The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-25
HISTORY OF THE DOLL.
II Has Been Loved and Petted by
Queens and Princesses From
Remote Ages.
In the Early Days Of the Church
1t Was Regarded as an
Evil Thing.
In the French Capital lie Doll became
the Banner bearer OF Civilization
Tho Doll Theater.

Tho Doll Theater
That q toy with ouch a firm hold on hu-
man hearts as has the doll must have a
curious and long history is self evident,
says the New York Sun. That this history
should be n significant red thread along the
great line of the progress of civilization ia
at least plausible. That 30 little attention
should have been paid to the annals of the
little creatures. which all civilized man
kind have loved, seems almost impossible.
This reticence of the explorers of the past
to do Justice to the doll WAS we'll illustrated
some thirty years ago in Nuremberg, Ger
many. Tacitus had nlready been telling
Germans for centuries that their ancestors
in gray antiquity were wont to bury with
the dead the objects which had been most
dear to them in life-with the warrior his
arms and horse, with the hunter his arrows
and slungshot, with the woman her spindle
and ornaments, with the child its toys.
From German soil had come repeatedly
little clay figures, tiny men and women,
and occasionally even miniature warriors
in the armor of the chivalric age.
The great men of Germany racked their
brains for all sorts of explanations of the
uses to which these little things had been
put. Far-fetched theories az to the preva-
lent styles of ornamentation and decoration
among the old Germans were evolved. HI
nally oil were agreed that the toy warriors
and women were used to beautify earthen
ovens OF the old time. In 1859. however,
there were found under the pavement of
Nuremberg small clay figures by the score,
and beside them tiny cups and pots and
drinking horns. Highfown theories COL
lap2ed. Adoll's house had been uncovored;
NIL the little clay men and women, who had
besn found in their earthly beds, centuries
old, were at last known to be pets of Ger
man children Of long, long ago. Since then
the doll has been the subject of considera-
Bile historical research, and the mute little
men and women have been permitted to toll
the stories which for centuries nave been
silent in their hard little heads.
as the doll seems, it did not
escape the prosecution of the church. III
fathers OF the church found in it a child of
the devil. and proceeded against il with the
heroic treatment of their hardy times. A
church council i'll the eighth century for
bade the playing with dolls as destructive
of the soul and unworthy of Christian
women and children. This prohibition was
not, however. quite so foolish rs il appears
to-day. Christianity made its way into
Germany comparatively. late. and, to gain
their ends, the first missionaries were pom
PEELED to yield a point here and there to the
heather. Many heather customs found en-
trance into Christian families, and among
them the practice Of offering a doll to the
patron saint Of marriage. This offering
for III has behind it a history in Egypt
and in Rome. The Roman maiuen.
on the morning of her mar
rioRe, sacrificed to Venus u doll to indicate
that she had put away childish thin s and
was about to devote all her best ener pies to
the earnest matters of life. The Roman in
yasion planted the same custom among tho
German barbarians, who, however, made
the sacrifice to Hulda. AS has occasionally
been tho case, the pious fathers of the
church did not accomplish with their order
just what they wished. In fact, they ac-
complished the opposite, for German
womankind chung to their dolls with a ten
acity which orders could not shake nor per
s~ecution weaken. The doll did not 20, but
stuck fast i'll the arms of those who loved
IT, taElnG on all the improvements of civili-
cation and often carrying the greater re-
tinement of dress from one province into
the adjoining ter tory.
Nuremberg became the favorite home of
the doll. especially of newborn dolls, and
the fanious wood-carvers of that city turned
oeo eh SLe WORM afistocratlc little wooden
men and women, with tho high-born feat
ures Of the knights of the day. The MAX
ing OF dolls IN great quantities after one
model was then unknown; in fact, never
came unit! the feudal order sank in ruins
and everything became correspoudingly
Gemoc' ATTIC. Although the old Nuremberg
dolls could not talk t~iuently, and, it il
thought, had not yet been enabled by art
to close their Eyes when laid to rest, they
couid walk on their W legs i'll time with a
mechanism within, and, when
pres ed, could emit a monosyllable or two
with considerable distinctness. Between the
fourteenth and eighteenth centuries it was
customary on tho continent for aides to pre-
sent each other with dolls. Occasionally
such a presentation had Il peculiar signif-
canoe. In 1911. for instance, the duchess
OF Lorraine ordered from "F. Holtmann,
dressed, carefully decorated dolls for the
baby (Which 10 n girl) of tho duchess of
Bavaria, who has just been delivered"
WIN the conct ntratlon of wealth, fashion
and art In the French capital the aristo-
cratic doll, true to it's progressive instinct,
It's glass eyes sot fxedly toward the Rhine
and the Vosges. When it became certain
that Faris was to be the queen citysof
fashion,, the arissocratic doll emigrated
from Germany, leaving behind only it's
less high born md elegant companions. In
eAS an S'Flbtl liz uDll HScuIl8 SrulN Il 1
banner bearer of civilization. Cheap and
illustration of journals was then
A fashion magazine. moreover,
would have required II long time for trans
and distribution, and before
the orders from far away places could have
thus prepared, sent ard executed, the
styles would have changed. In this pre-.
dlcanlent Paris tradesmen turned for help
to the doll, and it helped them. Dressed in
the height of Paris fashion, the doll model
was sent far and wide to excite admiration
and imitation on the part of ali who wished
fine clothes and the newest styles in them.
Many women i'll the provinces and in conn
tries bordering IN France had doll models
after their own measures and sent to
Paris that their clothes might be fitted.
With the growth of luxury came the send
ing out of doll models in Paris-one in
and the other in evening costume.
! he ono in morning dress was known az
Little Pandora" the other us big Pm
The doll theater, which survives as
and Judy in England and Amer
and as "Ihe kasperle''in Germany una
is OF a gray old age. 1t was an
Of the Egyptians. and was
taken from there to southern Europe, and +,