The Penn's Grove record., 1884-02-09

I'm not an artist" said the old
man, as he stuck Onthe leg Of a wooden
soldier, to a reporter. 81 haven't come
to that yet, but I'm a professional toy
member, and this is the height of my
busy season. [ have engagements to
work at more'n a dozen stores. In
most places | take a contract for the
lot, if they're common toys, at a cent
apiece all around. By common toys l
mean articles that can be mended in
half a minute CT so. The stores l deal
with have 'em sorted out for me accord
ing to grade, and if | find two minute
or five minute toys among the one
ceuters l throw 'em out.
Il can mend nearly 100 half-minute
toys an hour. That gives me about 81
an hour, and | often make IS a day at
it, and have made as high as S12.
These are the prices, though, for only
ten days, from three days before Christ
mas up to New Years day. | work
for % cents an hour in November up
to three days before Thanksgiving;
then up jump the rates to 50 cents al
hour till we come to Dec. %.
'Now this mans been trying to ring
i'll a job toy on me for a half-minute
mender. It's a sheep that wants its
bah-ah fixed. Sometimes you can
bring out the bah strong in two min
utes, but we generally class all barking
toys as job toys. Singing toys, trum-
peters, and most of the music toys are
job works. cents an hour this time
of year. Drums class as 2 cent mend
ers when they've got a string broke or
a leather off; but when their heads are
broken in they rank instantly as jobs,
and are worth %, so, or IS cents an
hour.
''The meanest job is to fish out an
eye when it's been knocked square into
a dolls head. If she's got false hair
on, I'm all right, In that case | warm
it up over this gauze light, pull up her
wig, gouge out a goOd-slzed hole in the
back of the head, drop out the eye, put
,on a plaster, glue on the wig, cement
the eye hole, and put the eye in. l get
ten to fifteen cents for that job.
Il can't say that | came across any
toys that are particularly hard to mend.
Of course there are some articles, such
as Wind-up toys and machine toys IN
general, that | can't take. They are
generally sent back to the manufac-
turer. | take all l kin. L can paint
lem, glue 'em, dOwel 'em, cement 'em,
sew 'em, plaster 'em, and wire 'em.
This working monkey is tight in his
movements, and l sand paper him;
this jumping jack, you observe, is
par'lyzed on one side; him l wire up.
This rooster has lost his comb. WARN
his head with a red flannel saw and a
dab of Mr.. Cooper's glue. This woody
dog has lost a square inch of his sheep
skin hide. l turn up the dog and dig
off a piece of hide from underneath;
this l glue on top of him. Then | cut
off a lock of his wool, dip both ends in
the glue, and stick it on HIM under
meath. see this Teller which should
Jump up and holler. He hasn't lost
his jump, but his holler's gone. l feel
gently round his wind box while | work
him. | find where the wind escapes,
and putty up the crack with cement.
Il have a great variety of tools and
working material, In that scrap box
is a piece of most everything. Every
me al but gold and silver is there
ready for use. I've got noses of all
colors and nationalities. Of all the
things to fix up properly the nose is the
hardest. Generally l have to take an
awl, punch it in where the nos ought
to be in two places and build up a new
nose with my cement and sawdust
mixed. 1t hardens quickly, and l
pai mt it up. But the proper way to
make a nose is to cut it out Of wood,
file off the rough places and drive it on
with shoe pegs. y cement o is a
three. cent member. A proper wooden
nose is a job member and mebbeI cost
six to ten cents"