THE WEARING OF EGRET PLUMES. 
OTHING for some time has been more commonly 
seen than the delicate, airy plumes which stand 
upright in ladies’ bonnets. Many kind hearted women 
who would not on any account do a cruel act, are, 
by following this fashion, causing the continuance of 
a very great cruelty. In speaking of the excuses for 
wearing these ornaments, W. II Hudson, C. M. Z. S., 
author of “ Tne Naturalist in La Plata,” and part 
author of “Argentine Ornithology,” says : “Ladies 
have repeatedly assured me, in all seriousness, that 
milliners make these fine plumes out of the common¬ 
est feathers. * * * The aigrette worn by ladies in 
our day is in very nearly all cases, actually made of the 
slender decomposed feathers that grow at one time of 
the year on the egret’s back and droon gracefully over 
the sides and tail of the bird. The less fine plumes 
with shorter and stiller filaments, are from the squacco 
heron, which is not an egret.” Mr. Hudson adds that 
those who engage in the business of procuring these 
plumes know that to obtain a good supply with little 
trouble, the birds must be taken when the breeding 
season is well advanced. “The shyest, most secretive 
kinds lose all their wild instincts in their overmaster¬ 
ing anxiety for the safety of eggs or young. And when 
the poor bird, uttering piercing cries, its sensitive 
frame quivering, its bill gaping as if he air could no 
longer sustain it in its intense agitation, and flutter¬ 
ing its lovely wings to make them more conspicuous, 
and by such means draw the danger away from its 
treasures and on to itself—when it has been ruthlessly 
shot for its feather.-, its fledgelings are left to starve 
in the nest. And if to the starved young we add all 
the birds that fly away with pellets of lead in their 
bodies, to languish and die of their wounds, it would 
be no exaggeration to say that for every plume worn 
in a lady’s hat, 10 birdB have suffered the death pang.” 
And when the killing is finished and the few hand¬ 
fuls of coveted feathers have been plucked out, the 
slaughtered birds are left in a white heap to fester in 
the sun and wind in the sight of their orphaned young 
that cry for food and are not fed. There is nothing 
in the whole world so pitiable as this—so pitiable ani 
so shameful—that for such a purpose human cunning 
should take advantage of that feeling and instinct, 
which we regard as so noble in our own species, and 
as something sacred—the tender passion of the parent 
for its offspring which causes it to neglect its own 
safety and to perish miserably a sacrifice to its love ! 
* * * And those, who, not ignorant of the facts, 
encourage such things for fashion’s sake, and for the 
gratification of a miserable vanity, have a part in it, 
and are perhaps more guilty than the wretches who 
are paid to do the rough work. 
The mania for egret plumes is so great that, if any¬ 
thing, it exceeds that for wearing the bodies of birds, 
and in what is it better ? Any observant person who 
notices these plumes waving not singly, but often in 
clusters on the heads of so many women, must know 
that the slaughter has not been thousands, but 
millions. It goes without saying that women must 
adorn themselves; but are there not many ways of 
doing it which need not involve such heartless cruelty? 
Ought not every good and gentle woman who has 
learned of it, to shun the responsibility of carrying 
aloft the trophies of such brutal work ? 
[The above is from a leaflet sent out by the Depart¬ 
ment of Mercy. There is a pledge, which reads: 
“ We, whose names are hereunto affixed, agree not to 
wear the bodies, wings or feathers of birds as a part 
of our clothing or headgear, and we call upon all 
right-minded women to join us in this pledge.” 
Pledges, leaflets, or further information can, we 
think, be obtained from Miss Hattie B. Robinson, 
North Nassau, N. Y., who is devoting her time to this 
and kindred good works.— Ed.] 
Mr. Angell, in the November number of Our Dumb 
Animals, quotes from an account in Wide Awake that 
a lady in Florence called attention one day to the 
mournful notes of some birds in small cages. They 
were blind ; their eyes had been put out. In the 
night the owners take the birds outside the city and 
hang the cages in trees. The trees are smeared with 
tar. The birds go on with their pitiful singing and 
this attracts other birds who get stuck on the: tar, and 
then they are caught and their eyes are put out* 
These birds are killed and sent to America to be worn 
on ladies’ bonnets. 
It is known that the bird hunters of Florida kill the 
birds while they are rearing their young—because of 
the greater beauty of the plumage at that season— 
and leave the little ones to starve to death. One 
who went through the hunting grounds, speaks of 
the horror it gave him to hear the pitiful screams of 
these dying little birds. 
Why does all this slaughter go on ? In order that 
women may decorate themselves and win admiration. 
But suppose they do not win admiration ? I know 
many people who look upon this cruel and frivolous 
fashion vc-ith unmixed horror, and upon the women 
who continue it with deep, if silent disapproval. 
Now that so much is known concerning this kind of 
adornment, the woman who adopts it must expect to 
win something very far from admiration. Mrs. Olive 
Th rne Miller says : “ The beautiful warblers flitting 
incessantly about the trees, are working almost every 
instant in our interest, yet we, some of us, wear their 
little dead bodies in clusters and wreaths, and the 
insects multiply apace. The rose-breasted grosbeak 
works more industriously than any hod carrier; and 
never strikes for shorter hours; and what is he doing? 
Carefully examining the potato plants and p eking 
off that pest, the potato beetle. Unfortunately, more 
unfortunately for us than for him, he has a beautiful 
coat; he is wanted to adorn somebody’s hat; his life 
of usefulness is cut short, and the bugs have free 
sweep with the potatoes.” Again she says: “Pages 
have been written and published about the desolation 
of the former bird-haunted spots ; every traveler who 
observes, every collector who goes out to secure t e 
last lingering individual, reports the fearful slaugh¬ 
ter, the alarming decrease of birds and the terrific 
and uncheckable increase of their prey, the insect, 
which shall yet devour the world and the inhabitants 
thereof.” 
Prof. Edward E. Fish, of Buffalo, in speaking of the 
great use of birds toman, says: “It is estimated 
that they save to agricultural purposes alone annually 
over $100,000,000 in the United States. In many sec¬ 
tions insect life is still so abundant as to make human 
life almost unendurable. In other sections it is only 
kept in check by birds, and tnere is no place in which, 
were this check removed, it would not greatly hold 
the balance of power. The number of flies, mos¬ 
quitoes, gnats and other small insects destroyed in one 
day in a small area by warblers, swallows and fly¬ 
catchers alone, is beyond computation. From day¬ 
light until dark, all through the summer months, 
these birds wage incessant war on the enemies of 
man.” 
A great French authority, Miche’et, has stated that 
there could be no vegetation, and therefore no life, if 
the birds were all destroyed. Is this to be put to a 
practical test for fashion’s sake ? 
I ask if those who aid and abet the folly of destroy¬ 
ing insectivorous birds, and encourage the attendant 
cruelty, are not giving evidence of both lack of feeling 
and of good sense ? The woman who decorates her¬ 
self with the body of a bird whose little heart was 
wrung with anguish when it was torn from its help¬ 
less nestlings, and they were left to die in the slow 
torture of starvation, is hardly logical when she claims 
to possess rights, or objects to having her mother love 
outraged. ‘■‘But these are only birds.” Only birds! 
Only creatures beautiful with the touch of the Creator’s 
hand ; whose conjugal love and maternal devotion 
might afford many salutary lessons to the superior 
human race. Only God’s birds! Made by Him to fill 
with sweet sounds the summer air; to gladden the 
eyes and cheer the heart of rational man ; to be to him 
the type and emblem of glad and free existence, now 
and in the illimitable future. 
No, the fashionable woman wills otherwise. They 
are not God’s bird ; they are hers. Hers to be captured 
in millious by shot, or snare, or trap ; to have their 
eyes put out; to have their happy dwelling places 
turned into scenes of miserable suffering and their 
gentle songs into piteous cries ; to be as a race wiped 
out of existence altogether, if need be, in order that, 
while the whim lasts, she may resemble in her per¬ 
sonal adornment the untutored savage, and obey the 
dictates of a cruel and senseless custom. 
At the beginning of this I spoke of the Christian 
woman, and to her I say finally, “My sister, is not con¬ 
sistency of conduct one of the best evidences of our 
faith ? Can a Christian woman dare to defend her¬ 
self in this misuse of the works of her Creator, with 
the flimsy excuse that the birds she wears were 
killed before she bought them, and that her refusal 
to buy them would not save them now ? If you buy 
those birds they were killed for you, and you have 
helped to create a demand for more. If by this 
wholesale slaughter you help to exterminate some of 
the bird races altogether, will God re-create them to 
your order ? Should any be in your possession, let 
me beg you to cease wearing them, but by no means 
to give them away. 
“If justice, mercy and common sense are to be hence¬ 
forth more than names, let me once more urge con¬ 
sistency, and ask that you will have neither part nor 
lot in a fashion so cruel and so utterly without ex¬ 
cuse.” MARY F. LOVELL. 
It seems to me a principle that the person who 
works hardest for those beneath him cl'mbs highest 
towards angelhood ; and if I thought it right to envy 
any one, I would set about envying those who are 
voices for the voiceless and defenders for tbe most 
down-trodden of God’s creatures.—Frances E. Willard. 
THE UNIFORM OF THE TRAINED NURSE. 
FEW days ago, a young woman in one of the 
nurses’ training schools of New York State 
wrote to a friend : “ We are to have distinctive suits 
hereafter, blue and white gowns with white caps, 
aprens and turn-over collars. I cannot say that I like 
it, for it mak^s me feel like ‘ one of a class,’ rather 
than an individual ” We think this feeling is dis¬ 
tinctly false, and needs but a firmer belief in the es¬ 
sential nobility of the nurse’s profession to overcome 
it, while who can tell the comfort it may be times 
without number to weary patients, to see the familiar 
uniform and know that help is at hand ? 
The Woman’s Illustrated World, which is making a 
specialty of publishing Miss Corson’s work and other 
World's Fair notes of interest, has a long article on 
the British Nursing Exhibit. Speaking of the various 
uniforms shown, it gossips interestingly : 
“ The Sisters of St. Thomas stand arrayed in gowns 
of blue striped cotton, with long white aprons and 
caps of white lace. Above them stand nurses from 
the Royal Naval Hospital in scarlet and navy blue, the 
male nurse, from one of Her Majesty’s battleships, be¬ 
ing in plain uniform and cap. 
“ The nurses from the Gordon House Home Hospital 
have particularly pretty gowns, the one of crimson, 
the other of pink check, both in aprons and caps. 
“From the King’s Co.lege Hospital are nurses in 
dark green, with linen caps and collars, and proba¬ 
tioners in gray and black. 
“ The out-door costume of the Thevat Hospital is. 
exceedingly pretty, consi-ting of black brilliantine 
gown, long black silk cloak with lining of changeable 
silk, and bonnet of Mary Stuart design. 
“ Her Majesty’s nursiDg sister wears a gray uniform 
in-doors, with red cape and white kerchief, while her 
going-out costume is a long gray cloak, with close- 
fitting bonnet and veil. 
“ The maternity nurse is in pure white with not a 
touch of color to mar its spotlessness. 
“ Sweetest of all, because quaintest of all, are the 
native Indian nurses who are in hospitals in Cairo and 
Bombay. In Cairo is the Arab nurse in blue-striped 
gown, white apron and native headdress. Nurse 
Amina, in the Gama Hospital, Bombay, is in pink 
trousers, with overdress of white, and white head¬ 
dress. 
“The Hindoo nurse, Radadai, in holiday attire, 
stands resplendent in robe of changeable green silk 
with golden bordering, while next to her stands the 
nurse Dosabar in blue and silver. Another Hindoo 
nurse is in holiday garb of crimson and gold with 
gayly-flowered vest. Nurse Premabai is in blue and 
ecru, while marshaling her line stands English Sister 
Mary in white, with bow of blue at the neck, her 
blonde hair half covered with lace, a charming contrast 
to her blaek-browed assistants.” 
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