The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-11
Massachusetts Town Rivals Nuremberg As
 the fToy City,

With Christmas now but two weeks away, the toy industry is assuming great importance, while the shops which handle playthings for the youngsters are thronged with pur- chasers. There is diminution in the quantity, quality or ingenuity of these articles for gladdening the hearts of the youngsters, although the war has resulted in a partial stop page of the great flood of toys which from Nuremberg, in Germany.
 Until the war broke out the quaint and medieval Bavarian city was the headquarters of Santa. Claus the great toy center of the world Within it's feudal walls and moat, lining it's mar row and crooked streets, were to be found the shops and factories which supplied St. Nicholas with the greater part of the contents of his capacious bag. Nearly every one of the old gabled houses of Nuremberg shelter ed families who depended upon the Christmas spirit for their livelihood. It was an appropriate town for the headquarters of the kindly, saint, for in nearly, all it's aspects it is reminis- cent of the long ago, and presents a faithful picture of a walled town of three or four centuries ago..
 Since the war, however, thousands of the cIeverest worknen of the Nur- emberg toy shops have marched away to the front, and the remnants of the once great industry have been largely in the hands of women and old men, This year the women workers of Nur- emberg have been permitted by the British government to dispose of a part of their product in the United States, and several shipIoads of Nur emberg toys and dolls have reached New York. The shipments from Ger many are but a drop in the bucket of Christmas joy,. however, and a conn paratively small proportion of the toys distributed by Santa Claus this year will bear the familiar mark, Made in Germany" In the Cana dian shops, of course, the Nuremberg products have entirely disappeared, and the youngsters of the Dominion will receive only toys made in Canada, the United States, Great Britain and France
 The toy industry in America has been given a great impetus by the war, and the Massa chusetts town of .Winchendon, the center of the indus try is now known as 1.-the American Nuremberg.'a The Bay State ."Toy Town's turns out fully one half of all the toys manufactured in North Am erica It is a picturesque village nest ling at the foot of Mount Monadnock, and, while not so medieval and quaint as Nuremberg, it is not at all lacking in these characteristics which one inn aginatively attri butes to Toy Town 7
 WInchendon was the cradle of the American toy industry, and it has always maintained it's preeminence. Practically the entire population of the town is dependent upon toys for a livelihood. While in Nuremberg the making of. toys is often an indi- viduaI and family industry, in Win chdndon the business is carried on entirely in the big factories on the. outskirts of the Village But they are not ordinary, dirty. forbiddingly ugly factories The architectures of the buildings is good, and each building is surrounded by flower gardens.
 The toymakers of Winchendon do not live in the hideous, squalid houses usually supplied to workngmen in factory towns The American Nurem- berg is a village of lovely white cot tages, each with its own little lawn and flower garden, and it's streets are lined with trees. While the toy ma-lx- CTS of 'WincheIidon are much better paid than those of Nuremberg, the output of the factories is profitably disposed of at prices little if any higher than the made in Germany products, owing tos more economical methods of manufacture.