Social Moods.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 409, 10 March 1904, Page 7

Social Moods.

OSPBEY FEATHERS. eotuy tinao past women have 9|ft|P ee . E m the habit of wearing a Jnftg white plume, the podsesßioa of which means the death of a mother-bird, by being shot, and, the death of her young ones, from starvation naturally following the death of the mother. It has, of course, been perfectly idle to point out the brutality of this. to women. They are naturally kind and self-sacrific-ing, but even self-sacrifice has its limits, and a woman will freely give her life where she would hesitate to surrender her hat ornament. However, it became necessary to invent something to quiet her conscience, and the pleesant fiction of the imitation osprey was accordingly started. It is hardly necessary to repeat, for it has been said and proved so often, that the imitation osprey is, as a rule, not imitation, but real, and merely called imitation as a sort of conscience-quieter. A contemporary ealis attention to the fact that at a recent ladies' missionary meeting of considerable importance, the lady who presided and the missionary who gave the lurid' account of Indian cruelties wore ospreys. Quite so. . The missionary carries self-sacrifice to the furthest possible pitch, and we now know definitely that the furthest possible stops just at the wrong side of the hat ornament. A couple of years ago or so the osprey received . the patronage of the Royal Family; for all I know to the contrary, it may still receive it. The habit of wearing it has now received the additional sanction of the ardently religious. We may safely take it that the constantly renewed attempts to stop women from wearing ospreys on the ground that they are thereby guilty of revolting- cruelty has failed.

The attempt to keep women from wearing ospreys on grounds of humanity having failed, it remains to try some other way. It might, perhaps, be of advantage to point out that this plume has now enjoyed public favour for some years, that it has penetrated the Edgware Road/and is the joy of the Sunday afternoon factory girl. If these facts are well and frequently brought forward, they may have their effect. It might become necessary to reinforce them by hiring a number of aged and hideous negresses to wear ospreys in profusion in Bond Street and Piccadilly. An attack on these lines would probably succeed. As long as the result is obtained I do not very much care in what way it is obtained. Many women who would not give up the plume because it involved the murder of a nestfnl of birds, would drop it at once if they found that the wearing of it implied any community of ideas between themselves and the humbler members of the human family. I am not a sentimentalist, nor a vegetarian, nor an anti-vinsectionist, nor any other kind of crank. But ciuelty which has no other intention than to satisfy vanity needs to be stopped.

SAVED. A correspondent writes to me from Bieraingham, but signs himself with a name that I cannot decipher, As a rnle, correspondence of this kiad is stamped •W. P. 8.,' and there is no more to ba saidi Bat this letter is too interesting to be dismissed in that way; it is from a man who, has three times over had his life saved by the same man—an absolute stranger to him. My correspondent has just arrived in England, after thirty years' residence in India, He writes:— ■ Going across Colmore Bow to the Arcade I, being ' very tender on my feet, got nearly rnn over by a cable car. Just as I had nearly gone, some one rescued me,' He said: ' This is the third time I have saved you. And now yon must take care of yourself,; as I am getting old.' My correspondent fiads that the story is absolutely true. The stranger pulled him out of the water at Knrrachee in 1859, when he was sinking from cramp, rescued him again at Chicago in 1872, and has now saved his life for the third time! The coincidence is certainly as remarkable as any dream-story that one is likely to come across, My correspondent asked for the stranger's card. He said, 'You're too old to insure.' He refused to accept any thanks, exhorted my correspondent to take care of himself, and wex.t off, I am asked what I think of it, and how my correspondent, who is wealthy, can reward him, It is difficult to reward a man who is anxious to avoid it; but if he is anxious to avoid it, surely a reward would not be the best sign of gratitude. The coincidence is so extraordinary that one might be tempted at first sight to doubt it. Bat the letter sent me has marks of genuineness that can hardly be disputed Anyhow, there is the story—two men who meet three times in their lives, and on each of these three occasions the one saves the life of the other, and they do not even know each other's n&mes!—B. Fain,