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Show I New Teeth in the Tariff Law to End the I Wicked Traffic in Feathers and Help I Preserve From Extinction the Loveliest I Jj""" Creatures in worth of the -- prohibited feathers confiscated by customs officials in New York Y I HE government of the United States is beginning one more de-termined de-termined and thoughtfully planned effort to save from complete extinction those wonderfully beautiful creatures which some one has called the "Birds of God" the egret, the bird of paradise, the Goura pigeon, and other feathered beauties which, for the sake of their plumage, are being so cruelly sacrificed on the altar of woman's vanity. Since 1913 the importation of the feathers of these birds has been strictly forbidden, but for a number of reasons tho customs officials were neer able to enforce this section of the tariff law. The penalties provided for its violation were inadequate and, worse still, the burden of proving that feathers found here had been illegally brought into the y country rested entirely on the government. govern-ment. Tim fnrhirMpn fi'ntbprs continued to (' be seen adorning fashionable women I and were openly offered for sale in prac- I tically unlimited quantities by milliners I and other merchants. H As a result of the weakness of the law prohibiting the importation of tho feathers and the gnat demand for them from women who held their vanity dear- er than any bird's life, there came to I be innumerable feather bootleggers I men and women who smuggled and dis- ributed the forbidden plumage as boldly I as the liquor bootleggers do therr I whisky. I The new tariff biil which Congress passed and President Harding signed last summer remedies this unfortunate I situation. To the great satisfaction of every bird lover, it puts into the lav: the teeth which the bill of 1913 lacked And I to the credit of the American people's humanitarian spirit let it be said that this is perhaps the only section of the rauch-discusaed Fordney tariff bill that 4 meets with widespread approval, i Under the new tariff law the mere possession of any of the forbidden plum- age is made prima facie evidence that I it was illegally brought into the country. A The penalties for violation are heavily i increased and in other ways the law is so strengthened that feather bootlegging can no longer be the comparatively safe, j and profitable enterpriso it long waH. This is only the last of many steps I Uncle Sam has taken to save from dell de-ll struction the bird life not only of his own country, but of all the rest of the 4 world. Back in 1886 laws were passed i by Congress that insured a large meas-j meas-j uro of protection to our native song- bird6 and birds of plumage. These wero 1; strengthened in 1910 by tho passage of :j additional laws on the subject sponsored I by the National Association of Audubon 4 Societies. 4 Now, having assured the safety of 1 bird life in the United States. Uncle Sam jl undertakes to ertend a protecting arm to the birds throughout the re?t of the 31 world by putting an end to the mtrket- T ing of their feathei i here. .9 Those who are Interested in stopping a the cruel slaughter of the most beauti- 9 f ul creatures nature has to offer are in hopes that the efforts of the United ;a States will be supplemented at an early date byaction by the League of Nations. An International agreement forbidding :M the killing cf birds and tho sale of their 1 - 1 plumage might be in timo to save the I '1 egret, the bird of paradise, the Goura r?; nigeon and several other species which wife!' Wwm cjsmmmmmmm K iStX"T,i v" ". rfiy O i34Ma!r ' ' ' The exquisite plumage which a mother ejret develops during dur-ing the mating season and which is so coveled by the world's women that these birds are bein rapidly rapid-ly wiped out of existence are now in danger dan-ger of benng completely com-pletely wiped out. That the section sec-tion of the new tariff law dealing with feathers is likely to prove effective is seen from the fact that as soon as its details became be-came known a big drop occurred in the prices of all kinds of smuggled plumage. plum-age. Hats trimmed trim-med with paradise para-dise plumes that had sold for $150 and more were reduced to $05. If ' 'k mf: & IB-, ' i fvJ ML i - f. ' "r 1 A collection of unusually fine b aigrette plumes in the De- -;-partment of Agriculture at , Washington riainly the dealers deal-ers were anxious to get rid of their contraband stock and avoid trouble with the stringent provisions of the new law. The valuo of the egret, paradise, Goura and other feathers smuggled into Nov York and other ports in recent years is believed to have run high intu the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Many of the smugglers were sailors and efficers of merchant ships plying between this country and Mediterranean Medi-terranean or South American ports. It 13 in British and Dut :h Guiana, In South A. -erica, and in the northeastern part of Africa, that the bird of paradise para-dise is chiefly found and where it used to exist in immense numbers before its plumage attracted the vanity of women and the greed of men. It is con?idered the most beautiful bird in nature, not even excepting the must gorgeous of tho pheasants. Although only about the size of a sparrow, its long feathers, of the most delicate texture and luxurious softness, sweep down several times the 1 - leng-th of its body. The slaugh- ter of these birds to en- ""'" &6i!'g? hance the loveliness of woman began in the days of the ancient Egyptian, and has been continued ever since at a more and more appalling rate. The history of nn r;ice cf mankind has been marked by bloodier and more cruel treatment by its enemies than that of these birds. Tho G-ura pigeon, al.so th.-eatened with extinction, is etill found in greatly great-ly reduced numbers in Eastern China. This bird is sought by the hearth hunters not so much for its body feathers feath-ers as for its crest, a thing of wondrous beauty, which it crows each spring. Colors more delicate than are to be found in any other feather or in any flower blend in this airy plume. Whilo it appears as fragile as a soap bubble, f ''V?1 Ummm -'TSM ; Mm f . ;' I ' J& ' ( i '"'Ml xLmmW Every feathered headdress ilcc this represent he. slaughter cf a bird often mere than 'B one; and this is why the government is forbidding their importation and sale 'H It v. ally p'.:-"?ses remark strength. And this quality, to- gether with its beauty of coloring and grace of form, is the reason why unscrupulous unscrupu-lous milliners and vain women wom-en prize it so highly. These crests develop during dur-ing the mating season and it is then that the Goura pigeon Is heartlessly slaughtered. As he preens himself with pride for the inspection in-spection of his mate he is struck down in all his glorious beauty in order that some fashionable woman may gratify her vanity. There can be no more pathetic sight than that of the young birds, who are left shivering in their nest, feebly pleading plead-ing for the food that their father was in the act of bringing to them, but which now lies in the half-opened beak of the dead bird. Slowly they must starve to death. The aigrette which so many women find necessary to the heightening of their beauty means the death of the egret on which it grows. The egret is very shy and wild and its feathers cannot can-not be obtained, as in the case of the ostrich, os-trich, by domestication. A traveler in South America returning return-ing from a fishing trip told of a visit that he made to an egrel. rookery which had just been raided by plume hunters, and, though not a sentimental person, he was nearly weeping with rage as he described what he had seen. The ground, he said, was literally covered with the bodies of dead birds. There were hundreds of them. After plucking from their heads the breeding plumes, known as "ospreys," their murderers mur-derers had left the bodies to decay in the hot sun. This same traveler describes the birds of paradise, or 'Birds of the Gods," as th y arc called in the Moluccas, where he observed them in the courting season, sea-son, when those wondrous creatures achieve their climax of splendor and vivacity. "They are great lovers," he says. "The spectacle of the dancing parties with which they celebrate the mysterious myste-rious rites of their choosing and mating is beyond description. "As many as a score of them will assemble as-semble in one tree. The males, gorgeous in the nuptial plumage, keep it in continual con-tinual vibration, erect in ceremonial grandeur, as they dance and rlit from branch to branch. At last the whole tree becomes a shimmering flame of iridescent iri-descent plumes, a fire of sacrifice on the altar of love, an intoxicating fountain foun-tain of the creative force of the Cosmos. "It is at these times, when the birds are so carried away by the ardor of the gods as to be indifferent to danger, that the natives kill them with blunt-headed arrows and leave them to die on the ground." The natives then sell the plumage to merchants who smuggle them into the United States and other countries where they have been banned. Various ingenious in-genious methods are used to get by the sharp eyes of the customs official?, but the lightness of the feathers makes the tack comparatively easy. They are brought ashore under stockings stock-ings and in curious taffeta bags which are worn inside the trouera. Lean seamen sea-men have waddled off their ships swollen and puffed like Falstaff3 by layers up"n layers of the delicate plumes strapped to their bodies. Customs inspectors have learned to take a glimpse at the neck, and then at the waist, of every incoming seaman. If they observe a No. 11 neck springing out of a 00-inch torso they make an investigation in-vestigation and often recover a few thousand dollars' worth of feathers. Birds of paradise, egrets and the Goura pigeon are but three out of dozens doz-ens of different species sacrificed on the altar of vanity and greed. Terns, parrots, par-rots, tanagers, the crimson cardinal, the crested pigeon, the trogoir as well as the exquisite little humming bird.s and sun birds, aro Lcing slaughtered in vast numbers. Lately our woods have been H . -.van hu:U the roHj table delicacies. The ItaliansH - t, bedBj :,';'.VS flfl. 1 r ;nsect-eBi birds'. This'is the reason . ; y tfWil overrun with gr.' '::;ect? v.l:;. ' irafa that amount to anything in thatflH Sixty years at'o, before the slaughter of birds of paradise altar of woman's vanity hnd becoiflys widespread, they were found njV number? in various islands o( the m'j b.pdagn : naturalist VIM there was able to identify r.o less 'i ron differ' r i specie.. The nsMi -ailed them "GodV Bird?," but the m Portuguese explorers renamed Cm J - i,l the Sun." MR Alfred Kusel Wallace .: ',ibe'JflW "group of :i ievote-'ized i !mgs, but charar.v-zcu b? Jy, . . v. i.-puvr.'s of plumage, i.'neriin'.c f famI,JjK" :-p.,rt the bruj colors and remar' nMe I'!"l:!jge' the females are invariably ''eryj iookir.g individual-. In jj, delicate, ngat-Oj from "',de W body beneath the wings, forming tf ' fans or shields. 'Ml:l The m.dd'o feathers are oitW gated into wires, twisted into M fantastic shapes or adorned W1WJ most brilliant metallic tints. ln species these accessory plumes MM from the head, the back or the JJ One of the m .-t p izr.!ing pros feminine r, -y,-h. -u '. "p' , 1 women, naturally so tendcr-hearwj consent to the .laughter of sucn j ful creatures to provide means wr j adornment. -v , oarer.' y th' wel whcie va;.;!, ' - ' ' 1 fl,c.3 that it deadens all the most piaiw human tentlments. |
