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. Trafificuses 

 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 Danae rain of the purest 



