could be; 

 His bill was so yellow, his feathers so black, 

 So long- was his tail, and so glossy his back, 

 That good Mrs. B., who sat hatching her eggs, 

 And onlj' just left them to stretch her poor legs, 

 And pick for a minute the worm she preferred. 

 Thought there never was seen such a beautiful bird 



Oh! Nature's noblest gift — my gray-goose quill! 

 Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, 

 Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen, 

 The mighty instrument of little men! 



—D. M. Mulock. 



— Byron. 



PEATHERS have played an im- 

 portant part in the history of 

 mankind. Henry of Navarre 

 won the battle of Ivry after elec- 

 trifying his men with the following 

 words:"Fellow soldiers, you are French- 

 men; behold the enemy! If you lose 

 sight of your ensigns, rally round my 

 plume; you will always find it on the 

 high road to honor!" 



No doubt the templars carried the 

 hearts of many with them in the cru- 

 sades more effectually because their 

 waving plumes gave them a pictur- 

 esqueness which inspired brave men 

 with courage and pious ones with holy 

 zeal. 



Savages delight in adorning them- 

 selves with feathers, and civilized wo- 

 men have found their charms enhanced 

 by the placing of feathers against fair 

 skins until the close of the nineteenth 

 century finds a social struggle raging 

 through fear that the demands of fash- 

 ion may yet destroy from the face of 

 the earth its sweetest songsters and its 

 most beautifully plumed creatures. 



Fans of feathers are admired the 

 world over. In warm countries huge 

 fans or screens made of beautiful 

 feathers are often carried to shade 

 royalty. In great processions the 

 Pope is followed by bearers of magnifi- 

 cent fans of ostrich plumes. In the 

 Sandwich Islands for a long time the 

 enthroning of a new king was made 

 gorgeous by his wearing a garment of 

 many thousands of feathers; but re- 

 cently, as if in preparation for a union 

 with the United States, this state gar- 



ment was buried with the king and the 

 ceremony became simpler. 



The noblest use to which feathers 

 have been adapted has been in the pro- 

 duction of writing instruments. The 

 antiquity of the pen, regarded as a 

 feather, is shown in the proof recently 

 set forth by the philologists. Penna is 

 the Latin for feather; farther back an 

 instrument for flying is called pat7ia\ 

 the Sanskrit which became penna in the 

 Latin tongue became phathra in the 

 mouths of the Teutonic peoples. So 

 the English language, which is formed 

 from both Latin and Teutonic elements, 

 possesses two words, pen, and feather, 

 which were one in their origin, have 

 been widely separated during the ages, 

 and now are united, but in such a way 

 that only under the microscopeof com- 

 parative grammar are we able to dis- 

 cover that they have the same blood in 

 their veins. 



Although the people living in warm 

 countries wrote with the reed, the Chi- 

 nese with a brush, and we have learned 

 to fashion steel so it will do the work 

 to better advantage, yet the feather has 

 been a mighty agency in the civiliza- 

 tion of the world. 



Every teacher used to consider it 

 one of the essentials of his equipment 

 to possess a good penknife and know 

 how to use it in making or mending 

 pens for his pupils. Quills were first 

 carefully cleansed from all oily or fatty 

 matter and then dried. A gentle heat 

 was applied to secure the brittleness 

 which made it possible to split the pen 

 point without spoiling the quill. 



