HORTENSIA M. BLACK. 175 
to fly, and call it sharp-shooting. Where I live a real- 
estate agent had a display of this kind, and after it hundreds 
of maimed and suffering birds lay alive for days on the field, 
though I and others tried in vain to save and heal them. 
I loathe the sight of a feather in a woman’s bonnet. Aye, 
there it is, the woman who ought to be an angel of mercy— : 
look at her! Clad in furs, torn as seal skins are from the 
living creature—gloves of softest kid on her hands, taken 
from living baby kids so as to have them soft—feathers in 
her hat torn from living birds to preserve the hues more 
brightly, she is a walking epitome of cruelty. Trafficuses 
her vanity to feed the minotaur of the merciless nature of 
man. Alas! are such beings worthy a sigh? Why does 
not a righteous God destroy such a race? ‘The few who at- 
tend this Congress are the answer. There are some hearts 
yet left as salt on the earth, and the savor has not totally 
disappeared. This is the hope, and this is the method I 
show you, to rescue the birds. We who study these questions 
are criticised ; we are called cranks and fanatics, and what 
not of abuse. It matters not; we are working for the de- 
liverance of birds and other sufferers, but far more import- 
ant to human interests is our work, for it means moral and 
spiritual deliverance for man, for woman, for child. 
Shall a braver, purer, stronger race replace the present? 
Some prophecies so strongly point this way that Lord Bulwer 
Lytton founded his novel of “The Coming Race” upon 
them. Every move we make to aid an animal is a move to 
enfranchise from degradation our own race. Man cannot 
be kind to a human and cruel to another sort of creature, 
and be of any real value. The principle of love must 
animate him toward all things, if he would be truly devel- 
oped. No one can grow under any other teaching. Love! 
love! this is. the teaching that will lead to success in our 
work. Filled with love ourselves toward everything, inca- 
pable of a selfish or cruel deed, let us go forward diligently 
to baptize the world with this Danaé rain of the purest 
