Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-16

through the parchment before he got
around the block.
81 know the kid said the shopkeeper
| to me. when they had left. You'll see they
won't get home with that one. either
But you don't mean to say the man
will be fool enough to buy him a third
drum
"'Surer
and he was. Within quarter of an hour
| they came trailing back with a second
| smashed drum.
:" That's the last one you get, Johnny
| said the father, as he paid out his third
| quarter. But he said it In very uncon-
WINGED tone, and he turned to me and added
| alphabetically, It's Christmas you know.
| " Now, perhaps you can understand why
I order so many drums for this little shop.
remarked the shopkeeper to me after the
man left.
Il asked him whether he had many Gus
| toners like that man, and he said there
were quite few. He told me. too that
| toy retailers profit largely by the neglect
| of parents to consult with one another when
they are buying Christmas presents.
Tommy has long wanted a sledge. His
| mother comes down on Christmas eve and
| buys him one. Not knowing of this, the
| father looks in on his way home from the
| Office and buys another. Often they are
both sent home together Not many peo-
pie care to ask to have one of the articles
| changed, especially in the rush of business
| Oh Christmas eve Mother says they Will
| give one of the sledges to the washer
l
| tie down to the shop and buy something
else for Tommy
Women Workers III Santa's Shops.
Women are largely employed in this
business" said the manager, as he led the
way through the several departments OF
| his factory. ''At least third of the work
| ers are women. They are much better
| paid than they would be in most other
| lines of factory work-not because we are
| philanthropists, but because the work de-
mands an unusual degree Of skill and in
| telligence.
Yet there Is great difficulty in getting
| suitable workers. In Nuremberg and other
| toy-making centers of the continent all
| the worllmen and workwomen are highly
| skilled. They have been bred in the bust
ness. They made toys at an age when
more fortunate children are playing with
| them In most cases they come OF an an
| cestry of toymakers, and never dream of
being anything but toymakers. 1t is q
curious survival of the trade guild system
| of medieval Europe. The continental toy
| makers are clannish folk, and they rare
| ly leave home to better their position.
| There are plenty of good jobs waiting for
| them over here, if they cared to come.
| They would take rank as experts, heads
of departments and instructors.
I'VE have to take unskilled hands and
| teach them. You cannot hire expert toy
makers in this country in any considerable
| number. And we have to pay our unskil-
| ed, utterly ignorant workers much larger
| wages than the toymakers on the continent
! get. When they have learned the business
| they expect a great deal more, and they
| have to get It,
! '@Tke heads of departments, of course,
| are all experts, and great part of their
| time is taken up, not with their own proper
| work. but with the teaching of raw hands,
| There is an excellent field for labor in
| this business, and it seems to get little
| attention from people who are wondering
hot lTna of thAU will a lxa II
Some of the American manufacturers
| are just beginning to try to compete with
| the foreigners in the manufacture of the
| better and more expensive toys. The at
| tempt has not been particularly successful
| so far. We think we are insufficiently pro-
! tected by the tariff, but another powerful
reason, In my opinion, is the decidedly in
ferior quality of our labor, compared
with that available in Europe"
Highly Specialized Industry.
Toy making in America is highly spe-
cialized industry. The concern that makes
tin toys makes them only. Other factories
turn out wooden toys. others wax dolls
not many of which are made in America
and others, again. solid mechanical goods
of iron and steel. There is no firm which
turns out toys in general on the continental
plan. Neither has the trust idea been ap-
piled to the making of toys as yet Perhaps
| this is because 1t Is not one industry, but
whole group of industries, which have moth
ing In common except the fact that they
cater to the same market.
The principal center Of toy-maldng in the
United States Is in and around Boston,
where toy factories of all descriptions are
to be found There also factories in
Chicago, st. Louis. Pittsburg, Altoona, San
Francisco and other cities, besides New
York OF all these places none is a really
large industrial concern in the modern
American sense of the term.
The heavy wooden toys that we liked so
much in the days of our childhood have now
gone almost entirely out of fashion in the
United States, although they still have a
great vogue In England, where parents rel
ish them on account of their enduring quail
ties. The toy wheelbarrow Is almost the
only survivor here. and even that Is now
often made of iron. Toy trains, which used
to be clumsily made of wood, are now man
ufactured of steel in almost perfect copies
of the originals. to sell for the small sum of
% cents.
Fashions in Toys Come and Go.
when first went into the toy-making
business. about fifteen years ago. the condi-
tions were very different from those which
prevail today" said the head of a depart
| ment in the tin toy factory. 1.-THE young
sters then were far less exigent In their de-
mands than they are now. ThAy were