14 
NATURE NOTES. 
chain of existence, and it is quite certain that it is not for him alone the birds sing 
and the flowers bloom, for many of them he has never seen ; they have the same 
inherent right to live and enjoy their brief span of existence that he has ; the 
purpose of his life is to increase the amount of happiness and to lessen the amount 
of misery in the world ; his God-like reason is given him to control and subdue 
Nature, to work with her, to study her, and wrest from her her secrets, and to 
keep under that proclivity for destruction which shows in him the instinct of the 
primeval savage, cave man or ape, from which, on the physical plane, he is said 
by the disciples of Darwin to be descended. Man has a nobler origin, mentally 
and spiritually, and we vindicate that belief by the sentiments which animate us 
as good members of the Selborne Society. We plead for the life of things ; we 
say, let them live, let them grow ; there is a soul in Nature which will speak to 
your soul if you only have ears to hear.” 
The Ethics and Literature of Fashion-Books. — Lady Fry writes as 
follows, from i, Palace Houses, Bayswater Hill, W. : — “Would it be possible to 
rouse in the minds of those who write such paragraphs as the one I enclose, for 
fashion books and reviews, any sense of shame at thus treating the beauties of 
creation and the marvellous glory of beauty and song as mere adjuncts to a tawdry 
hat, or reliefs to some novelty of colouring ? It is difficult to imagine the woman 
who does not see the grotesqueness, as well as the cruelty and thoughtlessness of 
such an idea, but if those writers do not see it one would be glad that their vision 
should be helped in some way. Could you not write an article on ‘ The Milliner’s 
View of Creation ’ ? Perhaps some of your readers may be inclined to take this 
up.” The following is the enclosed extract from fashion book for December, 
1SS9 : — “ Birds of all colours are used as garnitures, but the blackbird is voted the 
leader. The Brazilian humming-bird, clad in a coat of warm-brown plumage, 
save at the throat, which shows now golden, now emerald, is also a favourite, and 
the tuneful canary is highly esteemed for the warmth and tone of his colouring. 
A small white bird known as the Java wren is very beautiful in its purity, and is 
said, by-the-bye, to be the only all-white bird known, except the pigeon. This 
little bird looks well on gray, on mauve and on the electric shade that in Paris has 
lately been known as ‘ Edison.’ A gray cloth toque has a draped brim of velvet 
the same shade ; and in front, where the folds are most intricate, are placed three 
Java wrens, the velvet separating them so that each is seen to advantage. Of 
course, a gray-and-white toque can only be assumed by a woman with dark hair, 
for on a blonde it would have a chilling effect. The low-crowned felt hats with 
straight, broad brims are generally lined with velvet, for the brims are always 
turned up either at the back or at the side so that the underfacing shows and 
exercises a softening influence on the face.” We consider Lady Fry's suggestion 
a very valuable one, and shall be pleased if some lady members of the Selborne 
Society, who understand the mysteries of fashion books, will discuss their con- 
tents from the ethical as well as the oesthetical point of view. To ourselves they 
have been hitherto “ sealed books but if the above extract is a fair sample of 
their usual style, we consider them most saddening literature. In all serious- 
ness, we can hardly believe it possible that any English girl or woman can be so 
steeped in cynical cruelty as to enjoy the elaborate description of the “tuneful 
note ” of the canary, of the “ warm-brown plumage of the humming-bird, with its 
beautiful breast, now golden, now emerald,” and of the little white Java wren 
“beautiful in its purity” (certainly not typical of its wearer) ; and at the same 
time to doom to death the little creatures whose beauties are so dwelt upon. We 
should certainly have supposed that such deliberate heartlessness would have 
“ exercised ” a brutalising, not “ a softening influence on the face.” 
Cruelty to Kelts. — This title does not imply “Another injustice to Ire- 
land,” but indicates a form of reckless and unsportsman-like barbarity, which is 
occasionally practised towards unclean salmon or kelts. A reviewer of Major 
Traherne’s book on “ The Habits of the Salmon,” in the Academy, thus alludes to 
it : “ We are wholly with him .... above all, in his merciful plea for 
the kelts, when hooked instead of clean salmon.” They are often gaffed without 
a thought as to whether they are clean fish or kelts, the hook is ruthlessly torn, or 
cut out of their mouths, or from whatever part of the body it may be fixed in, and 
