Show I I I UNTHINKING CRUELTY I Attention Called to the Bespousl blllty of Women for the Destruction De-struction of Birds I II I This Is an ago In which as never la anx other women are coming before tho world as workers for reform They exhibit In an everIncreasing degreE Itho divine unrest dissatisfaction with wrong desire to right IL But there is ono form of wrong cruelty which women are not consistently tryIng try-Ing to remedy I say not consistently Tho same woman who will Interfere In Imlmlf of an overloaded or Illtreated horse and who would perhapff rescue a starving rat or dog Is often to be con with a flayed nllve seals skin on I her back and on her head tho plumage I plum-age of slaughtered birds To all ap Mjiirance unconscious of her culpability culpabil-ity alto advertises tho fact that she either will not read or does not regard ho statements so well authenticated and In the case of bird plumage so wIdely and repeatedly published con cerning the barbarities perpetrated In obtaining these things Last October Mr William Dutcher of New York city president of the National Association of Audubon societies so-cieties made an address In Philadelphia Philadel-phia at the annual meeting of the American Humane association In which after mentioning what has been often repeated the fact that to ob taln tho white aigrette so largely worn involves not only the destruction ol parent birds for these plumes grow only at the time of nesting but the death of theIr young from starvation he spoke also of the brutal murder of one of the wardens in the employ of the association by a plume hunter at Oyster Key Fla This law breaker for whose nefarious trade feather wearing women are responsible resented re-sented the Interference of the warden and killed him Such women may now reflect If they will on tho fact that the thoughtlessness and vanity of their I kind have Incidentally been the means of murdering a man and leaving hIs wife a widow and his children orphans or-phans Thoy are also responsible for encouraging a trade of the most brutalizing bru-talizing tendencies No man can spend his time killing with all tin haste a ml recklessness possible Innocent Inno-cent birds at the nesting period leaving leav-ing the young to starve without himself him-self losing the last remnant of feeling Such a man Is getting the education of a criminal Women who wear the products of his evil work are before God responsible whethor they think about It or not Much of the capital In the millinery trade is Invested year by year In bird plumage because It Is a very profitable part of tho business So the sale of feathers Is Industriously pushed In the retail stores and everything is said which will flatter the vanity of tin woman buyer and soothe her conscience con-science should It show signs of awakening awak-ening Tho birds and plumes art manufactured Imitations very clever copies of the genuine but nevertheless never-theless only copies It is a pity thai women are not better ornithologists or else gifted with better Judgment Audubon societies In every state and wardens to protect birds would not bo needed If milliners did not use them nor would it bo necessary to enact moro and stricter laws for theft I preservation Many varieties of birds are slaughtered every year by thousands thou-sands and millions and the feathers In the shops are tho feathers of these same birds as the ornithologists ID the Audubon societies will testify No woman has a shadow of oxcuse foi wearing as much as ono quill for thE Audubon societies have discovered that these are obtained by trapping the birds the quills being then ruthlessly ruth-lessly torn from their wings and UK disabled creatures turned loose unable un-able in most cases to fly and presentIng present-Ing a piteous spectacle When it Is wings that are sought the brutal hunters hunt-ers grown callous through Imblt teal them oft without in the least caring whether or not tho bird Is dead Ono of tho most Incomprehenfibls things connected with the senseless and cruel bird plumage fashion Is tho silence of ministers of the Gospel Why can they not seo that for a woman wom-an to deck herself with tho results ot cruelty and brutality is inconsistent with Christian profession There Is a crying need that people In all the churches should be told definitely and specifically what applied Christianity Is Participation in cruelly Is n sin from which professing Christians are far from being exempt and It constitutes consti-tutes n serious and wellgrounded cause for criticism among outsiders who are humane They laugh at a Christianity which bans continually on Gods mercy to us but says little or nothing about tho mercy which we lu consequence should show to eely living creature Can tho Justice of this criticism be denied AtYUY P LOVntU Secretary ot American Humane Assocla lion |