The Audubon Societies 217 



like a regular brush, while the wings of fowl are softer and better adapted to 

 dusting nooks and corners not easily reached by a cloth. 



The tail-feathers of poultry and game are more difficult to utilize satisfac- 

 torily, being loose instead of firmly attached to a bony framework, but with a 

 little patience they can be gathered firmly together, and then tied and bound 

 into very useful dusters, almost round in shape. Reckoning the value of such 

 a wing or duster at ten cents — and surely one is worth that sum if small cheap 

 bristle brushes are worth thirty-five and forty-five cents — the saving in actual 

 money by utilizing such a waste product would be great. Moreover, in many 

 homes where rigid economy must constantly be practised, the saving effected 

 in this way, small as it might be, would be worth while, especially since it would 

 revive a custom common to every well-ordered household in days gone by. 



The contour feathers of birds are commonly sold for about ten cents a 

 pound, in New England at least, to middlemen who make a profit of two cents a 

 pound in passing them on to manufacturers of cheap mattresses. It is said that 

 such mattresses are particularly used by French-Canadians who make up so 

 large a part of the manufacturing population of New England. When one con- 

 siders how many contour feathers it takes to weigh a pound, it will be seen 

 that such a feather-mattress calls for the plumage of many birds, but as this is 

 a practical way of utilizing the plumage of dressed poultry and a far better one 

 than any ornamental device known to millinery, it need not be discouraged. 



Just how many 'quills' and 'feathers' of domestic fowl find their way to 

 manufacturers of millinery goods the writer does not know, but it must be 

 evident to every thoughtful person that the plumage of poultry is far better 

 conserved in beds and brushes than in bizarre, inartistic ornaments for women's 

 headgear. This season an unusual number of such ornaments, in addition to 

 wings, are seen on hats. To a person of taste, such a display is actually pain- 

 ful. As a keen observer remarked: 'Tf women were compelled to wear such 

 crude, fantastic adornments as one commonly sees, they would probably feel 

 injured and rebel." Why should the illusory, deceptive word, style, which con- 

 notes so little, hold women of common sense, acumen, and otherwise good 

 morals in thrall ! It makes no difference whether feather ornaments are real or 

 imitations, the result is the same in kind, and any woman who persists in wear- 

 ing wings and the present abominations (artistically considered) known as 

 'aigrettes,' which crisp and curl in any or all directions the maker may dic- 

 tate, certainly commits a real offense against the canons of good taste, and, 

 furthermore, persists in being a stumbling-block to less intelligent women and 

 girls who follow the lead of the so-called well-dressed woman. 



It is not pleasant to hear men sneeringly remark that women will never 

 give up using feathers on hats, when women do so many things of much larger 

 import and make sacrifices that men have never been known to make. 



The time has come now to drop this childish fashion, to realize that any 

 and all parts of a bird's plumage are useful for more practical needs than for 



