“The east and middle west stand solid for protection, so you must begin on the Canadian boundary with North Dakota, then follow Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Indian Territory, a bad blot in the centre of the map, but perhaps some day soon, if all the school children there learn about the birds, they will beg their fathers and uncles who go to the legislature to make laws to protect their birds also. For if they wait until they themselves grow up, some kinds of birds may have gone forever and it will be too late.
“Fortunately, you see, there are states next that form a sort of bird bridge of refuge; and then comes New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, and Montana, without good laws; but fortunately for the coast birds, Washington, Oregon, and California are on our side, and it is the duty of every boy and girl as well as every man and woman to learn the laws of the state where they live, and keep them.
“There are many children of foreign birth who perhaps would not break the laws of this country if they knew of them, but do so innocently because they either do not know, or do not speak English well enough to understand them fully, and think that in this country, where they have so much liberty, they are free to do as they like about everything.
“There are also Americans, I am sorry to say, as well as foreign-born, who have a heartless streak in them, and first show it by cruelty to helpless, harmless animals. This should be stopped, as much for their good as future citizens as for the welfare of the wild animals themselves, for the child who will kill or torture a dumb beast has the germs of murder in him that may later, in a fit of passion, break out toward a fellow-being.
“What do you think of boys—yes, and girls, for I saw one last spring—who would spend an afternoon in stoning the hanging nest of an Oriole until the nestlings, dying, stopped their pitiful cries and fell to the ground in the rags of their wonderful home, while their parents circled about in agony? Sad to say, these were American-born children, too, who live not far from Foxes Corners, who very well knew right from wrong.
“When children have this evil mind, the laws of the state must be used to cleanse,—just as the law may enter the house and do away with contagious disease. Cruelty is often as infectious as sickness; and it is, in fact, a sickness of the mind. It is quite as necessary sometimes that the heart should go to school and be taught kindness as that we should learn to read.