The San Francisco call., 1909-12-25


grocery with shelves, scales,
cash register. counter slips and
packages of the real goods
The little grocer who owns this store
will have flour, sugar, beans, break
fast foods and many other staples all
done up in neat little packages. He
will weigh them out to the customers
of Toyland on his real scales, and put
the money in the cash register He
will send along with the packages
counter slip, by 3 inches in size,
with his own name and business
printed on the top like this: "Harrys
Stores. the Nursery Playland."
All the ills of the old fashioned
magic lantern, with the smoke, burned
fingers and hazy pictures, can be done
away with by the new refectoscope
which will sell for IS. The light is
supplied by attaching q wire cord to
an electric light fixture. With this
apparatus postcards of any color can
be highly ~magnified and thrown on
the screen.
The Wright brothers have not been
forgotten even in Toyland. A machine
modelled after their famous aeroplane
is suspended from the ceiling by a
cord When it is wound up it will
travel for some time in an ellipttcal
course through the aiLs ~ CdH oO pun
chased for 25 cents.
The cabriolette is one of the novel
ties but it is not within the reach of
many little boys and girls 1t is two
wheeled basket pony cart, with rubber
tired wheels and skin horse with
rubber tired wheel beneath. 1t
stands about two feet from the floor.
Children can have an entire menag-
erie, with duplicates of every animal
they saw in the circus, through the
ingenuity of the papier mache maker
this season. The animals come in
boxes of a Dozen with their legs fold
ed All the little trainers will have
to do is to open out the folded logs,
stand the animals on their feet, and
they have a wilderness of beasts, wild
and ferocious, ready at a moments
notice to perform any part that may
be assigned to them by the master of
ceremonies.
Drums. magic lanterns, tin swords.
popguns. engines run by alcohol and
all the familiar toys that have been
intimately associated with the child
hood of many now grown are again on
the market.
1t may be interesting to "grownups"
as well as the children to learn that
the bulk of toys which Santa Claus
handles each Christmas are made in
the United States. Where? In the
Kingdom of toyland--W Winchendon, Mass
From this town in Massachusetts, come
millions and millions of toys every
year to delight the hearts of children
more toys than from any other one
place in the world.
Every year an army of 10000 gayly
bedecked chargers prance from the
gates of toyland. There are from
600 900 to 900 900 drums sent out for
the 10y OF the youth OF America every
year-big drums, sheepskin heads, little
drums with metal heads, drums of all
colors, designs and noise capacity.
pine tree stands in Maine or Ver-
mont today-stands proudly, as though
defying time. Tomorrow it falls and
goes to Massachusetts. The next day
it comes out as a lot of little horses.
The factory is the medium of trans
formation. 1T is the magic land to
juvenile minds. 1t Is the single stop
ping place. between the forest, the
mines and the cattle which roam the
fields, and the shops which supply the
children Of the United States with their
piaythings. Hundreds OF men and boys
and girls work six days week 10
keep the children Of America in good
humor with toys. From October up to
the middle of December they are work
ing at top speed to supply the Christ
mas trade.
Perhaps in child's dreams there
comes a picture of some such realm
of happiness as the place of manufac-
ture. At the factory four acres of
floor space are given over entirely TO
the making of every sort of toy. That
is the extent of the big toy factory.
Dolls trunks bureaus rocking horess.
picture and alphabetical blocks dolls
houses, wagons. arks. washboards and
blaekboards eat up a small forest every
year. The WinchendOn factory uses in
the making of toys 100000 feet OF
pine, 1,OOO 900 feet of chestnut and