The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1886-04-15
THE TOY-MAKERS.
Life Among the Ingenious Artisans of the
Thuringian Forest-The Way They
Work and Live.

Il
Life Among the Ingenious Artisans of the
Thuringian Forest-The Way They
Work and Live.
A Heidelsberg correspondent of the
Philadelphia Times writes: A half-day's
journey from Heidelberg brings the
traveller into region as full of quaint
interest and strange sights as any in
berg district of the Thuringian forest
This world apart in the universe of in
dustry is known very we'll. indeed, to a
certain class of Americans, the toy-im-
porters, better than to the importers of
any other nation The American pur-
chasers are the only ones who come to
the Thuringian forest to give orders on
the spot, compose" new dolls out of
half dozen different sorts, order. toys
by the hundred gross, and vanish to re-
turn like the swallows at the end of q
year. As long ago as 1876 we Ameri-
cans bought in this small forest nest
toys to the value of nearly half a million
dollars, and in 1880 our purchases had
increased to nearly million dollars,
and yet how few OF us, when we buy a
crying doll for Christmas present, a
woody dog, modelling 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.
Back at the beginning of the four
teenth century the little town of Some
berg had won for itself municipal rights
and sent large quantities of wooden
wares to the Nurnberg jahrmarket, had
guild of its own before the close of the
century, and continued for more than
four hundred years the gradual develop
ment of the toy-making branch which
has made its productions known in all
the civilized countries of the world from
Russia. whittier Sonneberg sends Easter
emblems by the thousand gross, to Cali
fornia, where Sonneberg is represented
upon every Christmas tree. .s-
With the opening of our own century
came q new era for Sonneberg when =
workingman adapted papier mache to
the use of the toy trade. Until then it
had been used In Paris for ornaments
and in the monasteries for figures of the
saints. Henceforward it was to take up
its abode in the nursery and play-room.
This Invention revolutionized the trade
of Sonneberg. Anyone could do the
work required by the new material,
whereas the use of the materials before
employed had required skill, and, there
fore an apprenticeship. By degrees the
whole population, from the decrepit
greatgrandfather to the tiny primary
school child was pressed into the SER
vice. and to-day the only skilled work
men are those who turn or carve legs
for toy animals or. the heads of jump
ingjacks, and the carpenters who build
tiny wooden stables, theaters, kitchens,
shops, etc, such as the children of our
wealthier American families delight in
As years went by the factory system
began TO creep into Sonneberg as every
where else. The first factory was met
with q popular demonstration of so
vigorous character in the revolution
AIRY year 1S4S that the. proprietor Was
obliged to abandon his enterprise, but
presently the crying doll was introduced,
| and from that moment the battle against
the factory system was lost. The crying
doll became the staple production of
Sonneberg, and its production employs
almost as many workers as that of all
other toys taken together.
The toy business does not continue
unbrokenly throughout the year. From
the end of November to the beginning
of March almost complete want of work
prevails. These winter months are
terrible. The poor little savings are
gone soon after Christmas, and the
family must starve along upon the pota-
toes that have been boarded or fall into
| the clutches of the usurer. The first
orders that have come in are from the
American dealers, who send soon after
Christmas, because the staple articles
which they order, doll heads or little
dolls and other such things, are cheap
est then, and at the time of the Leipsic
Easter fair the Yankee purchasers ap-
pear themselves. The season of whole
| sale export is from July l to Oct !,
| when IL reaches perhaps sevenfold the
height of the winter export This brief
season must be made the most of by the
unfortunate workers if the family main
tenance for the year is to be earned at
all, and their efforts surpass all descrip-
| ton. Fancy working month after
month eighteen to twenty hours, day in,
day out, Sunday and Monday, in such
a dwelling, with such food, and work
| ing on Friday the whole night through
for delivery After the Leipsic autumn
| fair, when the urgent orders come. and
American kilograms for Christmas goods
| literally chase each other along the
| cables. every human being who can 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, where the fire is kept burning day
and night to dry the wares, where a
dozen human beings crouch in low
celled pen, and at night a cheap petro-
leum lamp adds its fumes to the whole.
The consequences of such way OF
living 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 flat
narrow chests. and are small of stature.
/ Such is the race of toy-makers in the
Thuringian forest In the peasant dis
trict, but O short distance thence, 9
hardy race of Thuringians cultivates the
soil; but their lean faces, q dry, blood.
less skin, betoken the wretched nourish.
ment and overwork. When the chill,
dren are a few weeks old they are fed
with goats milk and bread crusts, and
when q child cries a rag filed with
crumbs and sugar is thrust into its
mouth to be sucked, sleeping and
waking. The prevailing cause of death
Is consumption for those who survive
the fifteenth year, and the percentage oi
deaths of children under six months ol
age is %.
To make matters worse prices ars
steadily falling and employers and EN-
ployes are unanimous in the assertion
that since 1873 the prices of the coarser
cheaper sorts of toys have fallen so pei
cent. The orders have increased, bu
only the burden of toll has kept pact
with them. Twice as much is produced
as Of old and scarcely the old remunera
ton is received.
1t is said with truth that one-hah o
the world does not know how the othel
half lives. How little we who buy oul
children German toys know of thu
agony which the race for cheapness, the
pressure of the worlds competition, thu
| sty,,00la to hold tho American market