The Dawson News

800 OSTRICHES GET
NEW LEASE OF LIFE

BIG BIRDS ON WAY TO MEAT
MARKET WHEN DECREE OF
FASHION INTERVENES.

PHOENIX, Ariz. - The fact that their feathers are to be worn on lady's hat this fall and winter has just saved 800 birds from extinction.

Usually fashion's decree that feathers are to be worn has in the past boded no good for the feathered race, but this time it worked the other way.

When the war broke out it hit the ostrich plume industry, and hit it hard. Ostrich plumes were a drug on the market, and thousands of fine birds owned by Arizona ostrich growers were sold for almost nothing. Most of them were bought by other concerns at what seemed to them at the time bargain prices. But the plume market failed to revive, and what ostriches remained were eating their heads off. The California ostrich men were not buying any more birds. They had more than they knew what to do with. Then it was that somebody suggested eating them.

Ready for the Market.

Last spring local owners decided that they could no longer keep the birds. The matter of marketing the ostriches as meat was taken up with T. A. Riordan, food administrator for Arizona, and he gave his consent. A committee had the task in charge, and soon had all arrangements completed. The ostriches were to be slaughtered at the ranch and rushed to the city, where they would be placed in cold storage prior to selling. The wholesale dealer was all ready. The shops that were to handle ostrich meat at retail had been announced. The public was implored to eat ostrich meat and save beef and pork.

Fashion Saves Them.

And then all at once the ostrich agitation collapsed, died and disappeared. War news and politics crowded ostrich recipes out of the papers, just as it had been crowded out by the bird of the desert. The retail shops, when asked as to the supply of birds, said that they had not received any as yet. People who had figured on having ostrich meat for dinner had to revise their menus, and put off eating the huge birds until cooler weather.

Owners of the few remaining ostrich ranches are said to have caused the change in plans. With ostrich plumes again coming into use in trimming for fall millinery they have decided not to sell.