News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-02-21
CHILDREN,S PLAYTHINGS.
Where Toys Come From Interesting q
Talk With a Dealer.

ldlk w lCn q DealCf.
"As with dolls, so it is with other
toys" says New York dealer. "The
most of them come from Germany,
where they are made very cheaply.
This same town of Sonneburg furnishes
many of thom, but more come from Nur-
emburg, and small towns in its vicin-
ity. 1t is in this district that magnetic
toys, swords, guns, trumpets. horns,
woody sheep, jumping jacks, monkeys
on sticks, jacks in the box, and ingen-
ious mechanical toys are made. The
carved wooden toys come principally
from the Hawaiian Highlands, but they
are brought to Nuremburg to be sold.
The cheaper grades of wooden toys come
from pODter Iszo-IE, oa,.. comprise cheap
arks and sets OF furniture.
How cheaplY Shey make these things
you can judge from this instance. Here
is a toy set of furniture consisting of
three chairs, bureau, table, a sora,
and mirror, carefully done up in a
substantial pasteboard box. Now after
having paid 35 per cent. duty and hav-
ing allowed 90 per cent. for freight and
other expenses, we sell such furniture
sets at rs cents per dozen and make O
reasonable profit. You can figure out
the original cost if you chosa.
"Other toys are made with cores
ponding cheapness. Here are outfits
for painting. They are done up in
well-made mortised wooden boxes, with
q painted picture on the top, and in
Guiding "a pigments and brush. We
sell them for 60 cents dozen and make
off oil
centage for duty and expenses as Ia
fore. We have other boxes of paints,
the cost of which is almost infinitessi-
NAL, possibly not more than 10 cents
per gross. They are so cheap, indeed,
that [ can't name the cost price. I
know that we had to mark them up to
sell them at all.
porcelain toys-tea se.s and things
of that sort-aro also made very cheap
ly. the waste places in the potteries be-
ing filed up with their moulds without
much additional cost Toy horses,
COWS, elephants, cats, dogs, hens, tigers,
and all kinds of animals are made large
ly in the German prisons. Many of
these are ingenious novelties, being so
constructed as to be able to move their
heads and emit noise resembling more
or less the natural cries of each animal.
The retail price of these toys runs from
so cents to $50, according to size and
perfection. We sold toy horse the
other day for $50 about the same time
that q real racer was disposed of at auc-
ton up town for much less sum.
OF the wooden toys, fully one-half are
made in America. These include A B G
blocks, building blocks, and games, and
are turned out easily by machinery.
Iron toys are also made largely here,
and so are tin toys. The tin for the
latter is imported from Europe, aud
when the toys ara finished they are ex-
ported for the European market. The
majority of rubber toys come from
France, chiefly from Paris, although the
manufacture of this line of playthings is
constantly increasing in America. and
the American rubber toys are really the
best to be had. The reason that Amer
ica has not taken the lead i'll tho manu-
facture of rubber toys is found in tbIe
fact that the demand for other rubber
goods is SO great to shut out toys.
Toy watches arc largely made in France,
watches with chains, charms, and nova
BILE hands for 33 cents per dozen, after
having allowed for duty and freight
"Of tue standard games the best
chessmen come from England; back
CANNON and checkers are made almost
altogether in America; bone dominoes,
dice and the cheaper grades of chess
come from France; toy printing presses,
locomotives, and all that line of goods
are domestic. Toy printing presses
were furnished formerly almost wholly
by the Germans, but latterly the Amer
leans have superseded their Teutonic
brethren in this industry. In educa-
tional toys America leads the world, and
exports large quantities. So it does
also in the manufacture of outdoor
games, lawn tennis, croquet, baseball,
etc.
"It is popularity of the toy trade
that business always falls off greatly
after Christmas, fact that makes us
direct our attention and energies to q
preparation for the Spring trade i'll out
door games. Novelties of all kinds sell
best with us rs they do in the European
market, and toy dealers are always on
the lookout for them. The French
probably lead in the invention of novel
ties, but the Germans are quick to imi-
tate them in cheaper goo Is. Improve
ments are being made constantly aud
the perfection attained in some toys is
remarkable. For instance, the winking
and talking dolls of to-day are 100 pei
cent. better than those of a few years
ago.
''In all the European districts where
toys are made the laborers are miserably
poor, while the merchants are rich
But these laborers are so contented il
their poverty that they have no ambition
to get out of it. For generations they
have made toys for comparatively moth
ing, and they know of and care for
nothing else. This fact, in my opinion
will prevent America from producing
general toys on a large scale for long
time to come" :"