Life — November 5, 1896 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A MYSTERY. HY do women wear dead birds as ornaments? There isa gen- eral impression that the custom is due to ignorance, thoughtlessness or vanity, but a moment's reflection will show that this is a very superficial explanation. Ignor- ance cannot be the cause, for the subject has been so fully exploited that it is an insult to the intelligence of any woman who knows how to read to suppose that she is not fully aware of the cost in suffering and bird life of her so-called ornaments. Nor can it be due to vanity or deliberate cruelty, since many of the offenders stand high in their local humane societies. Evidently there must be some deeper reason which causes tender-hearted women to encourage cruelty, and makes women of taste and refinement willing to deck themselves like savages with the trophies of their unoffending victims. {Perhaps the women of our country cherish a profound belief that life is not worth living, and so, as an act of fnendship, wish to help out of it whatever they particularly like and admire; though why, in that ‘ase, they should have fixed on birds, rather than on such generally liked and easily attainable pets as kittens and puppies, is not apparent. Possibly, however, these will have their turn later. Or perhaps the theosophic theory of reincarnation is more widely diffused than has been supposed, and women, being especially fond of birds, wish to SUDDEN ACTIVITY IN PHILADELPHIA. THE APPEARANCE OF A MOTORMAN FROM BROOKL secure for them a favorable Karma in their next life. It is, in thiscase, a question of much interest whether the involuntary altruism of, for instance, a brood of young herons starved to death that some fair lady’s hat may be trimmed with aigrets will really secure them a fortunate reincarnation, It would be a thousand pities if our matrons and maids are sacrificing their taste and feelings, to say nothing of the birds, to no purpose. Or, again, it may be that such adornments are worn on the principle that led the monks of old to wear haircloth and put peas in their shoe: Possibly their wearers feel that these croaments are so tasteless, and so suggestive of pain and suffering, that to wear them is at “Gir Me Two WnotE TieceT. once a penance atoning for many sins, and a means of moral elevation of such value that disor koa it is worth the cost of silent groves and slaughtered birds and desolate nests Weoulld ween TuKeESCucpAessene? These are only suggestions, of course, but LiFE commends to the Audubon Society MWESHALE BRIE the solution of this mystery. Some weighty reason must lie behind it, and when that is “por DUNG FELLER; DER — found it may be possible to combat it to the saving of much bird life and the rehabilitation of what were once our bird haunts. comicbooks.com