The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-27
WHERE TOYS ARE MADE.
SOnneberg Is the Real Home of San.
tn Claus.


Claus gets the immense stock of toys
with which he supplies the juvenile
world. Even inquiring elders, long
since deprived of the JOY of an implicit
faith in the existence of a patron saint
whose one aim is to cheer the chill
! dren, find themselves specializing on
| the origin of the millions of toys and
dolls, big and little, cheap and expen-
| sive, which line counters. fill shelves
and even overflow the streets.
Sonneberg is the real home of Santa
! Claus, the magic realm from which
| the jolly, white bearded old philanthIo-
| pist fills his ineXhaustible pack. LOcat-
| ed in Germany, in the heart of the
! Thuringian forest, stored region from
| which so many legends of giants,
! dwarfs and fairies have emanated, it
is the toy-making center of the world.
Here every year from January to
December all through the sultry days
! of July and August when Christmas
| is the thing farthest from the thoughts
! Of the rest of creation, $4,000 people
| are working like beavers to meet the
! great holiday rush. The town has no
| other industry, and the entire popula-
ton finds it's subsistence its sole source
! of revenue, in the manufacture of
! dolls and toys of all varieties. OF one
| kind of dolls alone 100000 are made
annually, and the total cash value of
| the Christmas trade to Sonneberg
| amounts TO over $6.000,000.
Home and Foreign Dolls.
The goods manufactured il Some
! berg consists of two general classes
those of the less expensive grades in
! tended for home consumption, and the
| more elaborate and valuable ones in
| tended for expectation to England,
France and the United States.
There are dolls with bisaue, china
and metal heads, dolls which can talk
and cry, walk unaided, and perform
almost all the functions of normal
| ly constituted child; toys of every
| conceivable size, shape and variety,
! soldiers, wagons, locomotives, ships,
! etc, music boxes, Christmas trees or
namentS and marVelously ingenious
| animals some of them life size and
| which by means of marvellous merchan-
ism can initiate with wonderful IL
deity the sounds of the animals they
are supposed to represent. The lambs
| bleat, the lions roar, the cats NEW,
| the dogs bark, the horses, neigh, and
the uninitiated visitor suddenly enter
ing one of these workroOms when the
artisans are fixing in each animal its
proper vocal cords might imagine ami
suddenly broken loose.
Toys for Civilized Countries.
Every civilized country in the world
receives it's quota of toys from Some
| berg, and this year even such far-off
| places as South Africa, India, Russia,
Australia and Egypt are included.
| Dolls will sell where the product of
| everything else but the bakeshOp goes
| begging. The natural instinct in the
| little girl is universal, and dolls of all
| toys are infinitely the most popular.
| The youthful maidens are patriotic,
however, and with a fine sense of con-
J sistency demand that their dolls be of
| the same color and nationality as
| themselves.
So, dainty French dolls arrayed in
the latest of Partisan styles, go to the
| youthful compatTiots of President
/ Loubet, the German, English and
| American baby mothers each have
their preferred type of beauty, colored
| babies are made for the little black
! damsels of South Africa, gayly decor
ated japanese dolls for living Japs,
| and almond eyed celestials for China
| land, which keeps out as many Occi-
! dental products as possible, but which
cannot stop the triumphant march OF
the all conquering doll.
A very interesting feature of the toy
| making industry in Sonneberg is the
fact that a considerable percentage of
| the doll making is done in the homes
of the inhabitants. Each family has
| it's particular share. In one house, the
| feet are made, in one adjoining, per-
| hans. the bodies After each family
| has made it's quota of parts, they are
| brought to the factory and the dolls
are put together. All work is paid for
by the piece, and as to hours these
| people are their own masters.
Simple as the doll appears in the
hands of its proud baby owner, it is
| like most simple seeming things, a very
| complicated organism. Many have a
| hand in the process of its formation.
| The arms and legs, for example, usually
made of papier mache or If china, are
| the work of one separate department
| which does nothing else, just as the
| trunks are the special feature OF an
| other The heads, at first mere hair
| less pates, as bare as the infanttle era
mum, are naturally the objects of es-
pecial care and neceSSitate the atten-
| ton of many different artisans. one
man paints the eyesbroWs another the
| lips, one dips the face into wax TO give
| it the likeness of flesh, and still others
attend to it's eyes-and the hair! Most
of the blonde dolls we see in this coun-
try owe their atractiVeneSS to their
nohair wigs the material for which is
| imported to Thurgingia from England.
This, however, is not all that goes to
the making of the really stylish Viola,
the kind that, because she is most
beautiful and dainty, can be the east
est scalped by the rough little broth
ers. If she is born in the purple she
must have glass eyes. These lustrous
orbs are carefully blown over gas as
hot as goes to the manufacture OF the
finest of Bohemian glass. They are
then connected by wire, and If the lady
is to be one that has the charming
ability to go to sleep, the wire is
weighted by n bit of lead.
If to all these graces there is to be
added a voice that can call for its
parents or otherwise articulate its woe,
a great deal more labor and cunning
is brought into play.
Toilets Elaborate.
In Sonneberg over 1000 women and
! girls act as dressmakers and attend
to the robing of the dolls. Some of the
| toilets are very elaborate and the pre-
! vailing styles must be just as carefully
! followed as if the costumes were de-
signed for reigning queens of society.
Somebody's toy making supremacy
| dates back to the beginning of the sew
enteenth century, and has been main
| tanned for nearly 300 Years.
Sonneberg citizens are very proud of
! the fact that it was in their town that
| jointed dolls were first made. Strange
| ly enough, it was from far-off China
that the idea first came, and although
| these Oriental dolls with the movable
! limbs strung together by cords drawn
| tbro,tub the Joints VOtlob nd