---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Townsend, Joseph Longking
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 17
number: 5
published: 1914-03
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Joseph Longking Townsend, "A Song of Progress. A Poem," *Improvement Era* 17, no. 5 (March 1914): 461.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1705unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1705unse
start_page: 461
end_page: 461
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1914-03)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1705unse
  publication_year: 1914
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1914, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# A Song of Progress. A Poem

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OSTRICH FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA 461
is cut and plucked, and the process is repeated about every nine
months thereafter. The large plumes are carefully cut, leaving
about an inch of the quill. As the feathers are cut at the season
when they would naturally fall, the vitality of the stub is soon
exhausted and it is easily removed. The operation is entirely painless to the ostrich, but, like the peacock, he does not enjoy being
robbed of his plumage. It takes some skill for the attendants to tie
a sack over the bird's head, after which the work becomes easy.
The feathers of the male bird are superior and of a harder texture
than those of the female. They are larger, retain the curl longer,
are of most beautiful finish, and naturally command a higher
price. In 1909, the value of feathers exported from United South
Africa was a trifle over $13,000,000, an increase over the preceding year of one-third. The last official report shows a decline, a
falling off in weight, the feathers exported netting $11,364,230.
The export of feathers from Egypt and other parts of North
Africa shows a steady decline, and United South Africa has practically a monopoly of the feather industry of the world.
Port Elizabeth is the great sales-market. There one can see
the beautiful feathers stacked in neat piles to be auctioned off by
weight to the highest bidder.
A Song of Progress
Human races are emerging from a long, mysterious night:
O'er the world the dawn is breaking of an era full of light.
Climbing up the heights of knowledge, man and woman, hand in hand,
Gain the sphere of higher ethics, give new songs to ev'ry land.
Hurry up, laggards! why can't you divine
The world-zvide murmur and humming.'
Hurry up, laggards, and step into line,
The equal franchise is coming!
Can we doubt the revolution now apparent ev'rywhere?
Militant, the cry is ever heard upon the vibrant air:
"Equal rights and equal. suffrage, equal privileges, too;
Woman is the man's co-equal, side by side their work to do."
Who is ignorant of progress? who benighted, so that they
Can reject the call of reason and with ancient customs stay?
Onward ! Upward ! We are proving, in the progress of our time,
We can reach our goal of freedom, ev'rywhere in ev'ry clime!
Joseph Longking Townsend.
mt. pleasant, utah