2i6 Bird - Lore 



dare say no letter was so well penned or so cheerfully composed as that one, for it had 

 that "vital touch" which most themes of composition lack. Of the one hundred and 

 seventy-eight pupils who recite to me, one hundred and forty-one sent two letters each. 

 The scholars took their epistles home and sufhciently interested their big brothers, 

 fathers, uncles and friends so that they signed too, making a grand total of four hundred 

 and forty-six signatures to the Senator and the Assemblyman of the district. What 

 more practical lesson in civics could one desire than this? I enclose a few taken at 

 random. These are copies of the originals. Note the sincerity, the childlike fervor 

 and the interest displayed. They are the untrammeled expressions of a child's love for 

 bird life. The girl who signs herself, "Mary Sibera" is thirteen and a half years old 

 (which, by the way, is the average age in these classes). This is her own unaided work. 



2462 Webster Ave., New York City, April 7, 1911. 

 Hon. Anthony J. Griffen, Senator of 2 2d District. 

 891 Cauldwell Ave., New York City. 



Dear Sirf Although I am only a school-girl and have no vote in legislation, I am 

 interested in the two bills that concern the protection or destruction of our wild birds. 

 I want to urge you to do the utmost in your power to defeat Assembly Bill 359, intro- 

 duced by Hon. A. J. Levy, which is intended to cripple and destroy the present plumage 

 law. I write to you because I cannot help it. The results that will accompany the pass- 

 ing of this,measure are brought before me and I fully realize them. Therefore, I appeal 

 to you to energetically oppose the passing of this misleading and cruel law. This bill, 

 once passed, will benefit a few sordid and unfeeling men and vain women, but it threat- 

 ens to bring havoc to New York State in general. 



My personal belief is that no man has the privilege to shoot one wild bird, because 

 they are public property. God placed them on the face of the earth for common enjoy- 

 ment, not to be turned to a profit by several greedy persons, nor either to adorn ladies' 

 hats. God created them and therefore they have as much right to live as we ourselves. 



In addition to this the birds are useful to mankind in various ways. They destroy 

 the insects that beset the fields which must produce our food. Were the birds allowed 

 to be exterminated, insects would increase, and not man}^ months would elapse before 

 the enormity of the error would be discovered. 



Can you at all imagine the desolation that would follow if our wild birds were cruelly 

 to be exposed to death? On early summer mornings who would not miss the swelling 

 chorus with which the happy little birds herald the rising sun, filling the human heart 

 with such exhilarating gladness that it almost leaps from its bonds and soars high in 

 happy delirium with the songsters? If Bill 359 is passed, the birds, so useful, so harmless, 

 so beautiful and pleasant both to the ear and to the eye, instead of being protected by 

 us as a gift entrusted to the public, are to be exposed to the destructive weapon of the 

 milliners' man. Oh, dear sir, by all means vigorously oppose the bill, which is so inhuman, 

 so erring and so unjust both to God and man. And do not fail to ask those people who 

 are deceiving themselves, silencing their consciences by the thought of 'profit,' to put 

 themselves in the birds' places, and let them try to imagine the little beating heart of 

 the mother bird quaking with fear when she hears the report of the gun. 



I also pray that you can cast your vote for Senate Bill No. 513, introduced by Hon. 

 Howard R. Bayne. The passing of this Bill will help bird conservation in all states 

 where they are killed to supply the New York market. Enlist all your energies for the 

 passage of this bill, for we regard the public welfare above private millinery interests. 



Very truly yours, 



Mary Sibera. 



