Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1906-12-26
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Doll Hospital
By J. A. EDGERTON

copyright, 1906. by J. A. Edgerton.l
@HE world is full of hospitals. not
only for disease racked and
wrecked human beings. but for
dogs, horses, birds and-dolls. And why
not? Dolls have ailments as well as
other folks-in fact. rather more SO
They lose their hair, their eyes. their
teeth, their hands, their legs. their saw
dust and even their compilations and
heads. Small boys delight in Gripping
and manning them, rockers smash
them, big folks step on them. This
Ia hard world for dolls.
So the doll hospitals flourish. Most
large cities support one. Doll surgery
has become a science. The poor things
do not have to take medicine. fortu-
nately, except paint applied externally
and sawdust internally. so that phar-
macopoeia is not required in doll doc
toring. The operations are all surgical
But for all that the doll doctors are en-
titled to place NJ. ID. after their names,
NJ. ID. standing for member of dolls.
Ii is quite grewsome sight IL the
wards and operating room of the hos
pital Itself. There heads. arms, legs,
eyes and trunks lie about In startling
array. Most of the heads are minus
hair and have great holes In the tops
or them. Arms or legs are hanging
literally by thread Noses are brok-
EN-. hands are minus, feet have been
amputated, faces are D.ashed in, while
the internal machinery that makes the
doll cry, say mamma" and open and
shut its eyes is out of whack as badly
as some peoples livers. The wax,
china and papier mache babies have
never developed appendicitis as yet, or
stomach ache, but they are subject to
almost every other i'll.
The doll hospital is great boon to
the little mothers. They come at all
hours of the day, bringing their ailng
darlings, or. IL they live too far away.
they send dolly by express or mes-
senger, with cramped and pathetic
notes. One little girl had let her
precious fall downstairs and break its
leg. another had been listening to a
hand organ on the street, and her broth
er, who was playing that he was Chi
nese emperor and was executing some
of his subjects, just to keep in practice.
had cut dolly's head off with a fire.
shovel. Still another small miss of
seven had kissed the nose off Me-
hitable Jane-dolls usually have long
names. you know--and would the doc
tors please fix IL? They would.
On the work table at the hospital are
kinds of wigs. paints. threads and
cords, miniature teeth, tiny curling
irons, pastes and CLUES. hooks and scis-
sors of many shapes and sizes and even
an appalling assortment OF glass eyes
or various colors and sizes. The eyes,
which open and shut with weight
are placed in position through the open.
ing i'm the head. A few stitches serve
TO mend loose arm or Lee. while hooks
and cords are usually required to tix
fractured joint. The paint brush
touches up faded complexion, as is
the case even with flesh and blood
grown folks.
There are almond eyed Chinese dolls
with faded yellow compilations and
long cues, Indians with feathers
missing from their war bonnets, plcka-
ninny dolls with moth eaten wool and
angel faced cherubs with a battered
appearance that makes them look as III
they had been i'm a Bowery scrfmmage.
But surgery does miracles, and this
particular branch of il performs even
greater wonders than that in the sure
enough hospitals. 1t makes bodily
members grow on where none had been
before, and before its marvellous pow
ers even decapitation Is not fatal.