MRS. ROOSEVELT AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WHITE HERON.
By G.
WHEN the lady of the White House in Washington makes a sensible suggestion it ought to have as much weight as the decrees of fickle Fashion. A case in point is Mrs. Roosevelt's opposition to the wearing of aigrets. The Woman's Tribune says:
"The president of the Audubon societies, William Dutcher wrote to the President that Queen Alexandra had recently signified her disapproval of the use of these plumes and suggested that a similar expression from Mrs. Roosevelt would do much toward abolishing them as millinery ornaments. The President replied both for himself and Mrs. Roosevelt that they sympathized heartily with the efforts of the Audubon societies generally, and particularly in their efforts to stop the sale and use of the so-called 'aigrets,' the plumes of the white heron. Everybody knows that these plumes can only be obtained by the slaughter of the mother while she is nesting, thus leaving her little ones to perish."
But "everybody" does not "know" this sad fact. If it had been generally known in the past, it seems doubtful that these beautiful and harmless birds would now be almost extinct. Of course, in these days of Fashion's growing tyranny, and the growing demand for lavish expenditure even by people of moderate means, it is hardly to be expected that any merely humane sentiment will have very extended influence. In these specially "perilous times," made so by prevailing love of self and of pleasure (2 Tim. 3:1-3), such appeals will not be very effective.
