Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1896-12-21
YULETIDE GENEROSITY.
Bah Has Something to Say About
Presents Appropriate for
Christmas.


ence whether you are rich or poor, IN
deed. you can be a beggar. though they
do object to you being a thief that is,
if you are pursuing your ayocatlon. But
anybody, that is, any honest body, can
feast her eyes on all the lovely Christmas
things. and in one way she will own
them just as much as the richest lady
in the land There is something fine in
being able to enjoy without possessing.
l cannot understand, though, how any
women, with a little money to spare, can
go into the toy shops and come out with
out buying some trif1e to make glad
somebody's child. There are dolls of all
degrees offered to the doll-lover-there's
the wonderful French doll, whose face
has naughty expression, who is so &C
complished that she can cry like a real
baby, speak like parrot, and waltz
with the eXactness of machine. 1t
is true that, unlike real ladies when she
dances, she furnishes her own music!
Whisper it not iii Gath, but when she
| moves around to the tune of "Thc Beau
tiful DANUBE the tiny music box is
concealed under her lace-trimmed petit
coat.
Dolls for Rich and Poor.
Then there are less expensive dolls,
real baby dolls, dressed in long clothes
anu reclining III carriages, Will QOI
nurses standing beside them; there are
little girl dolls, gowned i'll short frocks,
and having tennis rackets in their hands:
and there are lady dolls in long-trained
dresses who loll on easy chairs of gilt
| upholstered in satin. There is a bride
| doll, too, with a Sinking bridegroom,
| and the bride looks so modest and the
groom SO happy that | am certain that,
! last night, while all the world slept the
| dolls came to life, and there was really
and truly wedding formed in the doh
| shop. There is everything to make a
doll happy. A cclose!ly-cuIrtaiined brass
dream: a china bathtub in which she
may take her morning bath and preserve
| her complexion, while for this purpose
there is a special soap warranted not to
injure the most delicate dolls skin!
Surely, the very height of luxury in dolls
has been reached; and yet-and yet
how often is a child happy with an old
manned doll, loved not for it's beauty,
but for its many sorrows?
There are some
Toys that Never Change.
| The lovely woolly dog is just as square
| at the corners as he was when / was
| presented to the first one more years ago
| than | like to remember Although sci
ence has progressed, the workings of the
Woolly dog are as crude as ever. The
same string is pulled, the pink tongue
comes out, and the 'bow-wow'' is Just
as hollow and artificial as it should be-
NOah's Ark is as absolutely artistic as
when you and [ first counted the ami
mails therein. The dog and the elephant
are the same height, and both are pink.
The crocodile and the camel each have
a curly tail, and are a lively purple, and
| the only way you can distinguish Shem
| Ham and Japhet from their wives is by
their wearing stiff round hats, not I'M
"A. N11.0Ho1
is the joyous brown he always was; Ham
| is brilliant orange, while Japhet is a
/ pale blue, and Noah is delightfully."- mot
| tied. The dove, with a leaf in her
mouth, is the same color and size as the
COW, but how lovely they all are! Has
anybody ever decided whether the
Original Family in the Ark
got in through the roof, as do the wooden
family? And did they walk to the ark
| wooden animals has been arranged? |
think they did. The ark is too historical
a toy not to be correct. To what small
child are you going to send an ark? Or
was it firemans get-up or soldiers
toggery that you had in mind fer some
| boy? Somehow the toy shop possesses n
wonderful fascination for me. | think it
a good thing that it does-and | will tell
| you why. The little time of delight that
| comes to you or to me while looking over
the toys that duplicate those we loved in
! days gone by, bring before US those old
| days and make US remember how easily
we were made happy. Then, as a natural
sequence. unless we have become hard of
| heart, which God forbid! we long with
| great intensity to give JOY to somebody
| else-somebody else who is little child.
| Perhaps it is for some little child who
| like you or me pored over book, then
| away we go out int the fresh air, across
the street, mingle with the busting,
| merry crowd, and land at the book shop
! Here there is
An Aristocratic Happiness
| to be found-there is that delightful
! scent that comes from well-bound books,
| and, seeking earnestly for the book that
will delight some child, we get the
chance to dip first in this and then in
her who loves books. Here's book
| for the little girl who is good musician
such a sweet bOok-some of the love-
Hest of the poems of Eugene Field set
to music and bound in most delightful
way. Think what it will mean in the
nursery to learn to sing about THE Lady
! from Hushaby Street. and to raise their
voices-those voices that squeak a bit
yet-in praise of "The Dinky Bird"
| while someone's vOice-a girls voice, /
think-a bit sweeter than all the rest
will linger with tenderness over the words
| as she plays the accompaniment TO the
story of Little Boy Blue | have al
ways been, as you know, a most ardent
admirer of the poems of Eugene Field.
The man / never knew, but l think it
| specially sweet that these poems Of child
| life arc set to music by the friends Of
the dead man, good musicians all of
them, from De Koyen, UP or down, and
| offered at this Christmastide.
There's a wonderful book, too, I have
forgotten it's name, but it tells of out-of-
door sports for boys, but oh! but ah!
here's richness! This is not book for
child, but OH what magnificent book
it is for you or for me! The stories of
today, the plays of today are all going
back to the most romantic time in the
history of the world-'ELe Grand Steele"
Up at the theater the other night l saw
Pompadour and Louis XIV, l saw the
coHrt of France, but | missed
The Time of the Grand Louis,
| that was the fine time in history. This
| book, with its magnificent cover crimson