The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-26
UNCLE sAM's TOYS.
The Curious Collection of Playthings Found in the National Museum.


 It will doubtless surprise many readers of the December St. Nicholas to learn that Uncle Sam has one of the largest collections of toys in the world He keeps them In the Naaonal Museum at Washington where they may be seen by hundreds, nicely arranged and labeled, in the exhibition hall. But on the balcony In the west end of the big building Is the real Santa Claus shop. Like the spider parlor in the nursery song, the way to
 On each side of the long balcony, writes Will H. Chandlee, Is range of tall pine cases fitted with drawers in which are stored toys and games from all parts Of the world. To be sure, these drawers contain many other interesting objects besides for it is in this department that everything relating to ethnology is sorted and catalogued for exhibition. Ethnol- man races in their progress from savage " to ciVilizatioP-how people in all parts of the world live. of the things they use in everyday life, and how they use them. The toys have been gathered, by his agents, from every known country. Many of them are rare and costly and beautifully made; but the most 1nterest- ing and unusual are the product of un- civilized hands. Some are gorgeouSly col ored and decorated with beads and shells, while others are grimy and pitfully mean; but they have each brought their measure of joy to some childish heart somewhere.
 Of dolls alone there are enough to give any little girl reader a new one every day until she becomes toe old to care longer for them; ivory babies from Alaska, dressed in little coapts of deer fur to protect them from an Arctic winter; South Sea Island puppets with scarcely any clothes at all; Indian papooses deck ed with beads and buckskin; pink-cheeked waxen beauties from Paris; almon-eyed Japanese in red kimonos; black wooden images from the KOngo; and various other dolls fashioned from clothes-pins, pine cones, and corn husks.
 Some in rags.
 Some in Jags,
 And some in velvet gowns.
 Uncle Sam is especially rich in Alaskan dolls. Some of them are of ivory. no big ger than your thumb; but the clothing IS made with the greatest care from the softest sealskin. trimmed with beads ana edged with white hair from the leg of the deer. Others are two or three feet in height, and are carved from wood, and equally well dressed, even to their init tens, skin caps with ear-haps. and their perfectly correct snow-shoes. Then there are the dolls of the Zuni and the Moqui Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. These are brilliant and cheerful gath ering, and occupy drawer all to them selves. Some are made Of wood ana oth- CTS of baked clay, and all are painted in gaudy colors. Some among them have real hair, done up in funny little knots above their ears, or in bratds with fe9ith- CTS and red flannel. l show you pie ture of one of them: he represents fire dancer. His body is painted black and is spangled all over with glistening tin sel, which makes him appear as If he were covered with sparks.
 Many of the more beautiful toys were made by the Eskimos. During the long Arctic nights these wonderful little peo- ple carve from the tusks of the walrus. figures of every conceivable shape and design. Often entire villages are made, the huts, bidarkees tor canoes). and dog sedges being in perfect miniature. The long sledge shown in the picture is from Labrador It is a fine specimen of na- tive workmanship. The dogs are cut out of fine-grained white wood, and are most natural in their attitudes. The toy-mak- CTS of Nuremberg or of Switzerland could not have done more sklful work. The art of these Arctic folk is the more wonderful when one considers the very primitive tools which they have to use. The knife with which they carve the dainty little figures is seldom more than a bit of steel barrel-hoop. ground down to an edge, and dashed with thongs of walrus hide to a handle of bone or drift wood.
 inc toys of the Zuni Indians are mod elad in clay and baked to prevent them from crumbling. Cows, goats and frogs, hold the first place in this collection, but there are also clay whistles and bird warblers the latter quite like the tin ones seen in our shop windows. The bird Is made to sing by filling its hollow body with water and blowing through a tube inserted in its back. There are also clay rattles of various shapes and sizes in the Zuni exhibit, and wooden birds that flap their jointed wings like those we hang upon our Christmas tree.
 Indian and Persian Games.
 In the collection of games there are a great many objects interesting either for the oddity of their shape, curious opera tion or beauty of workmanship. One novel game consists of four pieces of bone attached by a bead string to long steel bodkin. The bodkin is held in one hand and the bones tossed up into the air. A skillful player may succeed in catching one or more of the bones upon the steel point, and scores accordingly. This game is a favorte with the Chey- enne Indians, and is not unlike our own game of "cup-and-ball."
 A card game from Persia, valued at many hundreds of dollars, has its board inlaid in solid gold; and a set of chess men from India are of beautifully carV- ed ivory, each man being at least four Inches in height.
 Another curious game, from which our jack straWs" is probably descended, con sists of a bundle of arrows of carved ivory or wood. It was an ancient custom l to toss these arrows into the air, and after they fell to the ground they were | drawn out by the men grouped around nd ia