Beautiful Joe [63]
of the head. They were
all the more ready to do this, when he told them that their fish would taste
better when cooked, if they had been killed as soon as they were taken from the
water into the air.
A little girl had gotten her mother to say that she would never again put
lobsters into cold water and slowly boil them to death. She had also stopped a
man in the street who was carrying a pair of fowls with their heads down, and
asked him if he would kindly reverse their position. The man told her that the
fowls didn't mind, and she pursed up her small mouth and showed the band how she
said to him, "I would prefer the opinion of the hens." Then she said he had
laughed at her, and said, "Certainly, little lady," and had gone off carrying
them as she wanted him to. She had also reasoned with different boys outside the
village who were throwing stones at birds and frogs, and sticking butterflies,
and had invited them to come to the Band of Mercy.
This child seemed to have done more than any one else for dumb animals. She had
taken around a petition to the village boys, asking them not to search for
birds' eggs, and she had even gone into her father's stable, and asked him to
hold her up, so that she could look into the horses' mouths to see if their
teeth wanted filing or were decayed. When her father laughed at her, she told
him that horses often suffer terrible pain from their teeth, and that sometimes
a runaway is caused by a metal bit striking against the exposed nerve in the
tooth of a horse that has become almost frantic with pain.
She was a very gentle girl, and I think by the way that she spoke that her
father loved her dearly, for she told how much trouble he had taken to make some
tiny houses for her that she wanted for the wrens that came about their farm,
She told him that those little birds are so good at catching insects that they
ought to give all their time to it, and not have any worry about making houses.
Her father made their homes very small, so that the English sparrows could not
get in and crowd them out.
A boy said that he had gotten a pot of paint, and painted in large letters on
the fences around his father's farm: "Spare the toads, don't kill the birds.
Every bird killed is a loss to the country."
"That reminds me," said the president, "to ask the girls what they have done
about the millinery business."
"I have told my mother," said a tall, serious faced girl, "that I think it is
wrong to wear bird feathers, and she has promised to give up wearing any of them
except ostrich plumes."
Mrs. Wood asked permission to say a few words just here, and the president said:
"Certainly, we are always glad to hear from you."
She went up on the platform, and faced the roomful of children. "Dear boys and
girls," she began, "I have had some papers sent me from Boston, giving some
facts about the killing of our birds, and I want to state a few of them to you:
You all know that nearly every tree and plant that grows swarms with insect
life, and that they couldn't grow if the birds didn't eat the insects that would
devour their foliage. All day long, the little beaks of the birds are busy. The
dear little rose-breasted gross-beak carefully examines the potato plants, and
picks off the beetles, the martins destroy weevil, the quail and grouse family
eats the chinchbug, the woodpeckers dig the worms from the trees, and many other
birds eat the flies and gnats and mosquitoes that torment us so. No flying or
crawling creature escapes their sharp little eyes. A great Frenchman says that
if it weren't for the birds human beings would perish from the face of the
earth. They are doing all this for us, and how are we rewarding them? All over
America they are hunted and killed. Five million birds must be caught every year
for American women to wear in their hats and bonnets. Just think of it, girls.
Isn't it dreadful? Five million innocent, hard-working, beautiful birds killed,
that thoughtless girls and women may
all the more ready to do this, when he told them that their fish would taste
better when cooked, if they had been killed as soon as they were taken from the
water into the air.
A little girl had gotten her mother to say that she would never again put
lobsters into cold water and slowly boil them to death. She had also stopped a
man in the street who was carrying a pair of fowls with their heads down, and
asked him if he would kindly reverse their position. The man told her that the
fowls didn't mind, and she pursed up her small mouth and showed the band how she
said to him, "I would prefer the opinion of the hens." Then she said he had
laughed at her, and said, "Certainly, little lady," and had gone off carrying
them as she wanted him to. She had also reasoned with different boys outside the
village who were throwing stones at birds and frogs, and sticking butterflies,
and had invited them to come to the Band of Mercy.
This child seemed to have done more than any one else for dumb animals. She had
taken around a petition to the village boys, asking them not to search for
birds' eggs, and she had even gone into her father's stable, and asked him to
hold her up, so that she could look into the horses' mouths to see if their
teeth wanted filing or were decayed. When her father laughed at her, she told
him that horses often suffer terrible pain from their teeth, and that sometimes
a runaway is caused by a metal bit striking against the exposed nerve in the
tooth of a horse that has become almost frantic with pain.
She was a very gentle girl, and I think by the way that she spoke that her
father loved her dearly, for she told how much trouble he had taken to make some
tiny houses for her that she wanted for the wrens that came about their farm,
She told him that those little birds are so good at catching insects that they
ought to give all their time to it, and not have any worry about making houses.
Her father made their homes very small, so that the English sparrows could not
get in and crowd them out.
A boy said that he had gotten a pot of paint, and painted in large letters on
the fences around his father's farm: "Spare the toads, don't kill the birds.
Every bird killed is a loss to the country."
"That reminds me," said the president, "to ask the girls what they have done
about the millinery business."
"I have told my mother," said a tall, serious faced girl, "that I think it is
wrong to wear bird feathers, and she has promised to give up wearing any of them
except ostrich plumes."
Mrs. Wood asked permission to say a few words just here, and the president said:
"Certainly, we are always glad to hear from you."
She went up on the platform, and faced the roomful of children. "Dear boys and
girls," she began, "I have had some papers sent me from Boston, giving some
facts about the killing of our birds, and I want to state a few of them to you:
You all know that nearly every tree and plant that grows swarms with insect
life, and that they couldn't grow if the birds didn't eat the insects that would
devour their foliage. All day long, the little beaks of the birds are busy. The
dear little rose-breasted gross-beak carefully examines the potato plants, and
picks off the beetles, the martins destroy weevil, the quail and grouse family
eats the chinchbug, the woodpeckers dig the worms from the trees, and many other
birds eat the flies and gnats and mosquitoes that torment us so. No flying or
crawling creature escapes their sharp little eyes. A great Frenchman says that
if it weren't for the birds human beings would perish from the face of the
earth. They are doing all this for us, and how are we rewarding them? All over
America they are hunted and killed. Five million birds must be caught every year
for American women to wear in their hats and bonnets. Just think of it, girls.
Isn't it dreadful? Five million innocent, hard-working, beautiful birds killed,
that thoughtless girls and women may