Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-12-19
HOW DOLLY rs MADE.
The Birth and bringing Up" OF the Com
Panion and Friend Of = Little Girl.
Frorn h Ns- Vo-R


The Birth and bringing Up" Of the Com
panion and Friend Of Little Girl.
From the New York sun
IL IL an open secret that Santa Claus brings
the greater part of his vast stock OF Christmas
toys from Europe. Germany being his favorite
collecting ground But he encourages Ameri-
can industry in q few directions, notably In
cheap mechanical toys. The tin railway trains
and tin horses aud steamboats, that run when
wound up with key are made in great GUAM
titles in Brooklyn by machinery. and the cast
iron toys Of the same description are made
principally in New York. When he desires an
expensive mechanical toy, however. be goes 10
France for it; to Saxony for his Noahs arks
and all the other carved wooden TOYS; 10 Nh
remburg for his TOYS. tin trumpets and magic
lanterns and to Thuringia for his toy chinaitea
sets
Far more important than all other TOYS are
the dolls, and nine dolls out of ten are little
German girls. In whole districts OF Germany
the country people spend the winter in making
dolls. filling their fields in summer The cheap
wax doll, commercially known compost
non wax, such as may be bought at retail in
this country for rs cents. furnishes perhaps
the best idea OF how dolls made. A
'modeler." who has nothing further TO do
with the making OF dolls, makes plaster Of
Paris models of the styles Of heads aud limbs
most in demand, and cells them, singly in
sets, TO the peasants who make the dolls. There
are all sorts Of faces among the models-pretty
girls, smiling boys, old women, negroes and
crying babies. Throughout the winter father.
mother and all the larger children unite in
making papier mache casts from these models.
each cast being, Of course, an exact counter
part of the models, but thin and light, and gray
in color.
The legs and arms are dipped in fesh-col-
ored paint. and the painted shoes are put on
with brushes. These various parts. together
with the head, arc fastened TO a cloth body
stuffed with sawdust and dolly goes of 10 the
factory. where the more artistic work is done.
her limbs have the proper TINT her body is as
true TO nature as necessary, but her head is
stiii bare, her cheeks are gray and her color
less eyes express no intelligence.
An expert workman IN the factory, holding
dolly by the feet, dips her head an a shoulders
Tor moment in melted wax. and she emerges
from the bath the composition wax doll of
commerce. When she Is sufficiently dry she
passes into the hands Of girl operator. who
quickly paints the pink tinge upon her checks
Another girl adds the blue ewes. still another
the eyebrows and eyelashes. and so she goes
through the hands of row of girls one glrl
Tor each nnt the whole process taking about
six hours, for there are DELAYS Will, the paints
are drying. In six hours six girls are expected
10 paint ten gross or nearly 500 dolls COM
plete. This requires rapid work, and the girls
receive about SLs5 a week each. Flowing
locks OF mohair are fastened 10 the head and
dolly is ready to emigrate to America.
For the real wax doll-a more expensive arti-
cle-the molds FOR the head are made in three
parts--one back and two fronts. The mold is
hlied with melted wax, which is allowed TO re-
main for minute or two, and then al that has
not hardened is poured ont. This leaves a
hollow wax head about a quarter of an inch
thick, which is afterward strengthened bv
v-Tfh 1nv4ar ..Fu av,af
mache. Some patent washable dolls are
made OF hardened papier mache, and when
these have cloth feet which Will not break, they
are valuable addition to the nursery
The most desirable doll in the market. how
ever, according TO an expert German toy man
ufacturer now in this country, is the kid body
doll The kid bodies are stuffed with hair;
and with bisque heads, flowing wigs moving
eyes and shoes and stockings they are sold at
retail in any OF our large cities for from %
cents TO $40 Occasionally sawdust is substi-
tuted for the hair stufiing.
There are several styles Of jointed dolls; the
common ones 10 sell from to 80 cents: a better
grade, full jonted," to sell at from Is cents to
30, and especially fine ones which are used as
show pieces in store windows.
But If we do not make dolls to any extent in
this country we repair them at a great rate.
About Christmas times doll hospitals" are es-
tabllshed in all the big stores in New York
where toys are sold, and dolls with eyes that
should move but are fixed, with legs that in
sist upon being knock-kneed, with arms that
are loose, with wigs that fall off or with joints
that refuse to bend are taken back to be re-
paired or exchanged In some of the larger
concerns the doll hospital at such times con-
tains more patients than any real hospital in
the city. These returned dolls would be al
most total loss were 1t not that there are in
New York a number Of foreign doll makers,
who make regular visits to the toy stores soon
after Christmas, carrying away the killed and
wounded and taking them back in a few hours
as good as new. The mending of a doll is an
extremely simple matter, unless some Of the
casts have been broken.
The wooden stables. kitchens, groceries
butcher shops and the familiar Noah arks are
all made by hand in Saxony. What wages these
simple carvers make may be judged from the
fact that small Noahs arks, containing more
than a score Of carved animals, can be bought
at retail for or 10 cents. Even in cheap
Saxony the peasants could not live by this in
dustry alone. They have some other calling.
and on winter nights the whole family gather
about the blazing fire and carve out miniature
lions and elephants. The children of these
families often develop peculiar ability in max
ing particular animals. One boy may make
good horses anu camels, while younger brother
may far excel him in the carving of lions and
tigers.
80 remote, says the German manufacturer,
ARE many Of the German districts where dolls
are made that ii is often necessary to send men
out on six or eight hour journeys to get the
heads and limbs. and in summer they can
hardly be had at all. for then the doll makers
are at work on their farms"