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

orally, however, it is preferred in curls
or loose waves.
Now the head is done; and how many
people do you suppose have had a hand
in bringing it from the paper pulp to
the present state? You can't tells Not
less than thirty eight, each one of whom
never does but one thing, and thus be-
comes very skillful.
But though the head is finished, Miss
Rossbel is not yet out of the factory.
She must have her head, as well as her
hands and feet, glued fast to her body;
and then-last but by no means least
she must have a wardrobe. Cheap dolls
have merely one garment, loosely
stitched together By machine at the
rate OF about two cents a dozen. But
our dolly was sent to a regular dolls
dressmaker, and clothed from head to
foot in very pretty suit. OF course it
is not in style now, for it was made
several months ago, you must know.
Miss Rosabel is then taken to q ware
house where she is surrounded by hun
dredS and thousands of fellow-dolls,
many of them made in the same mold
with herself, and as like her as twin
sisters could be.
l have read of one of those warehouses,
where twelve rooms were filled with dolls
of all sizes, from one inch long to two
feet high. One room was entirely filed
with wooden-jointed dolls, an inch and
a half long, piled in loose heap from
floor to ceiling, and another room con-
tanned nothing out dolls heads. There
were millions of dolls in that enc house.
You wish you could go there? 1t
would be interesting to you. 1t looks
very droll to see cart going through the
streets filled with dolls legs, for in
stance, each one with clean white stock
ing and bright slipper painted on.
One wholesale house in that town buys
80, 900 of the inch and-a-halt babies every
week the year round. For my part,
should think few years Of such work
would nearly pave our streets with wood
en- dolls. a smart worker can make
twenty dozen of this size in a day.
Wouldn't it be funny to live where al
most the only business carried on is toy
making? Where grown-up men and
women spend their whole lives in invent
ing, improving and making dolls that
talk, and turn their heads, and shut their
eyes, and creep, and walk, besides en-
gines that run, and horses that draw
load, and steamboats, that goa million
OF dollars worth in a year, and all to
amuse the great army of little folks in
the world?
The children who live in that fair
land, however, care very little for toys;
the poor little creatures are all workers
When very young they begin to learn to
make some one toy, or part of toy, and
they spend their whole lives at it. The
pay is small, and every one of the family
must help.
But to go back to Rosabel From that
warehouse she was packed in a box and
sent on sea voyage. Arrived in
America, she was once more brought to
light, set up in shop window, and there
| found her last winter, on the day be-
1OlC Cui tuldS, dlltt DIOuSuI u0E NOME 10
little girl that L know.
Pm obliged to confess, before ] finish,
that Rosabel and others made in that
factory are not the very incest dolls
made. There is the genuine wax doll,
whose head is of wax all through, and
whose curls and eyebrows and eyelashes
are of real hairs, put into the head one
by one. Such a doll, with her wardrobe,
costs several hundred dollars and is too
nice to play with, though very pretty to
look at. No doubt you little city maids
have seen them, with their beautiful
trunks full Of clothes, dresses of all
sorts, shoes, gloves, parasols. jewelry,
pocket handkerchiefs, brushes and
combs and nearly everything a grown
lady needs in her trunk.
Do you wish you had one? Well, my
dear, let me tell you a secret; you
wouldn't enjoy it half SO much as you
do dolls you can play with and dress and
attend to yourself. They are puppets
not babies.
The other dolls in your play house, the
CAoquo anu CHIud, are nduo ID Luo same
way as Rosabel, only the dough is of
clay instead of paper pulp and the heads
are baked to make them hard
So your pretty bisque dolls are made
of mud, and your wax ones came from
the rag-bag. Isn't it wonderful what
changes go on in the worlds-& Mich
0lds.