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CONSIDERATION FOR BIRDS

The Publication of Frances Power Cobbe's Memoirs Calls Attention to It.
Ouida Writes on "Birds and Their Persecutors" in the Nineteenth Century -- A Sharp Criticism.

Strong Condemnation of Those Who Wilfullly Slaughter Them by the Wholesale for Sport.

In, the autobiography of Frances Power Cobbe, that ruling passion of her life, consideration for dumb animals appears and reappears constantly. "The horrors of scientific cruelty to animals" is constantly referred to by her. In speaking of Tennyson, she says:

"I shall account it one of the chief honors which have fallen to my lot that Tennyson asked leave, through his son, to pay me a visit. Needless to say, I accepted the offer with gratitude and fortunately Iw as at home, in our little house in Cheyne Walk, when he called on me. He sat for a long time over my fire, and talked of poetry; of the share melodious words ought to have in it; of the hatefulness of scientific cruelty, against which he was going to write again; and of the new and dangerous phases of thought even then apparent."

The publication of this book, which pushes this one idea constantly to the foreground, similtaneously with the appearance of Ouida's article in the Nineteenth Century, on the slaughter of birds, should show how women are rising against this needless destruction of the "little people of the air"

It has been frequently said that it was the vanity of women which above all things has caused this slaughter of the innocents. But it has not been the sanity of women any more than the stupidity of men. Men have snared the birds for the profit derived from their sale Women have thoughtlessly bought the birds, and their wings and breasts, because they saw them in the milliner's boxes, and finding them there, already dead and dressed, had no compunction about buying them. Nor have the women been any more culpable than those gourmands who have been willing to eat English larks, for which there is even in America an increasing sale It really seems that if there is any time when a person would feel absolutely bestial it is when his sensibilities have become so subordinated to his appetites, that he will be willing, like some foul creature of the primeval forest, to crunch a lark between his molars. Could any sacrilege have seemed more coarse to Keats that this gross devastation of the skylark which "shakes the tremulous dew from his lush clover covert?" As for Shelly who cried: "Bird thou never wert!" He would as soon have thought of masticating the Spirit of Song and Poesy itself as this bird, born to give the last accent of tender beauty to an English morning

Ouida turns her fine eloquence especially against the Italian Speaking of the capture of a great rare woodpecker that "sat upright and tragic as a figure of Napoleon on the Rock," she says. "He has no song' He is not edible, he will not live a week if caged; yet he is mercilessly traped and carried away from his native woods to die When I say that he is not edible I mean that he is not considered so; but to the Italian everything is edible; it is a nation without a palate It steeps a hare in fennel and eats salt with melons The craze for devouring birds of all kinds is a species of fury from the Alps to Etna, they crunch the delicate bodies between their jaws with disgusting relish and a lark only represents to them a succulent morsel for their spit or pasty. The trade in larks all over the world is enormous and execrable, and is as large in England as in Italy. It should at once be made penal by heavy fines on the trappers, the venders, and the eaters, or ere long no more will the lark be heard on earth. It is admitted by all who know anything of the subject that agriculture would be impossible without the aid of birds, as the larvae and developed insects of all kinds would make a desert of the entire area of cultivated land This is well know; yet all over the world the destruction of birds rages unchecked, and no attempt is made to protect them to interdict their public sale, and to enable them to next and rear their young in peace"

Perhaps the Italians may be especially culpable But one can hardly think they are more so than other nations. It is amazing to see how wanton even good men are when it comes to bird life. They will shoot down a marvel of beauty and song -- a tiny thing, half bird, half jewel, with a thoat of silver -- to test their marksmanship, or add to the savor of a stew for the camp mess. They have learned from the scriptures that they have dominion over the fowls of the air, and no tenderness in their own hearts leads them to improve upon this ancient law, given at the dawn of thought -- so finer perception, teaches them their oneness with nature. Yellow, and blue and faintly pink are the gay little wings they wantonly strike to death; vaulting and exquisitely sweet the voices they hush, mysterious is the proud flight, sweet as a song the sound of the swift wings But it appeals to them not at all. They have dominion over these things. And they shoot them down, confident in the approval of the Almighty

Some religions have been more tender with animal creation than this old Hebraic law The religions of the far east take much more cognizance of the cousinship of man and beast. They have found animal life precious, when the proprietorship of man did not make it so for property reasons.

"The naturalist has so much to answer for in both hemispheres, and it is not possible to hear with patience any naturalist speak of his love for nature. He loves to destroy nature No one who truly loved it could bear to skin and stuff forms late instinct and radiant with life, and keep these parodies of life beside him under glass No sentiment contains love which shows itself by inflicting death. In birds more than in any other creature the immobility of death is horrible, because it stands in such cruel contrast to the vivacity and vitality which have been destroyed"

That women could do much toward checking the slaughter for fashion's sake, there is no doubt. Women are more thoughtless than cruel One purchases a hat that is becoming without especially observing the decorations, so long as they are harmonious It would be an excellent thing if the members of the Woman's club of this city would promise to forego the wearing of these bits of plumage It is, however, somewhat discouraging to remember that many of the members of the club were given to reproaching the Humane society by the co-operation of the club, by statements to the effect that some concern for human creatures would be more, becoming philanthropic women than such devotion dogs and cats. It

CONSIDERATION FOR BIRDS

The Publication of Frances Power Cobbe's Memoirs Calls Attention to It.
Ouida Writes on "Birds and Their Persecutors" in the Nineteenth Century -- A Sharp Criticism.

Strong Condemnation of Those Who Wilfullly Slaughter Them by the Wholesale for Sport.

In, the autobiography of Frances Power Cobbe, that ruling passion of her life, consideration for dumb animals appears and reappears constantly. "The horrors of scientific cruelty to animals" is constantly referred to by her. In speaking of Tennyson, she says:

"I shall account it one of the chief honors which have fallen to my lot that Tennyson asked leave, through his son, to pay me a visit. Needless to say, I accepted the offer with gratitude and fortunately Iw as at home, in our little house in Cheyne Walk, when he called on me. He sat for a long time over my fire, and talked of poetry; of the share melodious words ought to have in it; of the hatefulness of scientific cruelty, against which he was going to write again; and of the new and dangerous phases of thought even then apparent."

The publication of this book, which pushes this one idea constantly to the foreground, similtaneously with the appearance of Ouida's article in the Nineteenth Century, on the slaughter of birds, should show how women are rising against this needless destruction of the "little people of the air"

It has been frequently said that it was the vanity of women which above all things has caused this slaughter of the innocents. But it has not been the sanity of women any more than the stupidity of men. Men have snared the birds for the profit derived from their sale Women have thoughtlessly bought the birds, and their wings and breasts, because they saw them in the milliner's boxes, and finding them there, already dead and dressed, had no compunction about buying them. Nor have the women been any more culpable than those gourmands who have been willing to eat English larks, for which there is even in America an increasing sale It really seems that if there is any time when a person would feel absolutely bestial it is when his sensibilities have become so subordinated to his appetites, that he will be willing, like some foul creature of the primeval forest, to crunch a lark between his molars. Could any sacrilege have seemed more coarse to Keats that this gross devastation of the skylark which "shakes the tremulous dew from his lush clover covert?" As for Shelly who cried: "Bird thou never wert!" He would as soon have thought of masticating the Spirit of Song and Poesy itself as this bird, born to give the last accent of tender beauty to an English morning

Ouida turns her fine eloquence especially against the Italian Speaking of the capture of a great rare woodpecker that "sat upright and tragic as a figure of Napoleon on the Rock," she says. "He has no song' He is not edible, he will not live a week if caged; yet he is mercilessly traped and carried away from his native woods to die When I say that he is not edible I mean that he is not considered so; but to the Italian everything is edible; it is a nation without a palate It steeps a hare in fennel and eats salt with melons The craze for devouring birds of all kinds is a species of fury from the Alps to Etna, they crunch the delicate bodies between their jaws with disgusting relish and a lark only represents to them a succulent morsel for their spit or pasty. The trade in larks all over the world is enormous and execrable, and is as large in England as in Italy. It should at once be made penal by heavy fines on the trappers, the venders, and the eaters, or ere long no more will the lark be heard on earth. It is admitted by all who know anything of the subject that agriculture would be impossible without the aid of birds, as the larvae and developed insects of all kinds would make a desert of the entire area of cultivated land This is well know; yet all over the world the destruction of birds rages unchecked, and no attempt is made to protect them to interdict their public sale, and to enable them to next and rear their young in peace"