The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-12-12
NEWS HND COMMENT

Ninc-tenths of all the toys which will
fill the stockings of American youngsters
on Christmas morning are manufactured
in Germany, says the Philadelphia Rec
ord. The dolls which will delight the
mothcrly instinct of the small American
maids have come all the way from Son
neburg, Il little town in Tnuringen. where
almost the entire industry is confined to
the manufacture of dolls. The inhablt-
ants are poor people and are brought up
to doll making. Seven persons handle the
doll before 1t is completed, the hands.
head and feet being made by one, the
body by another, the hair is fixed on by
a third, and the face is painted by two
different people one doing the rough
work and the second putting on the lin
ishing touches. Finally the clothing Is
made by the sixth person and yet an
other dresses the doll before it is ready
for packing. From all over the world large
numbers of dealers i'm toys go TO Some
burg every year, and goodly proportion
of them are Americans, for the work is
done at such starvation prices that Amer
leans cannot compete in this line. There
are at least 800 different kinds of dolls,
and while the French invent many OF the
most attractive, the Germans copy them
so cheaply that the buyers go principally
to Germany for their supplies, although
France furnishes the fine dressed dolls III
quantities. The English rag doll made
wholly of rags. seems to be about the
only doll imported from that country.
From NuremburS come the magnetic
toys. swords, guns, woolly sheep, jump
ing jacks, trumpets and many ingenious
mechanical toys. The carved wooden
toys are made in poorer SaNony, and COM
prise cheap arks and sets of furniture.
Toy horses cows, elephants, cats, lions,
tigers and all kinds OF animals are made
in German prisons.
If we may credit q local version in the
Press, DR.. W. II. Brcwnell, of Utica n.
V, a well-known physician, has discov-
cred a chemiCa! preparation by the appl-
cation of which he hclieN es cloth of any
kind or description can be thoroughly wa.
terprOOfed. DIR. Brownells son, Harold.
has charge of the experimenting and he
has put large quantity Of cloth through
the process and every experiment has
been thoroughly successful. The prepara-
tion Is secret known only to DR.. Brow
nell and he has wisely decided to have
II remain so. Nearly year ago DIR.
RrOwnell put hunting coat through the
process, and though 1t has been out IN
many storms it has never been wet
| through. lie has made some experiments
| on wood and leather with like success, but
| believes that waterprOofing cloth would
prove IA successful business from n finan.
| Cial standpoint. Not only does the in
vention repel water, but ink and alcohol
| also have no effect on it, The water
| proof is n dry process. 1t makes the cloth
| look a bit tirmer The goods after being
| thus treated appear To have received
| nothing more than a good sponging. Sew
| eral capitalists have approached the orig
| inator of the idea and II Is not improb-
able that stock company will soon be
| formed,
All the overhead electric wires in ST.
| Louis are to be buried under ground be-
| fore the list of January. The city ordi-
nance requiring this eXcepts only lhe
overhead trolley wires
| During the visit o. the German kaiser
to Iiiel one Of the tests applied 20 the yes
| sells gathered there was the feat OF COUP
| ling and uncoupling the engines. The
| cruiser New York on this test made
| record OF minutes and i5 seconds. while,
in contrast to this, 1t now appears that