The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-12-20

Make You think the Storm has covered al
the broad financial sky;
You would see the sun still shinin' 4
you'd just poke out your head;
stop a-count1n' up your losses; count you
b!essin's up instead;
trouble finds the man who falters sooner
1 imam the man who fights;
quit y9ur take talk of coming panics; help a
Let a little cheerful confidence, not grumb
| - I'm be your plan,
NOW to save the situation
/ say are you the man?
| Springfield Union
/ Where Toys Come From
Any one looking at the store win
dows would know that Christmas and
the holiday season were approaching.
That which attracts the most atten-
ton probably in all the displays is the
wonderful assortment of gifts in the
shape of toys.
A retired dealer observes that
America is getting to be more and
more toy market each year, and
tnat the industry is gaining very rap
ldly Th1s is undoubtedly true. In
deed, public approval of the manufac-
ture of toys was foreseen over 200
years ago, when the first patented toy
was invented abroad.
1t is known that in New England
and especially in Massachusetts,, the
manufacture of educational and me-
ably Of late years, but the bulk of the
toys that amuse the children so much
come from Germany and Switzerland.
Germany still counts the manufac-
ture of toys as one of her greatest in
dustries. She sends at least three
fourths of the toys she manufa ctures
to other lands, the United States pur-
chasing the most, and Great Britain
valued at over $22,00O,000 the United
States purchases nearly 100000
worth.
In the Saxon Ore mountains wood
en-, in the Thuringian mountains
leather, and in Nuremberg metal toys
er sections there is a contribution of
other types.
Germany has forged to the front as
producer of toys because thousands
of families are engaged in the making
of them at home. The little town Of
Sonneberg produces As per cent of all
the toys that come to America A
population of 5000 in this town and
nearby hamlets devotes most Of the
year to the making of toys, principal
ly by hand labor, although there are
some factories which have achieved
a high reputation for their products.
The wages paid all workers in Ger
many are extremely low. A whole
family constructing toy dolls may not
receive over SO a week for their la
Dor. In fact, the percentage of wo-
men workers in all callings there has
rapidly increased of late years, owing
quired in the army. 1t is estimated
there are more than 100000 Ger
man WON en--whos earn their own Iiv-
ing, and this is an increase of more
than 100000 in the last dozen years.
The toymakers get mere pittance
for their work, and all the working
women in the empire labor for very
small pay. Wages in the factories are
slightly higher than in the home in |
dustries. !
During the first half of the last cen
tury Young Americas toy supply |
came from across the water. Ger |
many even then supplied the larger
part and Japan also a share. About |
1850, however, several toy shops start |
ed in small way In the United States, I
and Yankee ingenuity has since added |
this country to the toymakers of the |
world America then being forest |
wooden toys of grades which could be
turned out by machinery. In the
of these wooden toys the |
United States had an advantage, as
Europe had but little wood and work |
sd mostly by hand, while America had |
an abundance of wood and her inven-
.ors were always perfecting machines
TO do the work.
The principal advantage of the |
American wooden-toy manufacturers
was in the wonderful woodworking
certain patented forms of
which even the Germans have found
necessary to buy in order to keep |
abreast of American rivals. Mechan-
cal toys have also f1ourished in the
United States. The field, however,
g wide. and should be covered better
oy Americans.-Boston Globe. /
Penny on Pacific Coast.
"Our merchants and the public gen.
orally have about come to the re-
uctant conclusion that the penny is
getting fastened on the business sys
EN- of the coast said A. G. Ross, a
prominent merchant of Seattle.
"For many years we despised the
miserable copper coins on the Pacific
coast and would have nothing to do
With them. Even now the old timers
;corn anything less than a nickel, but
many people from the east have set
led in Seattle and sister towns, and
hey brought with them the notions
IF their sections where pennies have
ong been in vogue, and where people
insist on having the exact change that
s coming to them. Some of our larg-
EST wholesale houses have already got
IN the penny basis, while others say
hey may adopt it later. One objection
S that it would mean additional work
or clerks and an entire change in
ash registers, for hardly any of these
machines on the coast are made to
'ecord pennies.
Penny savings banks have been
chimes, which a few years ago were
'arity are now common. At first
when I tried using pennies in my own
place MANY of NV customers would