The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1908-12-23
All About Dolls.


origin OF dolls They will be surprised to learn
that they have amused the world for ages that
they to have been we'll known in the days OF
Pharaoh; that they may not have been unknown
to Moses when rescued from his cradle OF bull
PUSHES by Pharaohs daughter. In the tombs OF
ancient Egypt have been found figures of painted
wood of terra Gotta, of ivory, ami Of rags. whose
limbs made movable for the delight evil
IDENTIFY OF the children.
In the tombs of Etrura similar toys have been
discovered They have been found in the East.
and in China. we'll in Indiana. From time
immemorial, movable figures have been made to
act by hand and on strings or as shadows be
hind curtain.
The ancient Greeks We're experts in the manu-
facture of puppets including wax dolls Several
of their poets allude to the Offering of dolls to
Artemis, and Amphrodite. by maidens before their
marriage. Many pictures of dolls have been found
proving that the little girls of ancient days had
the same motherly instinct as have our little girls
of the present day and generation, and that no
pains We're spared by their parents to minister
to their pleasure.
These puppets originally intended to please the
children ended in becoming diversion for adults
not beyond belief in this day of the Teddy
Bear craze, when grown young may be
any day, walking, automobng driving
with miniature imitation bear clasped in her
arms. In the middle ages "Puppet Shows" became
a favorite diversion for 'grown-ups,'' arriving at
such perfection in the XVI century that their
performance rivaled in attraction those of living
actors.
In England these shows became exceedingly
The stages We're furnished with set scene. wings
and sky borders, and the performance took place
by lamplight. Powell the first 10 bring these
puppet shows to perfection. would take his place
wand in hand when the curtain rose and like the
chorus of the Greek play would Illustrate the
performance: something after the fashion OF the
man of tine present day who attempts to tell the
story of the moving pictures which general
rule, move too fast for him. These shows We're
not uninterestng, for even at the present time
a performance of marionetes Punch and
Ind clnuy will ,-.i,n,
1t is not established exactly when dolls made
their appearance is this country They may have
come over in the Maytlower. since that good ship
sailed from Dutch port. and the Dutch children
have had for centuries the best dolls that the
world affords. And yet. austere We're the Puri-
tans that it is doubtful whether their children in
Obliged in any such vain amusemens. particularly
since they may have construed the manufacture
of dolls a violation of the third commandment.
1T So these puritan Fathers failed to leave
their impress upon the succeeding generations for
millions of dolls are brought to amuse
their descendants, and millions of other dolls are
manufactured in our own workshops.
OF the early dolls, it is however known that
of them found their way to Pennsylvania
and in Colonial Virginia. it was the dolls that set
the fashions for our great grandmother's gowns.
'l1ow SOP you ask.
In those days there were magazines such as
we have these days; journals of fashion,
fashion plates that dolls in their imported
TUNES, with trunks full of toiettes served to show
not only the modish fashion and cut, but the
ColoiS IldteIldlS III VOGUE III tle European
capitals. From this it will be seen that these
miniature women played no unimportant part be-
fore they were handed down to become the play
things OF little girls 1t is quite likely that the
magnificent gown of the first lady of the White
House, Martha Washington, fashioned after
the superb costume by French doll, whose
hair also set the fashion of the Couture of the
First Presidents wife
In this way the manufacture of dolls
brought by the French to the highest point of per
lection, and to the president day the French
'poupee" maintains its superiority in the doll