Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-12-22

l touches before being equipped with utensils in miniature of the sort that srown-rps use in the culinary de- Dartment of the house. A peep in to Santa Claus kitchen factory would delight the heart of any lit tlc lady who likes to do things like ln.yther.
 Did you ever read a story which l told how it took regiments and reg iments all day to march past their king? Well, if all the pasteboard regiments turned out in the course of a year from Santa Claus biggest shop were to begin marching past You it would be days and days be- fore the last regiment passed by. Several scores of machines and over fifty men and women are employed in making these warriors and their weapons, such as cannon, and the funny little men-brownies, clowns, fat policemen, Pucks, minstrels and so on. If you stepped into the room where these toys are made and were ignorant of what took place therein you would probably say: What a big machine shop And that is just what this part of Santa Cluas' biggest shop looks like u,1,o ac1; cry is running.
 If you have asked Santa Claus to send you checker board this year and he sends you one, more than likely it will have been made in this biggest toy shop. For there he makes the majority of the checker boards that he carries around with him on Christmas eve. One de- partment of this shop is devoted eX clusively to checker boards. The scene is busy one, with the ma chimes cutting boards and card board into proper lengths; other machines mailing the boards togeth- CT; workers pastipg on the checker sheets; still others inspecting the boards; and lastly, yet again others wrapping and boxing the boards, ready for the great day. Some of the boards are hand made, even to the checker marks. These boards have leather covers and cost as ] much as $25 and $40 each. The covers of the cheaper boards are made on printing presses, running i day in and day out. The boards are then sent to an assistant whose duty its to inspect each ane care fully before it goes to the packing room. Santa does not put an i'm perfect board into his pack.
 Blocks by the Million.
 From the time that men first be- gan to work wood and stone into squares, blocks have been source of never-ending joy and instruction to the children One of the tn 'ngs Santa Claus pays particular atten- tion to in the biggest shop is the making of blocks. He has a saw mill for saving lumber into the cor rect size and shape and he machines that nail the sides of hollow block | together quicker than You could say Jack Robinson, Then when the blocks are nailed, they go to an as- sistant, who pastes sheets of pie lures on them, nine blocks to a sheet and four sheets to the nine blocks, to cover the four sides. Then an- other assistant trims the paper edges.
 Next the blocks are run through machine which Santa Claus built when good boys and girls became so numerous that he found it hard work to get the blocks made by hand. The machine presses the pie lures close to the wood. so that 1t is next to impossible for even very in- i i quisitive boys and girls to take the pictures off the blocks day or so after Christmas. There have been little boys and girls who forgot themselves and ate the pictures off the blocks and got very sick From the time work is begun on a block until it is packed in box for ship ment tnere are twelve processes and
 twelve of Santa Claus assistants have a hand in making each block
 Who Invents the Toys.
 And talking of toys the question naturally arises; Who invents all the new toys and devices for anus
 ing and entertaining the children?'
 The answer is interesting and may be summed up in one word:"Every-
 body
 slt is surprising" said toy man.