The Parker post., 1918-11-09
EMBLEMs OF DEATH FOR TOYS


Toys! For whom? For the inno-
cents carried down when the "Lusi-
tania' sank? For those tear-eyec
Belgian children who stretch forth
little arms from which the hands
were struck off by the swords OF
German officers? For those French
boys and girls with pitiful sightless
eyes? For those little bodies resting
in the churchyards of Italy, that died
in pain from poisoned Hun candy?
For those children slowly starved to
death in Poland or massacred in Ar
menia?
Toys? Toys made by Huns to whom
innocence and childhood are but toys
to be played with and then crushed
and broken? Toys whose very contact
contaminates and leaves upon the
touch of babyhood invisible clots Of.
blood? AS well bring a deadly ser
pent into the home to spew it's venom
on the cradle Why shall we befoul
and taint the purity of American
childhood with a reminder of the
fiendish treatment the Huns have
gloried in ever since that fateful
August of 1914? Can one even look
upon a Noah's Ark made in Ger
many and put from his mind those
hundreds of helpless innocents whose
silken locks are twined with sea-
weed ?Can one hold German doll in
her arms and forget the thousands
dead from famine who once made
glad a mothers arms? Can boy
find delight in the contDrtions of a.
mechanical Hun clown and forget
those brave young men who writhed
in agony when crucified on castle
walls by these same Huns? Can ball
colored with the red of Huns fail to
suggest the flame from bursting
grenades hurled by arms luplifted in
the attitude of ''kamerad?"
Let those who would invite fear
some ghosts into the home to hover
around the Christmas tree buy Ger
man toys. If one would hang the
boughs with evil omens, and bid the
wall of agon1zed spirits float through
the branches and fan the Pickering
flame of candles, let him buy German
toys. Let those who can, make mer-
ry with the product of those very
hands which even at this mo-
ment are eagerly firing shells with
poison gases and deadly flames and
hurting them against our own flesh
and blood.
And what of the merchant who
for sordid gain would barter these
souvenirs of loathsome nation and
insult the loyalty of lisping lips?
What could more delight the cunning
Hun, what more quickly bring the
sneering smile to cruel faces, or
gladden. heartless hearts, or encour-
age him to hope that even now we
tolerate his brutality and welcome
what he wants to sell? If now, when
as nation we are in universal con-
demnatiOn of Hunism, yet do we hold
out our hands to accept his works?
What will he think and with what
measure shall he estimate the SINGER
ity of our expressions of repugnance
and horror at what he has done since
the sun rose this morning? What
mitigation can we claim in the
thought that America was not yet
overseas when these trinksts were
fashioned? Even while the gaudy
paint was yet fresh upon these trim
kets were Belgian girls being drag
ged into slavery worse than death.
We do not lack for toys; toys made
in American factories, by hands
which are clean; toys also by car
loads made by our ally in Japan,
where childhood is sacred, and love,
not hate,is taught at mothers breasts
Even were there none, far better our
boys and girls should go without
than find pleasure in the handiwork
OF nation which made a public
holiday to celebrate the loss of the
'Lusitania," and which in these lat
ter days is stepped i'm the glory of
monstrosities. Could our little men
who sacrifice many childish pleas
ure to buy war stamps and contribute
pennies to the Red Cross, and our
little mothers who knit so patiently
with hands that can barely hold the
needles, would one of these know
ly find pleasure in any toy made in