MURDEROUS MILLINERY. 
II 
feathers, but manufactured. In every case 
they were “ unquestionably genuine.” 
" The only manufacture consisted in cutting the 
plume in two, and fixing the upper and lower half side 
by side, so that a single feather does duty for two in 
the ' brush’. Thus one of the most beautiful of birds 
is being swept off the face of the earth, under circum¬ 
stances of peculiar cruelty, to minister to a passing 
fashion bolstered up by a glaring falsehood.” 1 
But what falsehood was ever too great for 
greed to invent, or for vanity to “ prefer to 
believe”? If one excuse was for the moment 
laid aside, others were brought forward. 
Aigrettes were made from waste products, 
from the feathers of poultry, from egret 
plumes picked up in enormous quantities and 
in perfect condition on the walls of China, 
or obtained in the regular course of trade 
from herons farmed like ostriches. These 
absurd statements were refuted — knocked 
over like nine-pins—by ornithologists, but as 
easily set up again. And after all, if people 
choose to consider the moon made of green 
cheese, how are all the astronomers in the 
world to convince them to the contrary ? 
Special efforts may succeed in certain 
cases, but as far as many of the most 
beautiful birds are concerned, it seems as 
easy to restore the dead as to save the living, 
or even to diminish the heaps upon heaps of 
“bruised fairness” daily flung before the 
Juggernaut wheel of greed and vanity by 
“ the hand that rocks the cradle.” We are 
the most wasteful generation as regards birds 
and flowers that the weary world has seen. 
“ After us —the deluge.” We are killing for 
a moment’s whim and luxury the living 
1 Letter of Sir W. H. Flower, in The Times, June 25th, 
1896. 
