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Show ing gay clothing and were a frightful example to the children of honest parents. who desired to bring their children up in a thrifty way, and to teach them early to work so that they might in turn provide for find bring their children up trained to habits of industry, in-dustry, to wearing plain clothes and giving frugal liTes. '- ' . ' The speech was listened to most attentively; it was very like a speech by Mr. McCall before the board of directors of the Equitable Life. The next speaker was a vinegary-faced vinegary-faced . old lady sparrow. She called for a new alignment on a strictly economic basis, said there were too many holidays last summer, sum-mer, too much entertaining by certain families that were living beyond their means; that more scandal was talked than was ever heard at a bridge whist party; that many ladies some of whom were present, pres-ent, though she did not wish to be personal neglected neg-lected their families of tender age to go to these entertainments, en-tertainments, and if kept up it would result in race suicide and the destruction of the ancient, honorable sparrow home. Despite the frowns which her speech evoked, she kept on, and was just entering upon a new phase of the economic question when a shot from an air gun, fired by a young hoodlum, took out her few remaining tail feathers, and the convention, in confusion, adjourned without date. THE SPARROWS' CONVENTION. A flock of sparrows held a convention in a tree ' top on a street corner yesterday. It was like a wo-! men's convention in one respect there was no end of discussion. The sun was shining brightly; the air was soft, the etreets under the thaw were little mill streams, and the subject under discussion in the tree top was evidently the coming of spring. One old gray chap was apparently trying to Impress up-' up-' on the convention the need of conservatism and the .wisdom of going slow, pointing out that the worst of the winter . was probably yet to come, but a mighty protest was chattered as he closed, and a young Miss Sparrow excitedly took the floor (or the limb), and seemed to be asking if it was not wrong fit any time to shirk our duty, and if there were not new homes by thousands to be provided for next . season, the furniture to be looked up and the needed comforts to be considered for families that were to be. She was loudly applauded. An elderly Mrs. Sparrow, with a black top-knot, was the next speaker. The top-knot was a badge of mourning - with her, in memory of her lost family of last year, all her eggs having been stolen by hoodlum boys, and her advice was to this year build their homes in fiecludcd spots to get out of the range of bad boys end cats. The next speaker was a wise old sparrow, who before addressing the convention, . peered warily from side to side. He explained that he knew a . place-where-some singing birds, robins with shameless shame-less red-breasts and larks had a village with tine houses, and that as the rule of the world was that only the fittest should survive, It would really be a - righteous act to go early and appropriate those bouses and push the song birds out, even as the San Francisco Chinese appropriated Sacramento street; that aside from the material, pecuniary gain the appropriation would be just, for the song birds were en Idle crowd, given to singing perpetually, to wear. |