The Audubon Societies 



283 



of the measure. The opponents of the 

 bill never rallied from the effects of the 

 earnest arguments of Miss Stuart and 

 the eloquent appeals of Mr. Wallace. 



Thus end the attempts which the 

 National Association and the State Audu- 

 bon Society have repeatedly made during 

 the past eight years to secure this most 

 important piece of state legislation. 



Mr. C. E. Brewster, Game Law Expert 

 of the United States Biological Survey, 

 has recently accomplished some most 

 gratifying results in the matter of prose- 

 cutions in the Federal courts for the 

 shipping of Quail in violation of the 

 Lacy Act. Mr. Brewster goes out single- 

 handed in search of flagrant violators of 

 the law, collects the evidence, turns it 

 over to the office of the Solicitor of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and when the 

 cases come up for trial appears in person 

 with his evidence and testimony. 



His efforts of late have been directed 

 chiefly against the shippers of Quail in 

 Virginia and North Carolina, who for- 

 ward by express their products to northern 

 markets. As an example of what this 

 energetic government agent is doing, the 

 following quotation is given from a letter 

 under date of June 20, 19 13. 



"I have just returned from Roanoke, 

 Virginia, where we succeeded in indicting 

 forty-five persons charged with shipping 

 game in interstate commerce in violation 

 of the Federal Law. A great many of the 

 accused went into court and immediately 

 entered a plea of guilty, and we actually 

 collected nearly one thousand dollars the 

 day the indictments were returned." 



When we remember that neither Vir- 

 ginia nor North Carolina has a state 

 warden system worthy the name, we can 

 appreciate how exceedingly important it 

 is that the Biological Survey of the 

 Federal Government is in a position to 

 throw itself into the breach and check 

 this widespread game-shipping industry 

 in that territory. 



That splendid and prolific writer, Ella 

 Wheeler Wilcox, has recently been having 



some very pertinent things to say regard- 

 ing women who adorn themselves with 

 aigrettes and other birds' feathers. In 

 one of her series of suggestions to women 

 she says: 



"Tell the milliner, dear lady, to fashion 

 you the most exquisite hat possible out 

 of nature's and art's inanimate articles. 

 Suggest ideas to her; and endeavor to 

 produce something which shall be so 

 beautiful it puts to shame the miniature 

 butcher-shops which other women sport. 

 Talk this subject to your friends, and to 

 your enemies, and make it familiar to the 

 minds of all women. Refuse to belong to a 

 club that does not consider this question 

 one of importance to the progress of 

 woman. Make the women who attend 

 your church ashamed of wearing dead 

 birds. Refuse to believe in their religion 

 until they cease to aid the cause of 

 Murderous Millinery." 



In a recent number of Collier's Weekly, 

 Mr. Arthur E. McFarlane, under the 

 title "The Business of Arson," makes the 

 following interesting comments: 



"One day in January, 191 2, I was sitting 

 at a William Street window with a big 

 New York insurance man. 



" 'Do you notice', he asked, 'anything 

 about the women's hats?' 



"There was this to notice: with the 

 exception of ostrich plumes, almost every 

 hat was destitute of feathers. 



" 'Sure!' said the insurance man sorely. 

 'The Audubon Societies — with a lot of 

 help from Paris — have done that. For 

 about two years the wholesale milliners 

 haven't been able to give feathers away. 

 And if you'd been getting the losses, you'd 

 think that every feather west of the 

 Mississippi had been burned by now. 



" 'Within a month, in fact, after Paris 

 had set its ban on feathers, three feather 

 factories burned in New York. But 

 again taking our four years, one insurance 

 company reports five such losses in 1908, 

 eleven in 1909, fourteen in 1910, and, 

 despite many cancellations, twelve in 

 1911. Two companies give loss ratios, 

 respectively, of 80.6 and 93 per cent for 



