Daily Yellowstone journal., 1886-04-01
TOlLING TOYMAKERS.
LIFE AMONG INGENIOUS ARTISANS
OF THE THuRINolAN FOREST.

~ 'f'SsN'~>sTN'N S's-Sfs
How They work and Livs-A Branch Of
German Industry Of Special Interest to
Americans = Enscts Of UncicanIinsss.
Bsd Food and Foul Air.
A half days journey from Heidelberg
brings the traveller into region as full Of
quaint interest and strange sights as any
In Germany, the land Of toys, the Some
berg district Of the Thuringian forest.
This world apart in the universe of in
dustry Is known very well, indeed, to q
certain class of Americans, the toy i'm
porters, better than to the importers Of
any other nation.
As long ago as 1876 we Americans
bought in this small forest nest toys to the
value Of nearly 1900, and In 1880 our
purchases had increased TO nearly $1,000
600, and yet how few Of us, when we buy
a crying doll for Christmas present, q
woody dog, nodding donkey, "A farm
yard" or any of the thousand toys made of
wood, papier mache, or wax think Of the
strange little world among the Thuringian
hills whence our familiar objects come.
line 1ntrCndutS Nrt Saul w nave Ho loN0
for their business whatever, the manu-
facturers are conservative beyond belief
and the workingmen have no money with
which TO experiment. There is no indus
trial museum in the district and the man.
ufacturers oppose the foundation Of one
because each is afraid that the others may
appropriate his models. The solitary
manufacturer who has patented toy or
two and proposed some wholesale i'm
provements Of technique Is so cordially
hated that he employs q private watch
man for his establishment and does not
venture out alone at night. Yet within
the narrow limits Of its method of produc-
ton Sonneberg has the most marvellous
array of varied toys. Thus there are
sample rooms with 12 900 to 1900 sample
toys, and many q Sonneberg drummer
carries in his sample books 5000 TO 1000
pictures and photographs of the produc-
tions Of his firm or firms.
THE FACTORY HAMS AND MASTERS"
The workers are of two sorts, the factory
hands and the ana 5ters,n who work at
home with the help of an employee or two
and of their own families. The position
of the master varies little from that of the
other workmen. The master occupies a
cottage and has potato patch ON the
steep, stony hillside But the cottage and
potato patch are usually heavily
mortgaged and in order 10 pay interest
and taxes the family usually rent the best
rooms and live ia the most wretched
closet-like dens. The quarter of Some
berg where the workers live is the oldest
of the city. After the Russites had de-
stroyed the city the inhabitants are said
to have taken refuge in Grunthal, a long
gorge under the protection Of the castle.
Shut in by steep hillsides the Grunthal
affords scarcely room enough for two mar
row rows of houses, SO that many of them
are built directly into the hillside. The
dwelling usually consists of a sleeping
and living room, both low-ceiled, and
heated winter and summer, in order to
dry the wares which stand about the
stove upon shelves and boards. The living
room, at once kitchen, workshop and
nursery, Is usually light.
But the sleeping room Is rarely ventila-
BILE and still more rarely ventilated. Il
exactly room enough for two or
three beds 50 close together that no one
can pass between them. At night the oc-
cupant Of the furthest must climb over
the intervening ones. Here two, three or
four persons occupy each bed. The pow
erty and crowding are horrible, the want
Of dwellings increasing as the factory sys-
tenn draws more and more hands to the
town. And these pens are expensive, too;
the most wretched Of them, with but ono
habitable room, costs from W to ~ marks,
and for the usual sleeping and living room
together, the workman pays 10 to $50
marks. The cleanliness of such dwellings
may readily be imagined. The weeks
sweeping and scrubbing is confined to Sat
urday afternoon, when the wares are
packed ready to be taken TO the mer-
chants. The sleeping room rarely shares
the benefit Of the scrubbing.
scASTY FOOD AND IMPURE AIR.
The food OF these unfortunates consists
OF potatoes eaten in the morning with q
cup Of chicory, and as lunch with bread.
For dinner, potatoes with a herring or
some fat from the butcher. The poorest
of all go without herring and take the salt
liquor in which it was packed! Meat is
seldom eaten. In Grunthal, where popu-
lation is thickest, there are few butchers,
and these few find no custom. Down be-
low in the town Of Sonneberg itself the
butchers live near together and kill much
and often. At 4oclock coffee is taken
or the water in which the butcher
has boiled sausage, which these unfortu-
mates call sausage soup. This they get
for nothing, or almost nothing, and they
cut slices of potato into 1t.
After the Leipsic autumn fair when the
urgent orders come and American tele-
grams for Christmas goods literally chase
each other along the cables, every human
being who can be set at work Is pressed
into the service of the toy industry. Whole
families work all through the night, and
the heat and dust and foul air must have
been felt to be appreciated, which reign
supreme here when the fire is kept burn
ing day and night to dry the wares, where
dozen human beings crouch in low
ceiled pen, and at night cheap petroleum
lamp adds its fumes to the whole.
The consequences Of such way Of liv-
ing are inevitable. In spite OF the pure
forest air that pours down from the
heights through every lane and byway,
these unhappy people are pale and feeble;
they stoop and cough, have fiat narrow
chests and are small of stature. Such Ii
the race OF toymakers In the Thuringian
forest. - Heidelberg Cor. Philadelphia
Times.