The Audubon Societies
“You cannot with a scalpel find the poets soul.
Nor yet the wild birds song.”
Edited by Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright (President of the Audubon Society of the State of Connecticut), Fairfield, Conn., to whom all communications relating to the work of the Audubon and other Bird Protective Societies should be addressed.
DIRECTORY OF STATE AUDUBON SOCIETIES
With names and addresses of their Secretaries.
| New Hampshire | Mrs. F. W. Batchelder, Manchester. |
| Massachusetts | Miss Harriet E. Richards, care Boston Society of Natural History, Boston. |
| Rhode Island | Mrs. H. T. Grant, Jr., 187 Bowen street, Providence. |
| Connecticut | Mrs. Henry S. Glover, Fairfield. |
| New York | Miss Emma H. Lockwood, 243 West Seventy-fifth street, New York City. |
| New Jersey | Miss Mary A. Mellick, Plainfield. |
| Pennsylvania | Mrs. Edward Robins, 114 South Twenty-first street, Philadelphia. |
| District of Columbia | Mrs. John Dewhurst Patten, 3033 P. street, Washington. |
| Wheeling, W. Va. (branch of Penn Society) | Elizabeth J. Cummins, 1314 Chapline street, Wheeling. |
| Ohio | Miss Clara Russell, 903 Paradrome street, Cincinnati. |
| Indiana | Amos W. Butler, State House, Indianapolis. |
| Illinois | Miss Mary Drummond, Wheaton. |
| Iowa | Miss Nellie S. Board, Keokuk. |
| Wisconsin | Mrs. George W. Peckham, 646 Marshall street, Milwaukee. |
| Minnesota | Mrs. J. P. Elmer, 314 West Third street, St. Paul. |
The Conducting of Audubon Societies
It is one thing to organize a society or club and quite another to set it upon a permanent footing and keep it in step with the constant requirements of progression. At a time when a great majority look askance at the startling array of societies that they are asked to ‘join,’ it behooves all Bird Protective bodies to conduct themselves with extreme conservatism, that they may not bear the stigma of being called emotional ‘fads,’ but really appeal to those whom they seek to interest.
Many men (and women also) have many minds, and a form of appeal that will attract one will repel another. It is upon the tactful management of these appeals and the bringing of the subject vitally home to different classes and ages, that the life of the Audubon Societies depends.
Leaflets have their influence with those who already care enough to take the trouble to read them. Special exercises in schools have a potent influence for good. But the best method of spreading the gospel of humanity, is that by which it was first spread 1900 centuries ago, by personal contact and the power of the human voice. A few spoken words are worth a score of printed ones. A compelling personality is worth a well of ink in this Bird Crusade of 1899. Let the heads of societies come in contact with the members as much as possible, and gather them in local circles. Let those who are able to speak about birds do so, and let those who lack the gift of words read aloud from the works of others.
Whenever possible, urge local secretaries to hold bird classes during spring and summer in their respective towns. If no one person knows enough to teach the others let them club together, buy a few books, and, going out of doors, work out the problems of identification as best they may, until every little village has a nature study class working its way, Chautauqua-Circle fashion. Remember one point, please. No society can succeed that is content to count the quantity rather than quality of its members. One hundred intelligent members who know how to spread the why and how of the crusade are worth 10,000 who have merely ‘joined’ because some one they were proud of knowing asked them to and it was easier to say ‘yes’ than ‘no,’ especially as
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