Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-07-25
THE HOME OF WOODEN TOYS.
A District in tho Tyrol which Ia wholly
Given Over to Wood Carving.

| A District in tho Tyrol which Ia Wholly
Given Over to Wood Carving.
Two English girls have been telling
| rather an interesting story of life in
the Gordner valley in the Tyrol, which
| is the home of wooden toys and is lit
| orally given over to wood carving.
"Baedeker" says that ST. Ulrich, the
capital of the district. has 230O wood
| carvers and goo1 hotel. The Eng
lish girls corroborate the statement
and add that the place is we'll worth
a visit, although. in order to enjoy it,
one must stay there long enough to
tramp up and down hill. and make
| acquaintances in the little chalets
where everyone, old and young is
busy with some sort of wood carving
or toy making.
One lives in good society in ST.
Ulrich, SO it seems. Saints and he
roes of assorted sizes are ranged COM
fortably outside of the chalets and in
the gardens, drying their halos and
robes. ST. Peter ST. Paul, the Virgin
and Andreas Hofer, the Tyrolean hero,
hobnob on one corner; while st. An
thony of Padua, repeated five times,
dozes on a bench against the wall,
and ST. Florian. eight feet high, smiles
from the steps at St. Sebastian, trun-
died by in barrow.
Rows Of fresh and shining angels
are on every hand and look with be-
nign interest at whole squadrons of
splendid rocking horses that go romp-
ing around the grounds, and hundreds
of staring wooden dolls sit stiff1y upon
sunny shelves and envy the angels.
Crucifixes are scattered everywhere.
Noah's Ark animals stare, panic
stricken, at piles of wooden skulls.
Everywhere there is saving, ham
mering, chipping. painting. At the age
Of six the children begin to learn the
carving trade, and they stick at it un-
til they die. The most famous wom-
an carver in the district carves moth
ing but crucifixes and has done moth.
ing else for 20 years. All of her work
is ordered long in advance. and as
her prices. though low, are better than
those of most of the carvers she makes
fair living
She uses no model. That is true of
almost all of the workmen who have
learned their craft through long years
of experience When a carver has
evolved 500 st. Anthonys all of pat
tern, from tree trunks. he learns to
know his saint and has no need of
model. Very often a worker sticks
to some one figure and attempts moth
ing else. a method which opens up
awful vistas of monotony.
One family turns out brindled cows
by the gross. Another has for years
carved nothing but skulls and cross
bones. The English chronicler doesn't
tell what effect the gruesome monot-
cny has had upon the members of
the family. but the situation sounds
Maeterlinckian.
One woman makes tiny WOO len
dolls and each Of her children, even
the five-year-old. has some part in the
work One shapes the legs, another
paints the faces. another fits the parts
together. Six hundred dozen of the
dolls were stacked up against the wall
when the English visitors called; and,
for making the lot the workers ex-
pected to receive about 49,
In another cottage three genera
tions of a family were busy painting
wooden horses. and said proudly that
they could turn out 20 dozen a day.
None of the toys is sold at retail, all
being intended for the big wholesale
depots at st. Ulrich.
On Saturday every mountain path
is crowded with men. women and
children carrying the wares to the
iepots. A flood of saints. angels,
crucifixes and toys pours into the de-
pots all day long; and, in the evening,
the peasants turn homeward. ready
for another Wholesale creation week.
New York Sun.