The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-12-25
TOYS FOR THE NEW YEAR
HOW THEY ARE SOLD ON THE
STREETS OF PARIS.

Ike Little Booths Along tho Bouleyards,
Ti,e Ways of the yenders-Wonderful
siety Of Curions Articles y Theil
sileapness-Pharaoh's Serpents.
From Dec. "a to Jan. 6 every year the
city OF Paris becomes one vast fair. Police
regulations of all kinds are relaxed; beg.
CARS and barrel organs have free run of the
capital; in the open spaces swings, car
ronseis, ~roundabouts, shooting galleries,
and somnambulists' consulting cabinets
are installed. Along the grand boulevards
and main avenues interminable lines OF
wooden booths are erectelL Sellers of all
Kinds of useful and useless objects begin
to fill the air with then cries, and to gather
oJstructing groups in front of their dis.
play of miscell9aeous merchandise.
The origip<of the little booths is almost
as old as TIE custom of giving Christmas
and New Years presents, but it is only
si,lcef1S9 that those erected on the boule.
Ya:ds have been sufficiently numerous to
constitute a special fair. Since New Years
I day of 1852 they have not ceased to make
their annual visit except during the winter
of lS7O-1.
Permission is given each year for erect
ing these booths from Dec. "a to Jan. 6 on
tiie bolleyards, the quays and the public
Squares, with the exception of the Place
Nendome and the Place de la Concorde.
The principal spot is, of course, the main
boulevards from the Bastile to the Made
leine, where about $50 of them are placed
on both sidewalks of the thoroughfare.
Some 400 or 500 more are scattered about
in other parts of the city. From the Bas-
tile to the Place de la Republique is the
tavorlte locality for the orange vendors,
and from that point to the Madeleine the
toys, trinkets, ~knickknacks, etc, known
under the general name of the Article de
Paris. reign supreme.
The maximum width of each booth is
eight feet, and a space of three feet is left
between each construction. No booth can
he placed within a hundred feet of a store
selling the same article that is to be dis
played by the temporary dealer. The oc-
cupants OF the booths. pay no tax to the
city. When the weather is good the net
profits during the fortnight vary from $50
to 400 francs for each booth, varying, of
course, with the nature of the merchan-
disc. The permit is given by the police
commissioner of each quarter.
Besides the permissions given to occu-
pants OF booths, a certain number of licenses
are granted to the camelots or street ped
oilers, who squeeze into corners by the trees,
where there is not space enough for a
booth. They have a portable table or stand
and fold up their apparatus at night like
the Arab and quietly steal away-until the
following morning. The camelots are nu-
merous at all seasons of the year, but dur
ing holiday time it seems as though hun
dreds of them had sprung up out of the
ground. Like the ragpickers the street
peduiers are mainly recruited from the
larye GI1SS WIN h,y-n M fno1a and n,n
obliged to turn their hand to anything
which will give them a living.
The corners of streets closed for repairs
are the favorite places for the peddler, and
he has only to set up his table and begin to
arrange his stock in trade to nave u crowd
OF oilers see what he has got. CHANGING
around he suddenly exclaims: II may as
well ruin myself today as tomorrow. 4
man must eat, mustn't he?" and then hs
starts off with his boniment or story about
what he has to sell.
The boniment is the great card for the
pedhler. Some improvise their story; others
recitc. The article to be sold can change,
but never the boniment. Some of the ped
dlers try to amusc their crowd by telling
amusing yarns, and then by a clever tran
sition praising the article they have to sell.
Others try to catch customers by awaken
ing their curiosity. Several use the pa
triotic dodge of Encouraging home indus
try" and all endeavor to prove that the
object they offer is sold as an advertise
ment, and consequently below cost.
These peddlers travel over the country,
visiting ali the fairs. They have their
special hotels in ali the principal places
During the New Years fair in ParisFsDeci-
mems of all these itinerant, ueraaars both
regular and IRREGULAR may be seen. some
having booths, others operating with a
simple table or tray, End all dealing as a
rule in articles that cost nine, thirteen.
twenty nine or t%hirty-nine sous. Such are
the traditional prices, Just one cent less
Than the usual prices of other men.
The objects sold'in the booths along the
boulevards defy enumeration. You may
>And everything there from egg heaters and
potato Washers up to casts of the Venus of
Milo, of Houdon's "kiss,' and of Nine.
Recamier, and between these two extremes
are bonbOns, noiig;It, musical Instruments,
bird calls, filters, American popcorn, Swed-
ish cutlery, books, artificial flowers. mir
rcrs, visiting cards, but above all toys of
all kinds, dolls, dolls furniture, tin sol
diers and more especially very cheap toys.
Last year the novelties were so called me
chanical toys which you wind up with a
string to set them going. Such are a
nurse pushing a p~erambulator, a baker
and his cart, a lady with her parasol, an
ostrich carriage, two walters, two fire
men fighting a duel, etc. These toys are
all made of tin, and a very simple mechan-
ism causes them to move over u plane sur
face with comic stimulation of moving
limbs, or, like the duelists, to lunge at
each other with furious swords for two Or
three minutes, while the impetus of the
string and spring lasts. Such toys are all
made as cheaply as possible, and vary in
price from thirteen cents to thirty-nine
cents.
As an instance of the economical way in
which they are manufactured we will take
a well Known thirteen cent toy, the me-
chanical rabbit seated on a little car, which
in motion makes the animal beat a pair of
eymbals. First of all, the wheels must be
perfectly round in order to have the rotary
movement of the aXletree make the two
tones strike regularly. If these wheels
were cut expressly they would cost double
the price of the toy itself; SO, necessity be-
ing the mother of invention, the toy max
ers conceived the idea of getting them
ready made by purchasing the waste
pieces of wood from the cruet stand manu-
facturers. The tops of the ordinary cruet
stands are cut out with a punch; this OPP
GRAFTON leaves as waste two round pieces
of wood where the oil and vinegar cruets
rest and two smaller circular pieces where
the shoppers are placed while the casters
are in use. The small pieces serve for
The front wheels of the rabbits car and
the largerones for the hind wheels. The
axletree is made from the waste umbrella
handles, from those that are not perfectly
straight.
The rabbit himself is in cardboard, and
covered with refuse skin that the furriers
cannot use. To complete the illusion the
animal must have eyes, and ordinary shoe
pails specially vanished give the desired
effect. The cylnbals are made of cast off
pieces Of sheet iron, covered with a special
preparation to give them luster. Thus, by
using waste material alone, this popular
toy can be manufactured and retailed at
thirteen cents. At wholesale they cost
ninety cents a dozen. Over $4,000 of these
playthings are sold each year by peddlers
and toy dealers.