The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-08
The Twilight OF the Dolfs.

The conventional doll baby is being
deposed in France by "A society woman
of great elegance. whose face is as oval
and delicate az her predecessors was
round and. chubby. Her slim, bejew-
elled. fingers have celluloid nails shaped
like almonds and carefully manicured.
Her eyes and lips are artistically touched
up Her hair, teeth and other fasci-
nations are in part detachable. She is
well provided with rouge, powder, per-
fume, paddings and every requisite Of
fashionable beauty"
In this country, also, a dolls house
revolution has occurred within the last
few years, and on the whole ours seems
the less ominous Of the two, for the Teddy
Bear, whatever his faults, is at all events
a natural animal. Yet. he excites grave
fears in some quarters and has even been
denounced by a minister Of religion as a
danger to the maternal instinct and an
encourager Of race suicide On the
other hand, a distinguished member OF
the French Academy, NJ. HENRI LAVE
DAN, moralizes on the innovation among
his young compatriots with tranquil
nonchalance. He does indeed admit
that a grandmother of his acquaintance
has been very much upset by it, and re-
ports her as e%xclaiming quantity: Alas,
my dear sir, there are no longer any
children, and now there are not even to
be dolls,' But NJ. LAvEDAN preserves
L.. ko1a-oo ~, that this admit
and adulterated usurper will long re-
main in power. He argues thus:
After the nrst establishment the children will
surely feel embarrassed by these nne ladies with
their airs Of callers How will they get any run
out OF thcm2 BY smashing themt They dare not
do n: n would be like assaultng their own mothers
or aunts. And how could they think Of nursing
them or putting them 10 bed! Besides, what are
they TO talk TO them about There would be no
sense In telling them fairy tales or the improving
kind Of story Once upon a time there was = little
girl as good as an image"
The ways Of young imagination are
obscure, however, and NJ. LAvEDAN's
scepticism seems sanguine rather than
convincing. An argument quite as for
chile might have been made up before
hand to prove the speedy downfall Of the
Teddy Bear.
The tendencies suggested by this in
stance of the French child toward the
a~rtifcially elegant, and of the American
toward untamed nature, are not dis
cordant with the historical circumstances
of the two countries. And if it excites
surprise that European children, who are
said to be less precocious than ours, seek
a playmate of more complex and less
juvenile character than a Teddy it
must be remembered that they perhaps
find a vast deal of novelty in "bossing" a
grownup.
For our youngsters that amusement
hardly retains the bloom of the untried,
and IL their taste in play seems less pro-
gressive the reason may be that they
are more advanced in life. At all events,
their choice in this case is undoubtedly
the more strenuous, and the instructive
spirit which leads the American babe
boldly TO take in hand, and when neces-
sary to lay across its little knees, in those
plays which are all preludes of real life,
the simulacrum of such a wild impulsed
and rampageous original az the Ursus
tbeodoricus, strikes us, in spite of the
minister's pessimism, as a distinctly
hopeful civic symptom.