THE CRUEL GODDESS FASHION— AN APPEAL 205 



Caught 'mid some mother work, 

 Torn by a hunter Turk, 

 Just for your hat ! 

 Plenty of mother hearts yet in the world : 

 All the more wings to tear, carefully twirled, — 

 Women want that ! 



Oh, but the shame of it. 

 Oh, but the blame of it, 

 Price of a hat ! 

 Just for a jauntiness brightening the street ! 

 This is your halo, O faces so sweet, — 

 Death : and for that ! 



So late as November, 1895, one of the secretaries of the 

 " S.P.B." published an appeal, and stated that during that first 

 season, "in one warehouse alone of the many engaged in the 

 traffic, there were no less than 60,000 dozen mixed sprays 

 disposed of." 



In fiile, the adaptation of the feathers of anything, save 

 those of domestic birds — and ostriches are classed with them, 

 — for decorative purposes is an outrage on every feeling of 

 humanity, when it is known in what a brutal manner they are 

 procured, and therefore no directions for " making up " will be 

 found in these pages ; nor, indeed, will any instructions be 

 given for another form of setting-up likely to lead to a mis- 

 chievous form of collecting — that of making up gulls, owls, 

 hawks, and other birds as hand-screens, — although there may 

 be some excuse when birds such as jays and magpies, inimical 

 to game, are shot by keepers and used for such purposes, but 

 it must be remembered that, after all, such objets de luxe are 

 admittedly unnaturally set up. 



The making-up of a rare and valuable bird piece by piece is 

 sometimes necessary, and for this purpose an artificial body of 

 tow is constructed, in the same manner as described at p. 186, 

 to which the legs of the bird are bolted, and the whole is fixed 



