The record-union., 1896-05-04
None Of Them Manufactured in This
Country.
The Supply Comes From Germany,
England and France, Where
Labor is Cheap.

doll famineS and corners in any quarter
of the globe, and enrich their pockets
accordingly.
The most surprising fact about dolls
is that their facial features are made
to vary equally with those OF the
human. While it is true that whole sets
of dolls have features intended to be ex-
actly alike yet the number of differ
entail sets is so vast and inconceivable
that the variation is nearly equal to
that of the human race. When it is re-
membered that one girl wears out an
average of fifty dolls, and that seventy
million girls are using an average OF
five dolls annually, the matter seems
easier of comprehension.
Facial features are produced and re-
produced in dolls by means of models.
Those who prepare the models are act
i've in securing sketches of pretty faces.
They acquire the ability to portray the
features of any face attracting atten-
tion. Anyone who has passed through
a great toy establishment must have
marveled at the long rows of faces of
exquisite beauty. To the close OBJ
server it is apparent that the modelers
have faithfully reproduced in clay the
features of the successive generations
of children. If there were in existence a
museum containing one of each type
of feature manufactured every year, it
would comprise faithful panorama of
humanity as it appeared in infancy
year after year. 1t is the duty of the
modeler of dolls to examine consecutive
generations of the human family in diff
ferent countries in order that the styles
in faces may keep pace with the changes
of countenances of children.
We have here the fact and it's explana-
tion that there are fashions in dolls as
we'll as in dress. An incident is related
showing that the road of the modeler is
not always of easy travel One day a
celebrated modeler discovered a child
with a countenance more beautiful than
any he had ever beheld. He spoke kind
y to it and loaded it with sweet meats
and caresSses. Then, in a moment of
temptation which he could not resist
he bore it away to his studio, where he
delineated every feature of its face.
and saw SO many suggestions for other
exquisite molds by means of slight mod
ihcations that he secretly kept it. The
dolls modelled therefrom were sent all
over the world and increased his wealth
his kind. When he was done with the
child he took its life, fearing the conse-
quences of abduction. Meanwhile the
stricken parents had not been idle.
Alarm was sounded through the coun-
try, and failing in this way to secure
the child, detectives were set at work.
One day a German detective crossed
over into Paris and went into great
x-l,D E,,l
employed as pages. He did not find
the child, but on the shelves he saw its
image stamped with variations on a
thousand dolls. The secret was found
out at last.
Nine-tenths of all the dolls produced
are manufactured in the province of
Thuringia, in Germany. This comprises
but thirty-five square miles, and be-
longs to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg. The
central market of receipt is Sonneberg,
a city of some $1,000 inhabitants. The
population of Thuringia is about 10000
or 1,500 people to the square mile.
Every one here is a doll laborer, en-
gagged in making a wig, an eye, leg,
an arm. a dress, some part of doll fur
piture, or at work in the ovens and clay
or elsewhere. The children work until
they are sent to school. under compul-
sion, where they remain to the age OF
A. Then the girls return to their work
for life and the boys go to the army for
a period of years after which they re-
turn for life unless called out by war
These wretched people have been
trained to this drudgery so long that
It has become a matter of instinct with
them They are fitted for no other
work, and If they were, have no money
by which to get away. If they went
away there are few doll manufactures
elsewhere. So 1t happens that whole
families, from the grandsire to grand
child, labor from generation to genera
ton, and from morning to night. Each
family has a little patch of land where
d few potatoes are cultivated. II mis-
hap befalls the potatoes it brings more
misery and woe to them
If these families have bacon and po-
tatoes once a week during the year, they
regard it as a season of prosperity. Yet
in spite of all this poverty they are
seldom without their beer. They car
go without their food and clothes, but
never without beer Every day people
may be seen entering Sonneberg with
large baskets upon their heads bear
ing the product of several days, or per-
haps weeks industry. For this they
receive a dollar, or fifty cents more
which is greedily but scantily divided
for absolute necessities.
The manufacturers of Paris produce
the finest wax dolls. 1t requires al
most consummate skill to make these
toys. Each workman has. models al
home, and buys materials for manu-
facture. The skeleton is constructed
out of lime and plaster of Paris, and the
eyes. nose, mouth and ears cut with g
knife. The figure, being ready, is dipped
in hot wax and dried. 1t then goes tC
the painter for features, then to the
hairdresser for a wig, and finally tc
the work girl to be dressed. The money
value of the doll depends upon its coat
ing of wax; the thinly coated ones
usually crack in cold weather. The wa,
formerly was produced through the
agency of the bee, but a substitute is
beginning to be found in ozocerite, ol
wax made from the residue Of petro-
leum.
China dolls are more exclusively the
product of the factory. After being
modelled by hand, they are baked in g
great oven for a week. During this
time the utmost care and watchfulness
are required. The tenders are never
permitted to sleep. A draught of all
will produce disastrous results. A sin
gle oven contains 5000 dolls. and thirty
ovens are often full at once in one fac.
tory. At the end of the week the dolls
come out, in all conditions. About one
in five is perfect After baking, the