The Portland daily press., 1891-12-31
TOYS FOR THE NEW YEAR.

Variety of Curious Articles - Their
Cheapness-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
rousels, roundabouts, shooting galleries,
( and somnambulists' consulting cabinets
| are installed. Along the grand boulevards
! and main avenues interminable lines of
wooden booths are erected. Sellers of all
kinds of useful and useless objects begin
to I'LL the air with their cries, and to gather
obstructing groups in front of their dis
| play of miscellaneous merchandise.
| The origin of the little booths is almost
as old as the custom of giving Christmas
and New Years presents, but it is only
since 1889 that those erected on the boule-
wards have been sufficiently numerous to
constitute special fair. Since New Years
day of 1852 they have not ceased to make
their annual visit except during the winter
of 1S70-1.
Permission is given each year for erect
ing these booths from Dec "a to Jan. on
the boulevards the quays and the public
squares, with the exception of the Place
Vendome 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
favorite 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 space of three feet is left
between each construction. No booth can
I be placed within hundred feet Of 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
al granted to the camelots or street ped
oilers, who squeeze into corners by the trees,
booth. They have 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
dgeds of them had sprung up out of the
ground. Like the ragpickers the street
peddlers are mainly recruited from the
large class who have. no trade and are
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
I'll range his stock in trade to have crowd
OF idlers see what he has got CHANGING
around he suddenly exclaims: 81 may as
well ruin myself today as tomorrow. A
man must eat, mustn't hep" and then he
starts off with his boniment or story about
what he has to sell.
The boniment is the great card for the
peddler. Some improvise their story; others
recite. The article to be sold can change,
but never the boniment. Some of the ped
dlers try to amuse their crowd by telling
amusing yarns, and then by clever tran
sision 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 All advertise
nent, and consequently below cost.
These peddlers travel over the country,
visiting all the fairs They have their
special hotels in all the principal places.
Daring the New Years fair in Paris speci-
mems of all these itinerant vendors, both
Regular and irregular, may be seen, some
having booths, others operating with q
simple table or tray, and all dealing as a
rule in articles that cost nine, thirteen,
twenty-nine or thirty-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
bjulevards defy enumeration. You may
fad everything there from egg heaters and
potato Washers up to casts of the Venus of
Milo, of Houdon's "Kiss," and of Nine.
Rscamier, and between these two extremes
are bonbons nougat, musical instruments,
bird calls, filters, American popcorn, Swed-
ism cutlery, books, artificial flowers, mir
rCrs, visiting cards, but above all toys of
all kinds, dolls, dolls furniture, tin sol
d>ers and more especially very cheap toys.
Last year the novelties were so called me
EttdulCd1 OOyS WnlCA you WluO up W1Un
string to set them going. Such are
nIrse pushing perambulator, a baker
aud his cart, a lady with her parasol, an
ostrich carriage, two walters, two fire.
n en- fighting duel, etc. These toys are
all made of tin, and very simple mechan-
is N causes them to move over 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 little car, which
iii motion makes the animal beat pair of
cymbals 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
EMS conceived the idea of getting them
ready made by purchasing the waste
pieces of wood from the cruet stand manu-
fscturers. The tops of the ordinary cruet
stands are cut out with a punch; this Cd.