Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-01-30
PAINTINGS OF UNCLE SAM.
The Curious Collection Of Toys to be
Seen in the National Museum.

The Curious Collection of Toys to be
Seen in the National Museum.
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 National Mu-
scum at Washington, where they may
be seen by hundreds, nicely arranged
and labeled, in the exhibition hall. But
on the balcony in the west erd of the
big building is the real Santa Claus
shop. Like the spiders parlor in the
nursery song, the way to this wonder
land is up a winding STAIR"
On each side of the long balcony 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 every
thing relating to ethnology is sorted
and catalogued for exhibition. Eth
nology is the science which tells us of
human races in their progress from
savagery to civilization-how people
in all parts of the world live, of the
things they use in everyday life, and
how they use them.
The toys and games in Uncle Sam s
collection have been gathered, by his
agents, from every known country.
Many of them are rare and costly, and
beautifully made. but the most inter
esting and unusual are the product
of uncivilized hands. Some are
gorgeously colored and decorated with
beads an shells, while others are
grimy an pitifully mean; but they
have each brought their measure of
joy to some childish heart some
where.
OF dolls alone there are enough to
give any little reader a new one every
day until she becomes too old to care
longer for them! Ivory babies from
Alaska, dressed in little coats of deer
fur to protect them from an Arctic
winter; South Sea Island puppets with
scarcely any clothes at all; Indian
papooses decked with beads and buck
skin; pink-cheeked waxen beauties
from Paris; almond-eyed Japanese in
red kimmonos; black wooden images
from the Kongo, and various other
dolls fashioned from clothespins, 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 bigger than your thumb,
but the clothing is made with the
greatest care from the softest sealskin,
trimmed with beads and 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
we'll dressed. even to their mittens, skin
caps with earfaps, and their perfectly
correct snowdrops. Then there are
the dolls of the Zuni and the Moqui
Indians Of Arizona and New Mexico
These are a brilliant and cheerful
gathering and occupy drawer all to
themselves. Some are made of wood
and others 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
braids, with feathers and red flannels.
Many of the more beautiful toys
were made by the Eskimos. During the
LONG Arnfin f,,1
little people carve. from the tusks
of the walrus, figures of every con-
ceivable shape and design. Often en-
tire villages are made, the huts,
bidarkees Cor canoes) and, dog sledges
being in perfect miniature. The dogs
are cut of fine-grained white wood,
and are most natural in their at
titudes. The toy makers of Nurem-
berg or of Switzerland could not have
done more skillful work. The art of
these Arctic folk is the more wonder
full when one considers the very print
tive 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 handle of
bone or drift wood.
The toys of the Zuni Indians are
modelled in clay and baked to prevent
them from crumbling. Cows, goats
and dogs, streaked and spotted with
paint. hold the first place in this col
lection, but there are also clay
whistles and bird warblers, the latter