... your address on "Animal Sanctuaries" in Labrador, which
I have read with the greatest interest and astonishment.
Such reckless destruction I should hardly have thought
possible.

There is a considerable public opinion now against the use
of feathers as _ornaments_[A] because it inevitably leads to
the extermination of some of the most beautiful of living
things; but I think the attempts to stop it by legal
enactments begin at the wrong end. They seek to punish the
actual collectors or importers of the plumes, who are really
the least guilty and the most difficult to get at. It is the
actual _wearers_ of such ornaments who should be subject to
fines or even imprisonment, because, without the _demand_
they make there would be no supply. They also are,
presumably, the most educated and should know better. If it
were known that any lady with a feather in her hat (or
elsewhere) would be taken before a magistrate and _fined_,
and, on a second offence, _imprisoned_, and if this were the
case in the chief civilized countries of Europe and America,
the whole trade would at once cease and the poor birds be
left in peace.

You have, however, treated the subject very carefully and
thoroughly, and I hope your views will be soon carried
out....

I am glad to hear that Mr. Roosevelt is a reader of the
"World of Life." My own interest is more especially in the
preservation of adequate areas of the glorious tropical and