The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-03-05
The HOSPITAL FOR DOLLS
AN ODD TRADE SUCC EsSFU lily FOL
LOWED by 4 WOMAN.


Selling "a Head Children Attracted--The
Worth of Sign.
Attention has been drawn recently to
the profession of dolls surgery" by
the illness and the removal to Bellevue
hospital of Mrs. Amelia Lelb the
dolls DOCTOR of Seventh street. The
question has been asked frequently Of
late: Who will cure the dolls now?
Mother Leib was not the only practi-
toner, 1t may solace the children to
learn There is small square sign,
lettered in black, on a white back
ground, hanging from a secondstory
window in upper Third avenue, that
tells the whereabouts of another prac-
titioner; and, as did Mother Leb's, in
stantly brings to mind Miss Jennie
Mutual Friend "a child-a dwarf-a
rl-something- sitting in little, low,
old fashioned arm chair" with a
queer little figure, and a queer, but
not ugly, little face" who was the
person Of the house." and up to the
tricks and manners of that disgrace
full old chap ''the baby" who couldn't
rise in greeting because my backs
bad and my legs are queer" and to
whom the children, coming down in
long, bright, slanting rows" called
from great distance, " Who is this in
pain! Who is this in paint and
swept about" and took up" and
made light"
The little sign reads, DOLLS Hospi-
tall; and in the window it hangs from
are displayed a number of dolls that
have evidently met with serious and
numerous accidents, and are waiting
for treatment; dolls that presumably
are In the convalescent stage, II not
fully recovered-the contrast being
doubtless designed as an object lesson
to make plain the skill Of the "sur-
geon'' within; and a great array of
dolls legs and arms and hands and
eyes. All this can be readily seen from
the windows of the elevated trains, for
the little hospital is near one of the
stations and the trains are moving
slowly when they pass it. The sign and
window are like old acquaintance to
the regular patrons of the Third evenue
elevated line; and as one of them said,
''they never become so familiar, see
them as often as we may, that they do
not recall Miss Jennie Wren to her
nlomentrily at least.
The dolls dressmaker's business card
read: Miss Jennie Wren, dolls dress
maker, dolls attended at their own res
idence That Of the dolls surgeon"
is as interesting; it reads: dolls Hos
pital All kinds of dolls repaired at
low prices and short notice." with the
location OF the hospital. The surgeon"
Is little German woman, whose hus-
band was a doll-maker in Saxony, and
from whom she learned what she calls
''the business She vo1ubly deplores
the fact that he was induced to accom-
pany dozen other artisans of his own
kind to this country some years ago to
work for a manufacturer who fancied
he could compete successfully with the
German and French doll-makers. She
has been Gin the business for herself"
(. for more than two years now, she says,
and she adds with toss of her head,
has been quite independent. She has
learned very much about repairing
dolls, but, she admits, not so much as
her husband who could put finger
on" and wax a face over'-apparently
the two most difficult operations to be
performed in dolls hospital. AS for
her, she is compelled to repair a broken
finger by substituting new hand Gf
she happens to have one to match in
color, size, and form-otherwise she
loses the work., and a broken nose by
putting a new head to the old body.
And SO with other fractures and
wounds Of all sorts Thus she keeps in
stock a great assortment of limbs and
sections Of limbs, and heads, and
trunks, and eyes, and various other
parts in various kinds of material,
papier mache, wax, china, tin, and so
or1--ready, Eat short notice" to sew, or
glue, or bind them on the patients
brought to her.
Her patients are not easily satisfied,
she says Even the retailers who send
her the dolls broken in transportation
from Europe are extremely particular.
All the parts must match exactly; and
it is not easy to get an entirely salts
factory effect. Then, too, dolls that are
be sold must never bear the evidence
Of repairing; so the work must be skill
fully done. But the little girls are the
hardest to please. If the eyes vary a
shade, or are 50 set that there is hint
of "oddness,' or If the new hand Is a
little too plump, or. the arm trifie
long, or if the wig is the least awry,
they hold up their heads and declare
that the poor thing" (meaning the
dolly is a perfect fright" and really
must be fixed all over again" New
heads, though are the greatest trouble.
To persuade the children to accept
them contentedly needs much patient
persuasion. Fault is found with the
complexion, or the form Of the nose, or
lco1or of the eyes or hair, or the facial
expression. Nothing the doll-mender
has to show Tin the line of heads"
however beautiful it maybe, is raptur-
ously accepted at first sight. 1T isn't
the fault of my Stock said the doll
member. 1.-THE children know their lit
tie dolls and love them very dearly.
When they grow old and scratched and
broken, the little ones can't forget that
they were once rosy and whole and
beautiful. Oh, no! 1t isn't that my
heads are not pretty. They are not
compared with the old head, but with
the old head as it was when the doll
was found in the Christmas stocking
What they then thought they always
think-that it is the most beautiful in
the world An accident doesn't lessen
their love for it: a broken nose makes