The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1881-12-29
TOUCHING TOYS.

The following production from the
pen of Noble L. a Prentis, of the Atchi-
son Champion, is of especial interest at
this time:
There was probably never a time
since this round world was made that
children did not play with toys, and the
toy-maker must have been one of the
first of artists. There is no nation so rude
but the young barbarians have had
fashioned for them some sort Of play
things, and there is sort of crudity and
roughness about the toys of the nations
marked on the atlas as "civilized and en-
lightened" that reminds one of the kids
who f1ourished before the flood or per-
haps carried off shavings from the ship
yard where Noah was constructing his
marine masterpiece. The story that
man was originally made from the
dust of the earth seems confirmed
by his disposition in his early
youth to return to his native element.
All that the ingenuity of man has in
vented in the way of toys, playthings,
games and the like, has never yet sue
ceeded in rivaling in boys mind the
attractions of q sand pile. A good sized
pile of moderately moist sand of suffi-
cient consistency to be piled over u
Wy DdIC lOOL du0 5O HdhCt WuCu IuC
foot is withdrawn, what is fondly be-
lieved 90 be- house" is the greatest
known promoter of juvenile happiness.
Toys change with the ages and the
progress of the world. The last Gen.
tury child had, of course, no miniature
railroad trains, but he had copies of all
his age had invented. If a collection
of toys could be made from the days
when Cam and Abel were boys, it
would form history of the mechanical
progress of the world. Nevertheless
we are inclined to think The Oldest toys
are the best. Style is not intensely APP
preciated by children, and in all time
wealth OF affection has been lavished
by little girls on rag dolls with eyes,
nose and mouth, made with pen and
ink, that was never known by the fin
est creations in wax, with real hair and
eyes that would open and shut.
Many people have wondered where the
toys all come from that suddenly make
their appearance two weeks before
Christmas. They seem to spring out of
the ground like some new crop. No one
ever sees them at any other season, and
all at once here they come by the house
full, and then they suddenly disappear.
The native country of the art of toy
making seems TO have been Germany;
the great toy making city of Europe is
Nuremburg Then Switzerland in the
past has been Il great producer of toys.
But the manufacture has been introduced
in the United States, Germans and Swiss
being oftenest the workmen. In the
city of New York an immensely of this
sort of work is done. Many of the ruder
sort of toys, Us jumping jacks, are sim
ply whitfield out of pine with pocket
knife. A smart boy can make 81 90 a
day ON jumping jacks. In one establish
ment in New York 800 little girls are
employed cutting pictures out of
thick sheets of paper. These are after
ward pasted on fancy boxes, or sold as
they are 10 be put in scrap books. The
so-called japanese work is largely made
in New York, and one factory employs
more than 500 hands on what are called
japanese cabinets.
One great boon to children of the pres
ent generation in this country is the
Christmas tree. 1t is by no means ma
tive to our soil. The first description of
a Christmas tree we ever remember to
have read was in one of Fredrika Bre- |
mer's books, and it was some years after
that before we actually saw one. Now
the land at christmas tide is illuminated
by them. The red and blue and green
candles with which the trees are illumi-
mated are made in Italy; and by Italians
in this country.
Altogether, a toy is blessed thing.
1t is charming to the child who receives
IL, it is a blessing TO the giver and it is
bread to the workman who makes it. |
The world, bad rs it is, never fairly |
drops a good custom, and so Christmas |
and its flood of toys will go on forever.