The Portland daily press., 1891-12-31
playthings are sold each year by peddlers

! son it is estimated that establishments like
| the Bon Marche and the Louvre sell each
| S250,000 worth of toys, and the chairman of
| the Partisan syndicate Of toy manufacture
ers estimates that the total sales during
the holiday season are not far from 81, 00O,-
| 000
| According to recent statistics there are
in Paris alone nearly 500 manufactures of
toys, mostly situated in the districts of the
| Marais, the Temple and the Archives The
number of persons employed regularly in
the toy industry from years end to years
end is about 10000
| The manufacture of toys and playthings
had not achieved any considerable degree
of development in France before the year
| 1867, when for the first time it obtained a
special classification at the Paris universal
exhibition, twenty-five French exhibitors
having been admitted. In 1878, at the
Paris exhibition, class 40, toys, numbered
ia exhibitors, which alone suffices to show
the progress made during ten years. As
forsthe statistics of the trade at the pres
ent day the custom house returns show
| the exports to have risen to $4,000, 900,
while the imports are only 81, 100000 In
these returns, however, are included GER
tain fancy goods which are not precisely
toys.
The toy manufacturers each have their
specialties, and generally deal only in that
| speciality. Arms, armor and military
equipments for children were manufac-
tured by forty-one houses in 1878. The
workmen earn from five to seven francs a
day, and the women from two to three
francs. This branch of the industry has
increased greatly since the war of 1901.
and the French have now beaten all their
competitors, both in the cheapness and ex-
cellence of their wares, although for long
time they were closely pressed and even
beaten by the manufacturers of Nurem-
berg and Belgium, particularly in the ar
! tlcle OF tin soldiers. These tin soldiers ara
made IN the Marais quarter, where over
o,OOO,OOo are turned out each year, that is
TO say, as many as all the European armies
united. One manufacturer alone at Belle
Vile employs 200 men and women, who
make nothing but tin soldiers.
len years ago nearly all the high priced
doll babies used to come from Germany.
They were stiff in form and hideous in
color. One day a Partisan lady had the
IDEA OF dressing one of these miniature ba-
Dies with all the elegance she bestowed
upon her own person. Since that time the
tull dressed Partisan doll baby has crowded
all the lobster red Gretchens out of the
market. The Germans themselves are now
Obliged to buy their stock of porcelain
neads from the ceramic establishments at
Montreull and St. Maurice, where tai
ented designers and skillful modelers are
constantly employed. Some of the most
| celebrated soulptors do not disdain to
model heads for the leading firms. Paris
is stlII center for cheap dolls, made by
workwomen who earn only twenty or thir-
ty cents q day.
OF metal toys-watches, kitchen utensils
and similar objects-there were seyentv
nine manufacturers in 1878. The paw of
the men is six to eight francs day and of
the women two to three francs. More than
LOO workmen are employed in this de-
partment OF the industry, which was for
merry the monopoly of Germany. The
manufacture of these objects in France be-
gan about 1S40. In 1867 the trade in these
articles reached 100000 francs and en-
ployed 400 workmen.a at present the trade
exceeds 10000 of francs per annum. The
chief article in this section is the nine cent
toy watch and chain, invented by camelot
named Herbaut about 1885, This Herbaut
now lives comfortably as retired trades
man at Belteviile, enjoying an income of
Sl,OOO a year gained by selling these
watches. This nine cent watch is now
popular all over the world, and it's price
has been reduced even to one cent. al
though 1T passes through twenty-eight
pairs OF hands before it reaches the Gus
toners. One manufacturer of toy watches
at Paris employs $50 persons, and his bust
ness amounts to 100000 a year, which is
equivalent to saying that he. turns out
2o,Oo0 watches day at prices varying from
four cents to three dollars dozen.
Besides the worknen who try during
their idle hours to invent some toy that
Will have run during the holiday season.
there are kind hearted men like Murger's
hero. Schaunard, who are continually
seeking to find some new knickknack for
the amusement of children. There is a
hale old gentleman in the Temple quarter
who has spent his life in inventing TOYS.
and particularly those of a noisy kind.
which. as we all know, are in high favor
with children. This amiable old gentleman
is also the author of the double sided COB
let, in which you think you drink when you
don't, rubber Lizards and slugs, which
youngsters and others can surreptitiously
slip into the salad bowl, etc. All inventors
try to produce an article that will have an
immense vogue, that will be the toy of the
season, but while we find each year an in
finite variety of curious objects, it is rare
that any of them strike universal attention.
In looking back for the last thirty years
there are only two that had an immediate
and prodigious popularity-Pharoah Ser
penis and the Roman Question. The idea
of the serpent came in simple and unex-
pected manner one day to young chem
ical student while he was watching the
combustion of a product in the laboratory.
"That would please the boys" he said to
himself, as he saw the fantastical turns
made by the burning product. He mod
eled some little pyramids, which only
needed to be lighted to start off on their
serpentine course, and sold the idea to a
pyrotechnist, who promised him a very
small royalty. The young chemist thought
that perhaps he might gain enough to
offer champagne once or twice to his table
d'hote companions. Three days afterward
wherever he went he found some one who
was playing with the little pyramid, and
at the end OF each month, for long while
afterward, his modest income was in
creased by several thousand francs as his
share of the profits.
The inventor of the Roman Question did
not benefit by his discovery for a great
while. He had no registered trademark
for it, and an imitation was simple enough
Co.. l. Il xrro~.z i