FASHION V. SCIENCE IND HUMANITY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1723, 23 December 1887, Page 3

FASHION V. SCIENCE IND HUMANITY

, » From a very remote, we may even Bay a pre-hiatorlc, period, It has been the custom of human beings to provide themselves with garments at the expense of the lower creation. From a time almost, if not quite aa early, animals have been slain to furnish food for man. In our own day, also, both practices exist m | operation side by side While, however, the necessity for flesh aa an Brticfe of diet la generally admitted, provided that it be used lv moderation and combined .with vegetable food, the need for taking the life of animals m order to clothe the body, it must be allowed, has been to a great extent obviated by the progress of textile industry, which gives ub as woollen fabrloa moat of what we require for daily wear without depriving a liviDg oreatre of one drop of blood. Fancy, taste, Icxury, utility — one or all of these — it is true still order the destruction of countless far-bearing and feathered beings of a lower grade than ourselves, and we are not prepared to nay that, m obeying the mandate, at all events of the last named authority, man' may exceed the privilege of his lordly position. When, however, we find him, at the bidding of a mere fashion, persecuting the life of some harmless and to him otherwise useless race of animals, and this even to the extent of extermination, we blush for the cruel heart of our so -called civilisation. When for instance, little birds whose only fault is their beauty, are i saorifioed by thousands In a year, la order that their feathers or their bodies should adorn the ' softer sex ' of our species In hours of enjoyment, we are bound la creature kindness to thoßa helpless members of the world's great family, to condemn the barbaric fancy which la co heedless m its self-esteem, artificial substitutes can be found for ornaments of this kind, and the counterfeit la not by any means a despicable imitation. The desire for their more general adoption is not, we are sure, limited to ourselves, nor is the hope that other Governments will QQcy the reoent practice of our own bj restricting the Indiscriminate slaughter which has already loet to the world not a few Interesting and beautiful forms of animal life.—" Lanoot."