The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-18
A BOOM IN TOY SOLDIERS.

English Boys and Girls Keep the Max
 CTS Busy.
 One of the results of the war in Soutf
 Africa has been the sudden boom ir / the demand for toy soldiers at home
 Young England has caught the war fe- yer, and in this case the symptoms are
 shown by the desire to play with toy soldiers every morning, noon and night. In the course of little chat which our representative had with MT. Hamley, of Regent street-there are probably near ly as many toy soldiers in MT. Hamley's establishment as there are real ones in South Africa-some interesting facts came to light. It appears that the most expensive toy soldiers-the biggest, heaviest, shiniest, most highly finished are made in Germany. There is q manufacturer of toy soldiers in Eng land, and cautiously enough his name is Britain, but at present the various troops that come marching out of his factory are not quite so smart as those made in Germany. This may be-, and probably is due to the fact that the in- dustry is only few years old as far as England is concerned, whereas toy sol diers have been made in. Germany all most even since toy soldiers existed.
 However. the English made soldiers have one decided advantage over the. other kind; they are about one-third the price, and hence they are most popu- lar with papas and mammas just now. To satisfy the cravings caused by the war fever various regiments of Boer soldiers have been manufactured, and 1t is now possible to have mimic battle on the table In the nursery. The camps, artillery, mules, horses, soldiers, flags, guns, are all what theatrical people call practical" You can unload a mule and load him ID again without disabling him for life. The soldiers come off their horses, and can be put on again without losing portions of their uniforms and anatomy or injuring the trappings of the chargers. You can have quick-firing gun that will shoot one hundred peas minute with uner- ring accuracy. It must be remembered that every care is taken to make the uniforms absolutely tcorreet,5 and not only this but several of the officers faces are modelled after the likenessesi of the most prominent real officers in the Transvaal,
 Some of the soldiers heads come right off and this little device serves three purposes. In time of peace the soldiers can be made to look straight in front of them or to the right or to the left. In time of war the same soldiers-dis- abled-lie on the nursery table without their heads; and when the same sol- diers come back to England to receive the plaudits of the multitude-with their \ heads oii, of course-it is only natural that they should have their heads turn en by the enthusiastic greeting they re- ceive? They face the cheering crowd then.
 At present the supply of Boer toy sol dieds is nothing like sufficient to meet the demand; indeed, the supply of all toy soldiers is rapidly running out but are daily being expect ed, and it is hoped that all regiments will have their full. strength by Christi mas At present the Boer soldiers have | not been made so that their heads come off: but it is stated that in future they will be made so that their heads will come off quite easily. It is even 'hinted | that in many cases the injuries the toy Boer soldiers will receive from the quick | firing pea shooting guns will be so great | that it will be impossible to put their | heads on again.-London Graphic.