The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-12-07
NO. 40

to bear considerable amount of labor.
1t is really little domestic factory,
employing, all told, say half 4 dozen
pairs of hands; and they turn out
great number of finished animals.
The wood from which the animals
are to be made is first cnt into block
of such dimensions that animals of the
kind and size required can he cut from
cross sections OF it. Such block
might be for instance six inches long,
an inch and a quarter wide and an inch
high. Suppose there were to he made
from this block cows. The solid block
is dug out AMI gouged out lengthwise
and uniformly from end to end. in
such manner that looking now at
the end there is seen there the out
lines of a COW; slice of the right
thickness cut from the block will be a
COW on the rough; the next slice
would he just the same; and so from
the block there would be sliced off
COWS until it WAS lsed up. The same
method would be followed in making
horses, goats, pigs and so OH.
Then these little animals in the
rough get touch or two with knife
to fashion them further into the like
ness of the animal they are made to
resemble. Then they arc painted and
perhaps vanished, and once, or, may
be, twice a week the finished product
Of the family is taken to the establish
ment of the manufactured, where the
workers get for the animals cash on
delivery.
Noah's arks thus made are produced
with marvellous cheapncss there are,
in fact, not many things made in the
world which, considering the labor in
volved, are sold so cheaply as this toy
of worldwide use. There can be bought
at wholesale in Germany an ark, six
or seven inches in length, and contain
ing ten or dozen animals, for less
than cent and half But even the
statement of that price must convey
to one unfamiliar with Noah's arks on
ly faint notion of how cheap that
price really is. There are arks with
animals complete that can be bought
still cheaper, bat the animals in these
are all alike and rather noldescript in
form besid's Bat the price named is
for good ark with good animals all
different and all well finished.
The boat and house of this outfit are
trinity painted in at least three colors.
The house has gablcd ropf, with one
side hinged So that the roof can be
opened to take the animals. out and
put them back. The animals are all
painted in their natural colors, many
of them in two colors, as, for example,
if an animal is spotted, and then every
one is vanished. In many of these
low priced arks the animals are very
good. They are small of course, and
by no means carefully finished, but de-
cidedly lifelike.
The expense OF bringing such arks
across the ocean and putting them on
the market here, including the fleights
and duties and carriage, amounts to
about as much as the original cost.
Such arks cost the importer in stock
here in the neighborhood of thirty
cents I dozen, but that permits re-
tailers to sell them at 5 cents. 1t
would be difficult to find many things
much cheaper than this!
| But while this ark as an example is
thus remarkable for its cheapness and
other qualities, there are, OF course,
many other kinds of NOah's arks, in
Guiding greater variety than one
might imagine. There are many of
larger sizes and considerably more eN-
pensive. containing more and larger
deliberately carved and finished ami
mails. There arc arks that are mount
ed rot on fiat boards, pointed at the
ends like boats, but on regular boats,
and so on. Noah's arks are imported in
great variety; but, perhaps, the only
people that ever see Noah's arks in
the greatest variety in which they are
anywhere brought together are the
toy buyers of the world, who see them
at Leipzig, where the toy manufac-
turers exhibit their samples at a fair
held each year in the first week in
| March.
| WHAT NVnVTTn vnVI (x3VE