Dickey Downy: The Autobiography of a Bird

the last egret is sh

dorn a lady's dress, th

l that earth could h

he family residence, the living rooms being behind and upstairs over it. My cage was hung near the wide doorway at the end of the apartment and my new mistress at on

y all day through the store. From ten o'clock in the morning, if the day were fine, till three in the afternoon, the din at times was almost deafening; for it was the busy season and c

ir conversation as was quite bewildering. In time, however, I became accustomed to this and discovered it was simply a way ladies have of expressing their approval of things in general. Around the glass cases which held the trimmed hats the women buzzed like a swarm of flies, their volubility assuming a more emphatic character as they gazed within at the fashionable headgear placed on long steel wires. Almost every hat hel

en her playmates came for a romp in the garden behind the store, but she did not join them till she had first attended to my wants. I was fond of having her talk to me, for her voice was sweet and kind, and the little terms of endearment she often used were very pleasing and

dn't hurt you for the world. I wanted to softly stroke your pretty pluma

the tablecloth after the housemaid had removed the breakfast dishes and, running out under the trees, would shake it vigorously that her wild pets might get all the little pieces of food that fell. Not a bird came down as long as she remained in the yard, but as soon as she had t

well-dressed women, there were many who came to buy ha

bby shoe. Their gloveless hands were red and cold and coarse, and the milliner told the clerk that she dreaded to have th

man among them would have bought an unfashionable or out-of-date hat could she have had it at one quarter the price. F

artless fiends who were robed in feminine garb I found out another day when a daintily dressed lady came in to purchase a winter hat. The contents of the glass cases were looked over critically for some time before she selected one which she tried on

the lady; "or at least I shall l

any change, and yet was anxious to please her customer. "Perhaps you'd prefer some wings; or stay, here is a sw

ided not to wear birds any

ette, or something there," exclaimed the milliner. "You wouldn't

the lady quietly. "I have sufficient sins to answer for witho

subject. Having given her final order for the hat, the lady crossed over to the other side of the room and shook han

arked after the first greetings; "I have just ordered my new

is subject is heart-sickening. Men are denouncing us; the newspapers are full of our cruelty; the pulpit makes our hea

asy to see that any cause to which she might commit

ose of other domestic fowls are being largely u

rs always have been used to some extent, the straight quills for instance. I know it is frequently broadly asserted that the most of the birds used are made birds, but the manu

are used now as formerly?"

or them is increasing all the time. It takes from eighteen to twenty-five skins for each collar, an

oatmen have given up fishing, as they can make so much more money killing terns and gulls for women's use. The

hey are slain by thousands every season and shipped to New York. Oh, I can't tell you how distressing it used to be to hear the report of the guns day after day and know that every piercing sound was the sign that mo

sight of a young lady who was standing on the pave

r new feather collar on," obser

ficent cape, lustrous as satin, of silvery white, into which pale dark lines softly blended at regular intervals. Twenty-two innocent lives ha

e in silence for a moment, then sighed

d Mrs. Brown. "And mark my words, the slaughter will go on; the unholy traffic will not long be confined to greb

course of lectures on the work of mercy that women might do. He says that as mothers in the hom

tunity if our eyes are blinded so that

rticularly of the crime of wearing birds; an

ems as though they were born with a blood-thirsty instinct, a wanting to destroy life, to hunt it and shoot it down. They beg to go gunning almost before they are out of dresses and into trousers. Every mother knows there is a savage streak in her boy's nature. No," continued Mrs. Brown, with a decisive nod of her head, "I say let the man who is without sin among them be the first to c

t, "I haven't quite lost all faith in womanly mercy. Women

e needless taking of life argues tremendously against us? Here we are at the twentieth century, and with all our boasted advancement we are as cruel and savage as Fiji Islanders. Oh, don't talk to me about women!" and she made an outward motion of her hand as if pushing away an ima

pert little miss, who in company with her mother was rummag