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OBSERVATIONS. Z
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vrm
WHAT DOES IT COST?
What does it cost, this garniture of death?
It costs the life which Gcd alone can give;
It costs dull silence, where was music's
breath;
It costs dead joy, that foolish pride may
live. Ah. life, and joy, and song, depend upon
it.
Are costly trimmings for a woman's
bonnet.
May Riley Smith.
The slaughter of b rtls for trimmings
has begun to perceptibly decrease the
numbor of songsters in America. Un
less the women, for whose ornamenta
tion the birds are killed, refuse to ac
cept the eactitice any lorger the time
will come, is coming fast when they will
not wear birds because the supply has
been exhausted. Field, forest and
brooksie will be silent save for the
rustle of leaves and grasses, the purl and
patter of the water. The so!oist8 of the
orchestra, the leaders of the symphony
that has made summei time the vaca
tion and medicine of the year since we
were first turned out in the door yard
to play, are being killed for their
feathers. How many times, battered
by defeat and treason into dispairand
infidelity has faith been revived and
courage renewed by the song of birds
with the exquisitely modulated accom
paniment of winds, waters and insects.
What would summer be without the
matins and vespers, without the midday
chirping of the birds? Here are a few
Etatemtnts fio n reliable authorities con
cerning their destruction.
In London, at one auction sale alone,
last autumn, the catalogue included in
its descriptive list of stock for millinery
purposes 0,000 birds of "paradise, 5,000
imperial pheasants, 300,000 assorted
bird ekins from India, and 400,000 hum
ming birds. An article in Forest and
Stream, speakirg of the destruction, of
birds on Long Island, states that during
a short period of four months 20,000
were supplied to the New York dialers
from a single Tillage.
It is said that in one great New York
importing house there are stored the
skins and plumage of more birds than
are in all the museums and collections
of the world put together.
Four bundled thousand humming
birds! Such tiny creatures a single
high, note of color, quivering with con
scious beauty and joy. Even these the
monster will not spare. Just now while
the birds are nesting their plumage is
brightest and they are being killed by
millions. Game bird?, domestic birds,
and ostriches are protected by law
and the young are cared for.
There is no objection to the
wearing of their plumage.
The egret, a kind of heron,fiom whoso
tail plumage the orcarrent callid an
a:grette is made, in full beauty at the
nesting season, has beccnn almost ex
tinct because of the aigrettes.
"It is a piratical, merciless flag, the
dainty aigrette, rising among buds and
blossoms on the spring hats and bonnets.
The beautiful and gnceful terns which
not long ago animated the seashore have
been almost annihilated by the use of
their plumage on woniens' hats. The
snowy heron, from which the mest
beautiful aigrettes are obtained, is be
coming very rare, and it is predicted it
will soon be extinct unless extraordinary
measures are taken for its protection.
In Chicago the women have become
deeply interested in the crusade for the
birds led by the woraens' clubs. From
that centre it is expected that the move
ment will be carried throughout tho
country, under the auspices of the
federated women's clubs.
A strong, growing Audubon society is
already organized in Illinois and Massa
chusetts. Pennsylvania, New York and
other states have such associations, or
are forming them. The Audubon so
cieties require a pledge from each mem
ber that she. will not wear the plumage
of any wild bird and that he or she i.for
there are men in the Audubon societies)
will discourage bird slaughter in all
ways. These, with kindred associations
and with the co-operation of students
and lovers of nature everywhere, aro
arousing such interest in the cause of
the birds that it is in a fair way to be
won.
The school children are greatly inter
ested in the protection of birds, but a
Chicago teacher said the other day
that it was hard to teach a boy not to
kill birds when his motner weais their
dead bodies or wings on her bonnet. The
work in the schools must be encouraged
at home.
Although the death of the birds to
lovers of nature is a loss which can not
bs exaggerated by any material ven
geance, the value of trees and
grain which the birds save
from destruction by eating the
worms and bugs which live on them
is not to be estimated. Ornithologists
say that there is a larger variety of
birds in Nebraska than in any other
state in the union. They are sent by
Providence to devour the swarms of
insects which are here in correspondingly
large numbers. If the race fails to ap
preciate the reason fur this nice adjust
ment, it must take the consequences of
interfering with the plan.
It is trite to speak of women as the
gentler sex. If by her merciless vanity
the most beautiful part of the na'ural
world is destroy ed, the other sex can
laugh admonition to 6corn, get other
mentorp, and put and keep women in
the state of subjection which their
wanton cruelty dt serves. Tho only su
perioiity worth having is that of the
heart and theheac. When women show
that they have neither by refusing an
appeal to both, at the same time they
resign, consciously or unconsciously, any
claims to superior moral instincts. How
ever women have never yet refused to
aid a righteous cause, lha following
pleJge of the Lincoln branch of the
Audubon society, which has been started
in Lincoln, has been prepared by the
charter members.
I villi not wear upon my hat or dress
the plumage of any bird except that of
the ostrich and domestic or game birds,
and I rcill do my best to influence
others to take this pledge.
Mrs. G. M. Lambektson,
" W. B. Oo DEN,
" G. E. MacLean,
GlJILFOYLE,
" Sarah F. Harris,
" S. H. Burnhah,
" W. J. Bryan,
" John T. Doroan,
' D. D. Muir (Denver).
" J. R. Richards.
Mi68 Olive Latta,
" Sarah B. Harris,
" Dora Bachellek,
" Josie Read,
" Sadie Burxiiam.
Mr Marshall Field has gone to Wish
ing ton to confer with themembeisof the
senate committee on finance about the
tariff bill, and he has found that the
hotels aro full of people on the same
business. This country is too big, its
interests are too diverse and varied for
any one of them to bo piotected at the
expense of all the others. When rt ve
nue is accomplished protection should
not begin. Protection protects the rich
against the poor, the manufacturers
from the farmers, the tiger from the
lamb. So long as mo3t of the
manufacturers and accumulated
capital were in the east tho
monied interest secured a high pro
tection tariff without much trouble, a
few mill.on dollars did not count when
the population of the United States
could b3 forced to pay it back. But the
cjntie of capital has been moving west
ward steadily, with occasional sp urts of
speed, ever 6inco the war. It is harder
to agree upon a tariff now than it was
a jeir ago and easier now than it will
be in 1893.
A western dry go-ds merchant who
has built up a biurn si the size of
Marshall Field's is, and has been
in close relations wi h the markets
of the world. His business is so large
that no selfish or narrow policy can con'
trol it, a narrow policy would destroy it.
A business whose employes number five
and six thousand people is a microcosm.
The principles by which it is ordered
must be ba-ed on generalizations broad
enough to administer a people's affairs
successfully. Marshall Field said when
he was asked if he had anything to say
on the Dingley tariff .bill that he had
nothing to say "except the
one general remark that it
is the worst tariff bill I ever saw, not
only as regards the rates of duties im
posed, but in the complicated and am
biguous methods of imposing them.
There is scarcely a line in the bill that
will not have to be interpreted by the
supreme court."
The Germans are especiilly iucensed
at the discrimination against German
sugar. The retaliatory duties which
Germany has placed on American pro
ducts is justifiable and has injured our
trade much more than American dis
crimination has injured theirs. The
Record's Washington Correspondent
says: "The only persons who are en
tirely satisfied with the Dingley bill are
the eastern manufacturers and tho Ohio
wool growers and they aro fighting to
prevent a change. Very little is known of
what the members of the committee are
doing. They keep the details to them
selves, and refuse to give information
concerning particular items but it is
generally understood that they are re
ducing the Dingley rate all around, and
that there will be but a slight increase
over those imposed by the present law.
It is understood also that the duty on
wool will be reduced from 11, 12, and 13
cents to 5, G and 8 cents per pound, and
that the rate on coarse wool, which is
not grown in this country, may bo as
low as 3 cents a pound. The committee
is very much impressed by the protests
that have come from foreign nations,
and has sent to several of tho ambas
sadors, informal assurances that there
will be nothing to complain of when the
bill is completed.
In revising the bill the senate com
mittee is trying to do bomething to
Mimuluto and pneourage the foreign
trade as well as to protect domestic in
dustry, and it is studying the protests
from other governments with serious
concern. Whatever retaliation may
come from the advanced duties upon
manufacture! goods it will fall upon the
farmer and not up an the manufacturer
of this country, and there is no use for
Secretary Wilson and other agents of
tho government to try to increase ex
ports in agricul ural products as long
as the markets are disturbed, and em
bargoes are raised against us in retalia
tion for excessive duties and discrim
inations on this side of the water. By a
single vote in 1894 the results of twelve
years of diplomatic necotiation with
Germany were destroyed, and until we
adopt a permanent foreign commercial
policy it is waste of time for either the
government or private enterprise to try
to build up any export trade.
I believe the democratic victories in
Canton, McKinley's own homo, in
Cleveland, Mark Hanna's home, and in
Cficago are directly due to the tariff
threat. The people do not want a pro
tective tariff, but argument is idle. The
monopolists who paid for McKinley's
election must he repaid at the expense
of the convalescing business interests
of this country. Speaker Reed
"jammed"' the bill th.ough the
hojso because ho knew that it
would effectually prevent a second term
for McKinley. In tha senate, Mark
Hanna will reply to all remonstrances
'Gentlemen, as Chairman of the Re
publican National Committee, I promts,
ed that these duties should be raised to
this figure." Therais nothing to be
said in answer to this though the bill
which doubles tho manufacturer's pro-
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