Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-02-11

or powdered clay between to prevent
their sticking together. These thin cakes
OF paper dough are then pressed into the
molds for Dolly's head.
When the workman has carefully fitted
the sheet of dough into every part of the
mold he pares off the edges with a knife
as you see a cook cut the crust from a
pie plate, lifts the half head out of the
mold and lays it on the table to dry a
little. When dry enough it is again
pressed in the mold to give it more per
feet shape, and then is dried for the
last time. The two halves being
finished they are glued together, and Miss
Rosabel for the first time takes an up
right position on a shelf, where she stands
till she is hard and dry, looking more
like stiff pasteboaTd than anything else.
Miss Dolly is not very pretty in that
state, must admit. She is of dingy
gray color, with no eyes and no hair.
However, she is not yet finished. Her
next journey is to the eye-setter. A rough
doctor he is, and the first thing he does is
running
sharp knife around it and knocking the
piece out with hammeri
What for? Merely to put in her eyes,
my dear; and a curious operation it is,
too. If they were immovable eyes, like
a common dolls, they would be simply
glued in; but in young lady of Miss
Rosabers pretensions, who meekly shuts
her eyes when her mamma lays her
down, there is much to be done.
In the first place, the eyes themselves,
life-like as possible, have been carefully
made of glass, in large factory which
turns out nothing but eyes. These the
eye-setter now fastens to a piece of
curved wire with a ball of lead on the
end. 1t is the weight of this lead which
makes her eyes close when her head goes
down. Then the workman, with sharp
knife, cuts a hole for each eye and goes
on to put them in. | can't explain ex-
actly how he makes them all secure but
there is plaster to hold them in place
and support the cheeks; a cork or
sponge to keep the lead from hitting her
chin; pieces Of wood to prevent her
head from being easily crushed and va
rious ARRANGEMENTS by means of which
thewhole is made firm and strong and
able to endure the hard knocks she may
expect in the rough life before her.
When everything is in, the cutoff slice
Of her head is glued on again, and Miss
Rosabel has received all the furnishing
for the inside of her head that she will
ever have. If your poor doll ever is so
unfortunate as to break her head, you
can look in and see all this machinery,
if you like.
Now the inside is finished, the next
thing is to put on her lovely complexion
First must be removed any roughness,
such as bits of glue at the seams of her
head.
Women now go to work on Miss
RosabePs head one filing the rough
ness off, and another giving it coat of
ruddy, f1esh-colored paint from the top
of the head to the ends of the shoulders.
Dolls who have hair made of the same
material as their heads, like bisque and
china dolls, have the hair vanished
black, but Rosabel has real hair, so she
is colored alike all over. A frightful-
looking object she is, too, with color
enough for boiled lobster.
When she has received her color, and
got dry, she proceeds to the next oper-
ator, who is the waxer.
should have told you before that her
hands and feet were made in the same
way as her head, nodded, and painted
and waxed.
The bodies of cloth or leather are
made by families outside of the factory,
and brought in all ready for the heads.
Can your dolly cry? Rosabel can, and
therefore her body IS stuffed with hay
because sawdust, the usual stuffing,
would get into her crying machine, and
make her dumb forever after. To give
her a voice, you must know, she has a
sort of bellows-like arrangement, such
as you have seen attached to a toy cat,
which when pressed would new.
These parts are all made and put
together outside of the factory, and the
finished bodies brought in. And now
comes the next process, which is color
ing her face. You thought she had color
enough. Well, she has her flesh tint, but
her lips are white and she has no eye
brows, nor lashes, and no brighter cheeks |
than firebrands, which will never do. |
She must go to the painting-room
Into kettle of boiling clear white |
beeswax Miss Dolly is dipped, and then
is held up to drain. If she had been in
tended for a cheap doll she would have |
received but one dip, but being destined |
to belong to the aristocracy Of the doll |
world she receives several dips, each one |
giving her thin coat of wax and toning |
down her flaming complexion into del
icate pink. The reason she was painted |
so red, you know, is that she may have |
the proper tint when the wax is on
In this room is long table with sew
eral workmen, each of whom does only |