FEATHERS. 
W. E. WATT. 
A splendid young blackbird built in a tree; 
A spruce little fellow as ever could be; 
His bill was so yellow, his feathers so black, 
So long was his tail, and so glossy his back, 
That good Mrs. B., who sat hatching her eggs, 
And only just left them to stretch her poor legs, 
And pick for a minute the worm she preferred, 
Thought there never was seen such a beautiful bird. 
—D. M. Mulock. 
Oh! Nature's noblest gift — my gray-goose quill! 
Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, 
Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen, 
The mighty instrument of little men! — Byron. 
FEATHERS have played an im- 
portant part in the history of 
mankind. Henry of Navarre 
won the battle of Ivry after elec- 
trifying his men with the following 
words:"Fellow soldiers, you are French- 
men; behold the enemy! If you lose 
sight of your ensigns, rally round my 
plume; you will always find it on the 
high road to honor!" 
No doubt the templars carried the 
hearts of many with them in the cru- 
sades more effectually because their 
waving plumes gave them a pictur- 
esqueness which inspired brave men 
with courage and pious ones with holy 
zeal. 
Savages delight in adorning them- 
selves with feathers, and civilized wo- 
men have found their charms enhanced 
by the placing of feathers against fair 
skins until the close of the nineteenth 
century finds a social struggle raging 
through fear that the demands of fash- 
ion may yet destroy from the face of 
the earth its sweetest songsters and its 
most beautifully plumed creatures. 
Fans of feathers are admired the 
world over. In warm countries huge 
fans or screens made of beautiful 
feathers are often carried to shade 
royalty. In great processions the 
Pope is followed by bearers of magnifi- 
cent fans of ostrich plumes. In the 
Sandwich Islands for a long time the 
enthroning of a new king was made 
gorgeous by his wearing a garment of 
many thousands of feathers; but re- 
cently, as if in preparation for a union 
with the United States, this state gar- 
ment was buried with the king and the 
ceremony became simpler. 
The noblest use to which feathers 
have been adapted has been in the pro- 
duction of writing instruments. The 
antiquity of the pen, regarded as a 
feather, is shown in the proof recently 
set forth by the philologists. Penna is 
the Latin for feather; farther back an 
instrument for flying is called patna\ 
the Sanskrit which became penna in the 
Latin tongue became phathra in the 
mouths of the Teutonic peoples. So 
the English language, which is formed 
from both Latin and Teutonic elements, 
possesses two words, pen, and feather, 
which were one in their origin, have 
been widely separated during the ages, 
and now are united, but in such a way 
that only under the microscope of com- 
parative grammar are we able to dis- 
cover that they have the same blood in 
their veins. 
Although the people living in warm 
countries wrote with the reed, the Chi- 
nese with a brush, and we have learned 
to fashion steel so it will do the work 
to better advantage, yet the feather has 
been a mighty agency in the civiliza- 
tion of the world. 
Every teacher used to consider it 
one of the essentials of his equipment 
to possess a good penknife and know 
how to use it in making or mending 
pens for his pupils. Quills were first 
carefully cleansed from all oily or fatty 
matter and then dried. A gentle heat 
was applied to secure the brittleness 
which made it possible to split the pen 
point without spoiling the quill. 
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