ad been removed to other countries to
assure the future growth of the industry in various regions of the
world. It was in 1882 that these birds were first brought to the
United States for breeding purposes. To-day there are Ostrich farms at
Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose, California; Hot Springs,
Arkansas; Jacksonville, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona, and elsewhere.

There is money to be made in the Ostrich business, for the wing and
tail plumes of this bird are as popular to-day for human adornment as
they were in the {165} days of Sheerkohf, the gorgeous lion of the
mountain. Even low-grade feathers command a good price for use in the
manufacture of boas, feather bands, trimming for doll's hats, and other
secondary purposes. When the time comes for plucking the feathers, the
Ostriches are driven one at a time into a V-shaped corral just large
enough to admit the bird's body and the workman. Here a long, slender
hood is slipped over his head and the wildest bird instantly becomes
docile. Evidently he regards himself as effectively hidden and secure
from all the terrors of earth. There is no pain whatever attached to
the taking of Ostrich feathers, for they are merely clipped from the
bird by means of scissors. A month or two later when the stubs of the
quills have become dry they are readily picked from the wings without
injury to the new feathers.

The Ostrich industry is good and it is worthy of encouragement. No
woman need fear that she is aiding in any way the destruction of birds
by wearing Ostrich plumes. There are many more of the birds {166} in
the world to-day than there were when their domestication first began,
and probably no wild African or Asiatic Ostriches are now shot or
trapped for their plumes. The product seen in our stores all comes
from strong, happy birds hatched and reared in captivity. Use of their
feathers does not entail the sacrifice of life, nor does it cause the
slightest suffering to the Ostrich; taking plumes from an Ostrich being
no more painful to the bird than shearing is to a sheep and does not
cause it half the alarm a sheep often exhibits at shearing time.

The call for feather finery rings so loudly in the hearts of women that
it will probably never cease to be heard, and it is the Ostrich--the
big, ungainly yet graceful Ostrich--which must supply the demand for
high-grade feathers of the future.

{167}

CHAPTER IX

BIRD-PROTECTIVE LAWS AND THEIR ENFORCEME