Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-12-02
TOY TRADE
America Fast 0vertaking
Germany
For Supremacy in Manufacture
Of Toys.
Foreign Toys are Crude Compared
10 American Make.

"a miniature Noah'S Ark ARRIVES
;s n f,yorite headline in the neWSpa-
ners ar this time of the year. Inter-
nro+.d it means that a ship has come
to port loaded from stem to stern WIN
TOW animals from Germany. queer
things many Of them are. so gro
tesoue looking are the cows and the
horses and the soldiers sent to the
American child from Germany that
MANY a little man in kits and little
woman who can lisp the name of the
imported creation resents the appear
ance of the present as an insult to
budding American Intelligence. Wag-
ons that are like no conveyances ever
seen on American streets, fire engines
that resemble no flame extinguisher IA
miliar to American eyes, soldiers that
wear a uniform entirely foreign to the
American idea of the militant figure
and "Dutchy" combinations of figures
that are as little like the scenes this
side of the water as German village life
is like that of the United States cause
the American child to wonder i'll ms
infantile mind what curious planet
could possible be peopled by such
freaks.
All this is rapidly being changed.
American toys for American children
| is the new order of things. instead
| of the extra ordinary looking fire ap-
paratus that Germany has been send
| ing US for child'S toy, we now make
hook and ladder and fire engine toys
| true to the American pattern, and so
large and able bodied that they can
actually be used by older boys in ex-
81, Itch; mi fires The solid
wooden horse that we have been in
the habit of purchasing by the ship
| load from the Fatherland is now re-
placed by up-to-date toy horses of the
| American kind, with movable limbs
and so many improvements that they
can do almost anything but jump
fences. Instead of the ridiculous toy
farm that has been coming to us from
abroad. with milkwomen wearing
wooden shoes and impossible hired
men in outlandish costumes, we now
have combinations of toy figures that
resemble as closely as the art of the
American toy manufacturer can make
them the kind of thing that tempts
summer boarders to turn their backs
on the delights of the seashore and
travel inland for sylvan joys in rural
districts.
| Naturally the American toy maker
has given us that great source of de-
| light to the little men and women OF
this country, the toy circus. How
on earth could a German toy maker
be expected to give us miniature
American circus? If he ever saw one
it was only for fieeting hour when
| one of the American shows paid fly
| ing visit to his native town. To make
| a toy circus that would pass muster
with the critical boy and girl of this
| land the designer must have lived
through the period of boyhood or girl
hood in the land of the free and the
home of the circus. 1t is not to be
wondered at that with the toy circus
competing with the wooden village of
the German exporter the shiploads OF
toys from abroad are destined to be-
come smaller and fewer.
But the most remarkable thing about
| the rise of the toy industry in America
| is that we are actually shipping these
| playthings to Europe and cutting In on
] the trade of the German toy maker HIM
| self. This strange fact is explained by
| one of the toy exporters in this way:
| THE great trouble with the German
maker Of toys is that he is welded to his
models. For generations the toy trade
has been in the hands of the villager OF
| Germany Men, women and children have
had a hand in the making of the toys.
| The work has been handed down from
generation to generation but the stolid
| villaser has never entertained the idea
of changing his models. AS he was
taught by his father to make toys, SO he
has continued to make them, anG SO his
son and his daughter will continue to
make them. world without end. Ameri-
can children. like their fathers and mo-
| theirs, like change. The toys of the pre-
vious Christmas have lost their charm.
Toys of exactly the same appearance,
with only the added advantage of NOW
ness do not appeal to tn" exacting Ameri-
car child. He not only wants new toy,
but a new kind of toy. The astute Ameri-
can toy maker. gives it to him. He does
| what the American business man in every
line docs. he gives time to devising some
! thing new and original Result. the Ger
| man toy is passed over for the home
| made article, cast in Il newer mould. look
| ing like something that is familiar to
| American eyes, and last, but by no means
| least. made in u substantial manner.
| This last may seem a contradiction to
| the accepted idea, which is that solidness
| is d virtue that obtains abroad rather
| than in America, but in the matter of
toys we have the call on substantially.
| The reason is that the Germans are still
following their primitive methods in
| toy making. while Americans have in
vented machinery for making toys. ard so
have insured all the parts being uniform
and close fitting.
"'rhen, again, our toys are not nero
playthings for an hour. They are practi-
cal things. The imported boats. made by
villagers who never saw the sea will not
float. The yacht turns turtle as soon as
| the child tries it on one of Our lakes
| Our yachts are built to scale and are
made to sail. They are as accurately de-
| signed as a cup defender and are as trim
| iii their lines and as carefully fitted with
their sails as the model yachts of the
! clubs. Our supremacy In the sailing
world has created a demand for the
american toy yacht, and it is safe to say
| that in a few years or less the child who
sans toy boat on the lakes Of European
parks will be envied of his playmates il
ne can proudly point to his miniature
craft and say: Mine was made in Ameri-