Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1904-06-02
MAKING TOY ELEPHANTS.

land. and it is rapidly becoming so in
this country. Fields already open, ex-
cept that Of homework, are oyercrowd-
ed. An Englishwoman, Lady Dallas,
some time ago introduced into Wap-
ping, one of east London's poverty
stricken districts, toymaking as a
means of livelihood. In Mapping ex-
list the under dogs in the fight the
sickly, the frail and the deformed
With the encouragement and oppor
tunity offered them through Lady Dali
las, numbers of the stranded ones in
Mapping developed talent and skill
that would never have been suspected.
One girl, so feeble that she could not
work in a factory and was unable to
sit still all day at a sewing machine,
became a real and literal dolls dress
maker. such as Dickens describes.
This dolls dressmaker is lame and un-
able to go out. But she makes a
world of beauty of her own in the ar
tistic. creations Of her brain just as
surely as the picture painter does. She
dresses expensive dolls that are bought
by the wealthy or sold at charity and
other fairs and has now more orders
than she can fill.
One woman of Mapping makes toy
elephants of cloth the color of the
real animal This one woman has
made such a speciality of her cloth ele-
plants. sewed and stuffed, that they
have a reputation and find ready sale.
With these and other toys made in the
same way the ingenious woman earns
a good living.
Another poor person in Mapping.
this one a man.. has developed a re
markable talent for carving out toy
S5olins which really will make music.
They are only for children, but the
children are so eager to get these
tiddIes which can be played upon that
the maker earns a considerable IN
come This man is an invalid from an
incurable disease.
Throughout the Mapping district
many people have become artistic cary
ers of wooden toys. This is a branch
of toynaking which is the most in
teresting and profitable Of all. Our
most artistic wooden toys come from
Germany and the TyroI. In the Tyroi
are some $500 woodcarvers, and quite
half Of them are women and girls. In
the winter, when work outdoors is i'm
possible, the Tyrolese sit by their fire
sides and cut into shape figures pretty
and grostesque Besides toys they
carve also small articles of furniture
and other things One woman for
twenty years has made nothing but
crucifixes and acquired such fame at
her trade that all her work is ordered
in advance. One family perhaps
makes only wooden dolls and another
horses. At the age of six the young
Tyrolese is put to work with knife,
saw and chisel, learning the fine art
of woodcarving. Much of the work is
painted. and the artisan must be skill
ed in colors.
Perhaps it is because the Tyrolese
wooden toys and bric-a-brac are made
at home in families and not in fac
tories that they are so artistic and in
diyidual. There is. certainly a sugges
ton here for American women and
girls. Few of our finest toys are made
in America. They are imported by the
million. The field Of making them is
here, and as yet comparatively untrod-
den. Many of our women understand
woodcarving, painting and modelling.
Others who are artists with needle
could also evolve something original in
the shape of toys. The French seize
on popular events, elections, social and
historic happenings. and people in the
public eye and reproduce them ii the
toy world MARY EDITH DAY.