The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-03-09
ain Tie Toy=Cuuntry. -
Mr. Bnrt"n iIarrison'> Description Of a
Picturesque IArolean Village,

MI. Burton Harrison'> Description of
Picturesque IArolean Village.
MIS- Burton Harrison gives the readers
OF s. Nicholas for March a charming
glimpse NJ the village of st. Ulrich in tile
lyrol, where SO many OF the quaint little
wooden toys that are played With-and
bIokeu-by the boys and girls Of ChIisten
dom are carved from year to year "EX-
cept for a fair collection of Etruscan
relics taken from the tombs hereabout,N
she says, speaking IN the person of one
of her characters, and the decorations
of the carved figures for use in churches
OF which, especially OF patron saints,
vast numbers are made there.-there is
nothing Nj greater Importance in the val
ley than tile construction of Jumping
Jacks, Noah's arks will ges, rocking
horses animals on rollers, and wooden
dolls IT every Style and size. The art Of
making these toys is hereditary grand
children working III the wake of their
grandsires mothers, fathers, Sons and
daughters atl taking land at it, What
lobs their work Oi individuality, however,
is that oue family will devote itself ex-
clusiyely to fabrcating arms, another to
EGGS, another to heads or bodies. When
the d0lls are finally put together they are
passed on to artists who apply the outel
ccat Of brilliant red, black white biut,
OF grass green paint required to complete
the fascination Of the charmer With the
final touch Of a pair of white stockings
with red 9artels and green OF yellow slip
pers, the doll is sent out upon the
mercies nt the buying world. And for
got to tell you that many OF the lay fig
llres used in artists studios are made n
these workrooms Of ST. Ulrich.
The description captivated the young
American college graduate, and he gladly
made one OF party to visit this Toy
land Still lower down the mountain
slopes We're sprinkled with tiny hamets,
i'll which it was not difficult to recognize
the originals of those German villages-in-
boxes dear to children of all nationalites.
Here We're the red roofs, the bright green
shutters, the clipped trees, conical in
shape and guarding the front doors, the
garden patches, messy in texture, bedight
with gayest flowers and behives ranged in
rows. Sitting at little tables out of doors
were seen the peasants taking their even
ing ease over a Jug of beer, the good
wives knitting in the doorways and all be-
slowing a friendly greeting upon the pass
ers by.
No less attractive of aspect was the
thriving town itself the chief centre of
Toy land, for which, these scattered dwell
iDgs had prepared the eye. Like ODER
ammergau in the Bavalian highlands, and
lnterlaken and Brienz i'll Switzerland,
! St. Jlrich has been for many long
years the headquarters in southeast
ern Hyrol Of skilled carVers in wood. Here
agricultural interests, except on the
smallest and most necessary scale, are SUI
perseded by the universal industry of
making playthngs. How different from
any manufacturing town Claiborne had
seen in England of America was this as
sembage OF bright, smlpG looking and
highly corated houses and churches, each
having its green yard and shade trees,
and all invitingly placed against a back
ground Of wooded hills, above the bed of
a rushing mountain stream.
As they passed through the chief street,
Claiborne fancied himself one of those
mortals whom the wave OF a fairy $ wand
has transformed into dimensions suitable
to the full enjoyment OF things meant
| only for little ,lks. Every cottage bore
some token of the devotion of inmates to
miniature constructions. A girl passed
| them leading a donkey whose paniers con
tanned nothing but toy dogs, cut out of
wood and destitute of paint. A boy bent
| forward under shoulder pack full of
white whiskered monkeys, destined to be
affixed to springs and to be shut up in
| paper covered boxes there to be kept in
durance by an insufficient hook, Another
basket revealed a multitude of toy
Noahs-enough indeed, of those familiar
patriarchs in yellow gowns, with blue
| knobs in lieu of beads. to have saved from
deluge the survivors of all the planets, as
well as the elect of this our own little
| world.
CAsTo7
Boar. the @7'' Kind y. Have AWAY. Bought