Daily inter mountain., 1900-11-23
Oliver j. Hughes had to say in his recent

Oliver j. Hughes had to say in his recent
word as our representative at COburg the
patient reader will be delighted to dis
cover an interesting account of the doll
Trade in Thuringia." From this it ap-
pears that among the people of that
mountainous portion of Germany the
making of toys is popular business and
gives employment to thousands of per-
sons Dolls in this place date back only,
1orty or fifty years, but the toy trade it
self is traced by our authority to the
darkest portion of the Middle Ages and
a time when one somehow generally sup
poses either that there were no children
or else that they were quite without the
amusements Of their modern prototypes.
FURTHER than this, however, it also ap-
pears that the doll, simple as it seems
when in baby's hands, is, like most
simple seeming things, a very complex
organism. Many have a hand in it's COM
pl1cated process. The arms and legs, for
example usually made of paper mache or
of china, are the work of one separate de-
partment which does nothing else, Just as
the trunks are the special feature of an
other. The heads-at first mere hairless
pates as bare as the infantile cranium-
are, naturally. the objects of special care
and necesitate the attention of many
different artisans. One man paints the
eyebrows, another encarnidines the lips,
one dips the face into wax to give it the
likeness of flesh. and still others attend
to its eyes-and the hair! Most of the
blonde dolls we see in this country owe
their attractiveness to their mohair wigs,
tn material for which is imported to
Thuringia from England.
This, however, is not all that goes to
the making of the really stylish Viola, the
kind that. because Ohe is most beautiful
and dainty, can be easiest scalped by
rough little brothers. If she is born in
the purple she must have glass eyes. You
remember that scene in Dickens in which
the dolls eyes are used to SO great effect
Well, these lustrous orbs are as carefully
blown over gas as hot as goes to the
manufacture of the finest of Bohemian
glass. They are then connected by wire,
and, it the lady is to be one that has the
charming ability to go to Sleep the wire
Is weighted by bit of lead If to all
these graces there is to be added voice
which can call for it's parents or other
wise articulate it's woes, great deal
more labor and cunning is brought into
play. However, if your sawdust or excel
sior dolls are emute, you should remem-
Der that that is only because they are
able to bear their sufferings in silence
And that is a rare quality!
A Thuringian manufacturer usually en-
ploys from 1000 to 5000 persons-general-
ly girls-to do the robing Of the BRIDE
Every variety and style of dress is imi-
tated, often with a faithfulness that
would startle a Partisan dressmaker OF
the bodies, Mr.. Hughes mentions many
clTerent kinds of more or less frangibl-
ity or attractiveness, but nowhere does
he allude to that first, dear to the heart
of every one who has been a child, the
genus rag. Perhaps the Thuringians are
too busy making money to make these.
But we need not feel worried on that ac-
count. When the finest wax doll in all
Germany has turned to a battered-nOsed
and hideous smilacrum, the law Of the
survival of the fittest will assert itself
and the rag baby smile as broadly as
when the mouth was first painted on her
face. She is generally typical Ameri-
can. The child of poor but honest par
ents, she is always the daughter of love.
No court clothes for this little republican.
She is ever a home body, and she reigns
supreme in the nursery when her finer
sisters are forgotten as she reigned there
ere they We're known. She is tossed about
a good deal, no doubt, but when the
evening comes and the prayers are said,
the noble pink and white ladies of the
Rhine have to be laid aside in dark clos
cts, while the rag doll is generally clasp
ed tight in living, dimpled arms and
through the long night watches guards
patiently the sleep Of the little one who
loves her. The wax creations Of Thu
ringia may corner the doll market in the
places of trade, but they will never be
they ever so fine, quite take the place in
our hearts that has been given to that
first rag doll.-Philadlphia Press.