The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-06-26
IN A TYRoLESE VALLEY.
Where the Chief Output Is Toys
Made by the Peasants.

MaQe Dy Cne 1eaSdHtS.
From the New York Sun.
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 literally given over to wood carving.
"Baedeker'' says that st. Ulrich, the
capital of the district. has 2.3OO wood
carvers and good hotel The Eng
lish girls corroborate the statement
and add that the place Is we'll worth
visit, although. in order to enjoy 1t,
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. Ul-
rich so it seems. Saints and heroes
Of assorted sizes are ranged comfort
ably outside of the chalets and in the
gardents. drying their halos and
robes. st. Peter. St. Paul. the Virgin
and Andreas Hofer. the Tyrolean
hero, hobnob on one corner: while st.
Anthony of Padua, repeated five
times. dozes on bench against the
wall. ard st. Folrna, eight feet high.
smiles from the steps at st. Sebastian,
trundled by in barrow.
Rows of fresh and shining angels
are on every hand and look with be-
nign interest at whole SquadronS or
splendid rocking horses that go romp-
ing around the grounds: and hundreds
of staring wooden dolls sit stffly upon
sunny shelves and envy the angels.
Crucifxes are scattered everywhere.
In
stricken, at piles Of wooden skulls,
Everywhere there is saving, ham
merng, chipping, painting. At the
age of the children begin to learn
the carving trade and they stick at it
until they die. The most famous wo-
man carver in the district carves
nothing hut cruciflxes and has done
nothing else for twenty years All of
her work is ordered lone in advance:
and has her prices. though low, are
better than those of most of the car
yers she makes a fair living.
She uses no model. That is true of
almost all the workmen who have
learned their craft through long years
of experience. When carver has
evolved SOC st. Anthonys all of pat
tern, from tree trunks, he learns to
know his saint and has no need of a
model. Very often worker sticks to
some one figure and attempts nothing
else. a method which opens up awful
yistas of monotony.
one family turns cut hrindle COWS
by the gross. Another has for years
carved nothing hut skulls and cross
bones. The English chronicler doesn
tell what effect the erue some monot-
ony has had upon the members or the
family but the situation SOUNDS Mae
terlinckian.
One woman makes tiny wooden dolls
and each of her children. even the
five-year- old has some part in the
work. One shapes the legs, another
naints the faces, another fits the parts
together. Six hundred dozen of the
dolls were stacked up against the wall
when the English visitor called; and,
for making the lot, the workers eX-
nected, to receive about IS.
In another cottage three generations
o. a family We're busy painting wood
en- horses, and said proudly that they
could turn out twenty dozen a day.
None of The toys is sold at retail, all
being intended for the big wholesale
depots at st. Unich.
ON Saturday every mountain path
is crowded With men, women and
children carrying the wares To the
depots. 4 food OF SAINTS, angels,
crucifiXes and toys pours INTO tho
delots all day Ions, an@ in the even
ing. the PEASANTS turr homeward,
ready tor another wholesale creation
Mo-h.