Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1904-02-06
TOYS FROM GERMANY.
This 10 the Time When They Pour Into
the UniteS States.

inc Ontter states.
New York Sun: From September to the
end OF this month Is the time when the
larger part of the toys we buy from Ger
many reach our ports. Most of them
come to New York and are distributed by
the wholesale houses to jobbers and re-
tailers all over the country. Germany is
the largest manufacturer Of cheap toys.
Fully $4,000 persons give all their time TO
this industry. Enormous quantities are
consumed at home, and the empire ex-
ports gimcracks to the value OF over 3d.
100000 annually.
Most of the raw materials used In the
Industry are produced In Germany. The
one product that has more to do with its
development than any other Is the wood
grown In the forests Of Bavaria, Thur.
ingia and the Erzgebirge, which is espe.
cially suitable for toymaking. Two cities
are famous all over the world as the
greatest ~centers of this production. They
are Nuremberg In Bavaria. and Sonneberg,
near the Thuringian forest, In the little
principally OF M%einingen. The country
hamlets surrounding these cities are al
most wholly associated with the industry.
Fully four-fifths of all the toys exported
from Germany come from Nuremberg and
Stonneberg.
Germany's largest foreign customer for
toys is Great Britain, and we are not far
behind Last year we imported German
toys to the value of 50, 707, S02, and the i'm
ports OF the United States and Great Brit
ain amounted TO nearly t~hree-fourths Of
the German foreign sales. There are i'm
portant differences between the products
Of Nuremberg and Sonneberg, due to the
different. materials used. Sonneberg and
the towns around 1t produce goods chiefly
made of wood and papier mache. Hun
dreds Of skilled wood carvers and cabi-
netmakers are employed in the small viii
lagos around Sonneberg. In Hammern,
for example, toy ships. large and small,
are carved by persons who have never
seen a sea or wen a nav.gable river.
Hobby horses are the chief product OF
Eisfeld. Most Of the wooden guns are
made I'm Schalkau and Ehnet. Other
towns produce rattlcs, wagons, trumpets,
whistles and Noah's arks in great guam
titles. The little village of Neufang ar
rays animals and fowls in fitting furs and
feathers. At least twenty villages clus-
tered around Sonneberg contribute to her
toy industries. Hundreds OF women and
girls in Sonneberg devote themselves en-
tirely to the making of clothing for dolls,
which hat city produces in endless va
riety at prices all the way from 10 cents
a dozen to SO each. S%onneberg dolls, made
chiefly of papier mache, are gradually
pushing wax dolls out Of the market, as
they are not fragile In structure nor sem
SillNt 10 lOuCI anu CllHldit, WHICH arc lilG
objections raised to the wax products.
While Soneberg uses almost exclusively
wood, paper, porcelain and glass, working
them up into handmade toys in the homes
OF the operatives, Nuremberg uses prirci-
pally tin and other metals, turning out tin
soldiers, swords, railroad trains. fleets,
models of machinery, etc. made in factor
les equipped with all modern appliances.
The result is hat far fewer persons are
employed in the Nuremberg industry, fo'
manual labor is to a great extent sup
planted by machinery. Only about 1900
persons are employed in Nuremberg and
her sister town Fucrth. but their factory
product is Nuremberg beats
the world in the production Of tin toys.
Another center Of industry Is the Erzge-
birge in SaXony, where the business Is re-
markable for the perfection of some OF its
branches. Vast forests provide the home
industry with the necessary raw material.
Each village has its speciality. In Seifen,
for example, little animals are turned out
from wooden rings on the lathe so admir-
ably that only a few finishing touches
from the carver are required. The goods
are of fine quality and remarkably cheap,
owing to the clever process of production.