New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-08-19
INDUSTRIAL GERMANY.
VII.
STUDY OF MINOR INDUSTRIES-DE-
CLINE OF EMIGRATION-INCRE
OF EMPLOYMENT AT HOME.
NDTSTKIES-DE-

The industries of Nuremberg In accord
with the picturesque environment Of the quaint
esr and most delightful OF German towns. There
are many OF them. and most Of them are UNI
ususl and interesting. Cltramarine the IA
NOUS blue pigment. is made here Bronze powder
and leaf metal are also unique manufactures.
Gold lace and the material used for transfer
pictures are also produced here. The famous fac
tories Of the Feber lead pencils are in the town.
Hair pencils and brushes, carbons for electric
lights. tips for gas-burners, paper-mache, china
and stoneware are local industries Of consider
able importance. II Nuremberg is the great hop
market OF Germany and has well-known brands
Of beer. it has also long been celebrated for it's
gingerbread Its metal-oeateTs. brass lrshers.
color mixers wood carvers. leather workers and
sass-blowers employed in special branches
q manufacture in which they have attained to
g high degree Of perfection. Among all these
odds and ends of modern industry its toys are
conspicuous as the most ingenious in Europe.
The toyshops OF Nuremberg and it's suburb.
Flrth reveal the wonderful resources of Ger
man skill and realism in providing recreation
for the nursery. The best wooden toys come
from Sonneberg and the Black Forest. where
peasants carve them from white pine In the
long winter nights; and the costly wax dolls.
Of the children of the milionaires and diamond
kings are fashioned in Paris London; out
there is hardly anything else in the modern
Wonderland Of childhood that is not made in
the dreamy medieval town of Nuremberg.
The bulk Of the so-called French dolls which
are sold all over the world are South German
in origin. with all the mechanical appliances
for moving the deftly jointed arms and legs
and for extracting musical squeaks and dolefui
cries from their contracted waists. The dolls
furniture. playhrUses. kitchens and costumes
are designed by German toymakers The Nu-
remberg Noah's Arks. lead and tin soldiers and
railway trains are sold everywhere in Europe,
and with them the entire stock of standard
nursery toys. In miniature steam engines.
magnetic toys and mechanical paythings the
toymakers here are unrvaled outside Of Phila-
depha and other American cities. where there
is equal ingenuity in the application of scientific
principles 20 the recreation of childhood.
THE WORLDS TOY FACTORY
South Germany is now the chief toy factory
Of the world. England has ceased to make its
own toys, and imports almost its entire supply
from Nuremberg and the Black Forest. The
od-time toymakers of the East End of London
have disappeared. one by one. and Dickens. II
he were living. would find with difficulty traces
Of craft which once deeply interested him
and suggested some of the quaintest and love-
lest scenes of his stories. Dolls may still be
dressed in London. but they are no longer made
there. and the entire trade in wood and metal
toys has fallen into German hands. In mechan-
ca toys there was brisk competition for a gen.
Grafton between London and Continental cities;
but that is now at end The shops of the
Strand are now stocked with magnetic and
mechanical toys from Nuremberg and Vienna,
and it is hardly possible for patriotic English
man to obtain for his boys at Christmas any
continuance of this kind that has not been
made on the Continent. The importations OF
toys into Great Britain have been steadily in
creasing for a generation ana have nearly
doubled in the last decade; and the toy trade Of
the world is gradually passing from France as
well as England and becoming a German pos
session. That it is a valuable trade is shown
by the aggregate Of the exports OF toys from
South Germany; but it is also one that offers
wood-carvers and metal-workers employment
in their homes when there is nothing else to do
1t Is handicraft that pieces out many a livei-
hood in cottagers' homes in the forests as we'll
as in the poorer quarters of industrial towns.
What may be said of the toy trade is true
also, of the other minor Industries of Nurem-
berg. They small handicrafts which are
not entitled to rank with the chief occupations
Of Germany-with the iron and steel manu-
features of Westphalia. or with the textile in
dustries OF Saxony. or with the chemical trade
Of Frankfort and other great cities-but they
provide consider able range of secondary en-
ployment for varied classes of population in
town and country Nuremberg cannot be said
TO have a single line of trade of the first i'm
portance but the aggregate of its small indus
tries is great and there are evidences of thrift
comfort and prosperity in every quarter of the
town. There seems to be something for every
one TO do on each side of the picturesque Peg
nitz. Color-mixers. brass -fnishers, metal-beat-
ers electroplaters. Ieather-workers. wood-carv-
srs. toymakers glass blowers and gingerbread
bakers form contented and happy community
If 10000. in which employment is not lack
Ing albeit wages may be low. Germany Is pre-
erninently a country where no industry is con-
sidered small enough 10 be despsed and neg
iected The great trades are conducted with
technical skill and commercial enterprise, but
he little occupations are developed with pains
.aking care and utilized as a convenient and
necessary means of providing employment Tor
all classes and conditions of men.
CAUSES OF THE PROSPERITY
II would be idle to assume that any single
economic cause has been operating TO promote
the prosperity Of a town like Nuremberg. with
Its varied assortment OF minor incustrles' out
1t Is solf-eyident that the Protective system mas
tended since 1879 TO subdivide and multiply oc-
equations and to broaden the range or employ
ments available for the working classes III
that respect Il has been one OF the most I'M
pOrtant factors in the complex problem or the
new Industrial Germany. II statistical PROOF
be required for this general proposition ii may
easily be supplied For long period preceding
the establishment Of the Empire and the lhouS-
trial revival emigration was the only means VI
relief from the burdens Of surplus population
by which labor was steadily cheapeneo anu
the great army Of the unemployed rapidly aug
mented Since the adOption Of the Protective