Skip to main content

A Parrot's Love: An Early Animal Welfare Tale?

Revisiting the People's Voice, Volume 1, Number 1, 17 April 1880, after the first poem we start off with what appears to be a short fictional story regarding a parrot. (Content warning for animal death.) This story appears - so far! - to have only appeared in this newspaper, not in any other books or papers easily searchable against our friend Google.

There are not a lot of clues to go on for this story. The author wrote under the nom de plume Mrs Em. B. Dubbleyu (so likely the real initials are M.B.W., though one can never be sure). The name has not popped up in other searches either, leading to the idea this is a local author with only one story to her (or his) credit. So, what is this story?

Although the newspaper is fragmentary, we can glean a young girl, Amy, is living with her aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Fielding. On a neighborhood walk in "a pretty Ohio village," Amy and her aunt are accosted by a green parrot named Poll, who calls the girl "Ada" and seeks her out whenever possible. The aunt and Amy, having recently moved to this place, have no idea what is going on with this parrot and its fascination with Amy, and try to avoid encountering it when possible.

Some story is missing at this point, but one day the parrot Poll follows the girl home.

Every day, for three days, the parrot visited the house where Amy dwelt, trying unsuccessfully to enter, ever fondly calling “o’er and o’er again,” the name so fondly cherished.

This situation was extremely distressing to Amy, and finally the bird makes its entrance to the home, first by the door, then through an open window. Amy, distraught, tried to hide, while the aunt, who was apparently attacked in the missing fragment, was also running from the bird and screaming. Enter the uncle, Mr. Fielding, attempting to save the day:

They were near the open window, and hoping to drive the bird out of it, Mr. Fielding hit it with his hand. Instead of the parrot alighting out of the window, it struck the window sill and fell upon the carpet, apparently lifeless. In a moment it opened its eyes, eyes so full of sadness, so full of tenderness, and, as Mr. Fielding gently raised it to see where it could be hurt, it mournfully said: "Poor Poll, poor Poll! Ada, Ada!” and died.

After a bit of admonishing his wife, the husband wrapped up poor Poll and took the parrot to the owner's house. There, the backstory is fully revealed - Ada, a child, had died, and Poll mistook Amy for its beloved friend. Mr. Fielding is somewhat absolved of killing the bird by the assumption Poll died of a broken heart after the final rejection.

Parrot Silhouette
This melancholy story raises any number of questions, from the author's identity, if the incident was based on any similar real-life occurrence, and most prominently, why was this written. While we might never know the answers to some of these questions (unless further investigation of this paper uncovers more of this author's work), one idea that has been percolating in my mind is the similar time frame of this story as Black Beauty, one of the foundational animal rights stories. 

Black Beauty (1877) is narrated from the perspective of the horse, which is likely not a point of view many other writers would be able to tackle. Perhaps some of the key elements of the parrot, mainly its ability to speak and ability to recognize and bond with humans, made it an ideal animal for this tale to elicit sympathy from the readers. Perhaps there is a little sly rebuking of the aunt and Amy for being terrified of a small bird, who was only seeking affection.

Another option could also hinge on the sentimentality of Victorian-era writing, using an animal's bond with a child gone too soon to pull on the heartstrings of the readers. A parrot, able to express with words the unwavering affection seen in tales of dogs guarding the graves of their owners, springs to mind; the death of the parrot adds another layer of loss for the already grieving family of Ada. 

If you stumble across any further information, or perhaps a complete version of this story, drop me a note!

Enjoy these posts? Support me on Ko-fi.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lord Londonderry and the Radiant Boy

The Alexandria Herald of January 29, 1823 , reprints a ghostly encounter in England between Lord Londonderry and a boy over twenty years earlier. The unnamed mansion of this event is located in the north of Ireland, and the writer claimed everything from the setting to the architecture and furnishings would predispose anyone to start seeing ghosts and other wild apparitions. Here is a condensed version of the story with select quotes from the original article: After acquainting himself with the room he had been assigned, settling into bed, and turning out the lights, Lord Londonderry perceived a light gleaming on the draperies of the lofty canopy over his head. Conscious that there was no fire in the grate—that the curtains were closed—that the chamber had been in perfect darkness but a few moments before, he supposed that some intruder must have accidentally entered his apartment; and, turning hastily round to the side from which the light proceeded— saw—to his infinite astonishment—n...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Dog-Eating Monsters from the Great Dismal Swamp

In the early 1900s, reports of animals - primarily dogs - being killed by an unknown creature around Suffolk and Norfolk were attributed to a nebulous Great Dismal Swamp Monster. The first wave took place in 1902, with stories originating in Suffolk. The Times printed a story that ran one day earlier in the local paper of a strange creature that has been attacking people and dogs around Nansemond in February of 1902: The Strange Monster That Eats Dogs in Nansemond. (Special Dispatch to The Times.) The strange Dismal Swamp monster, which one day this week killed seven of Ed. Smith's dogs, ate two of them, and later attacked Mr. Smith, himself, has been seen again. Mr. Smith lives about twelve miles from Suffolk. Last night L. Frank Ames, a merchant, who lives near Bennett's Creek, saw the same thing and suffered from its ravages. Hearing a strange noise, Mr. Ames went out with a pistol. He thought at first it was a strange dog. When he learned it was the much-sought monster Mr....
Post a Comment
Read more

The Cloaked Creature of Mexico, Missouri

The Wheeling Register seems to be an unending font of strange tales suitable for Halloween. In the December 14, 1883 edition was a reprint of a story that ran one day earlier in Mexico, Mo., about a strange creature roaming the area around Hopewell Church. Exactly what the creature was seemed to be up for debate. At least some people thought it was a ghost, but most of the reports call it a "lean monster man, between eight and ten feet in height, wearing a long cloak, and going about with his head bowed in an abstracted way, but occasionally glaring at those it meets with small, glittering eyes said to resemble those of a cat or some wild beast." A number of sightings happened in the fall of 1883, to the point that farmers were going armed and the school was nearly abandoned in fear. Two separate accounts of seeing the creature were related in the paper, which we will reprint here: John Creary, a well-known old resident, declares that yesterday afternoon [Dec. 12] as he was ...
Post a Comment
Read more