THE HELPLESS. 
ELANORA KINSLEY MARBLE. 
S the nesting-season of our feath- 
fy ered friends approaches the 
± Y mind naturally reverts to the 
grief in store for so many of 
them. Notwithstanding the efforts of 
the several Audubon societies, the 
humane journals, and in rare instances 
earnest pleas from the pulpit, fashion 
decrees that the wearing of bird plum- 
age, and the birds themselves, is still 
de rigueur among women. The past 
season, certainly, showed no diminu- 
tion of this barbarous fashion — a hu- 
miliating thing to record — and so the 
beautiful creatures will continue to be 
slaughtered, not by hundreds or thou- 
sands, but by millions upon millions, 
all for the gratification of woman's van- 
ity and a senseless love of display. 
Alas, that the "fair" sex in whom the 
quality of mercy is supposed to exist 
in a high degree, should still wear 
above their serene brows — often bowed 
in worship — the badge of inhumanity 
and heartlessness. That mothers who 
have experienced all the pangs as well 
as joys of motherhood can aid in break- 
ing up thousands of woodland homes 
by wearing the plumage which makes 
the slaughter of these birds one of com- 
mercial value and necessity. Soon ac- 
counts will be published of the fabulous 
sums to be gained by the heron hunt- 
ers, and in order to supply the demand 
for the filmy, delicate aigrette to adorn 
my lady's bonnet, the nesting colony of 
these snowy egrets will be visited by 
the plume-hunters and the work of 
slaughter begin. Love and anxiety for 
their nestlings will render them heed- 
less of danger, and through all the days 
of carnage which follow, not one parent 
bird will desert its nest. Fortunately 
the birds are instantly killed by the bul- 
let, else, stripped of the coveted plumes 
they will be thrown in a heap, there 
slowly to die within sight and hearing 
of their starving, pleading little ones. 
These have no value for the plume- 
hunter, and so off he goes with his 
spoil, leaving thousands of orphaned 
nestlings to a painful, lingering death. 
And all this for a plume, which, in 
these days of enlightenment marks the 
wearer either as a person of little edu- 
cation, or totally lacking in refinement 
of feeling. It is trite to say that moth- 
erhood no more than womanhood neces- 
sarily implies refinement in the individ- 
ual, but surely in the former, one would, 
in the nature of things, expect to find 
engendered a feeling of tender pity for 
any helpless animal and its offspring. 
It is this phase of the question which 
particularly appeals to people in whom 
love, as well as compassion for all 
helpless creatures is strong, not a senti- 
ment newly awakened, or adopted as a 
fad. That genuine love for animals is 
inherent and not a matter of education 
the close observer, I think, will admit. 
Not that a child cannot be brought to 
recognize, when caught in any act of 
cruelty to some defenseless creature, 
the wanton wickedness of his act, but 
that no amount of suasion can influence 
him to treat it with kindness for love's 
sake rather than from the abstract moral 
reason that it is right. 
How can this love for animals exist 
\ in a child who has never known the joy 
I of possessing a household pet? In whose 
presence an intrusive dog or cat is ever 
met with a blow, or angry command to 
"get out?" When somebody's lost pet 
comes whining at the door, piteously 
pleading for a kindly pat, and a morsel 
I to eat* and is greeted with a kick, or pos- 
sibly a bullet, underthe pretensethat the 
exhausted, panting little animal might 
go mad? How can a child who has 
witnessed these things view a suffering 
animal with any other feeling but calm 
indifference, or a brutal desire to inflict 
upon it additional pain? In his esti- 
mation every dog is subject to rabies, 
and every cat infested with fleas. 
Paternal apathy in this direction may, 
to some extent, be remedied by the 
child's instructors, especially in the 
kindergarten, where the foundation of 
character is supposed to be laid. But 
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