But times have changed.  In the wearing of furs, we have bumped down steps both high and steep.  In 1880 American women wore sealskin, marten, otter, beaver and mink.  To-day nothing that wears hair is too humble to be skinned and worn.  To-day “they are wearing” skins of muskrats, foxes, rabbits, skunks, domestic cats, squirrels, and even rats.  And see how the taste for game,—­of some sections of our population,—­also has gone down.

In the North, the Italians are fighting for the privilege of eating everything that wears feathers; but we allow no birds to be shot for food save game birds and cranes.  In the South, the negroes and poor whites are killing song-birds, woodpeckers and doves for food; and in several states some of it is done under the authority of the laws.  Look at these awful lists: 

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IN THESE STATES, ROBINS ARE LEGALLY SHOT AND EATEN: 

Louisiana North Carolina Tennessee Texas
Mississippi South Carolina Maryland Florida

IN THESE STATES, BLACKBIRDS ARE LEGALLY SHOT AND EATEN: 

Louisiana Pennsylvania Tennessee
District of Columbia South Carolina

CRANES ARE SHOT AND EATEN IN THESE STATES: 

Colorado North Dakota Nevada Oklahoma Nebraska

In Mississippi, the cedar bird is legally shot and eaten!  In North
Carolina, the meadow lark is shot and eaten.

IN THE FOLLOWING STATES, DOVES ARE CONSIDERED “GAME,” AND ARE SHOT IN AN
“OPEN SEASON:” 

Alabama Georgia Minnesota Ohio
Arkansas Idaho Mississippi Oregon
California Illinois Missouri Pennsylvania
Connecticut Kentucky Nebraska South Carolina
Delaware Louisiana New Mexico Tennessee
Dist. of Columbia Maryland North Carolina Texas
               Utah Virginia

* * * * *

The killing of doves represents a great and widespread decline in the ethics of sportsmanship.  In the twenty-six States named, a great many men who call themselves sportsmen indulge in the cheap and ignoble pastime of potting weak and confiding doves.  It is on a par with the “sport” of hunting English sparrows in a city street.  Of course this is, to a certain extent, a matter of taste; but there is at least one club of sportsmen into which no dove-killer can enter, provided his standard of ethics is known in advance.

With the killing of robins, larks, blackbirds and cedar birds for food, the case is quite different.  No white man calling himself a sportsman ever indulges in such low pastimes as the killing of such birds for food.  That burden of disgrace rests upon the negroes and poor whites of the South; but at the same time, it is a shame that respectable white men sitting in state legislatures should deliberately enact laws permitting such disgraceful practices, or permit such disgraceful and ungentlemanly laws to remain in force!