Evening star., 1934-12-17
TOYS ARE MIRRORS
Of CURRENT LIFE.
Stream1ine Trains, Autos
{ and Planes Demanded
sFF
: by 1884 Child.

playthings which reflect the trend OF
the times.
"Toys, most Of them miniature
images of actual articles used in the
adult world, have mirrored current
life all through the ages" says bull
letin from the headquarters Of the
National Geographic Society. "The
Egyptian child was content with a
crude figure whose arms moved, sup
posedly to knead bread. The 1884
child demands sleek trains, tricycles
with inverted V-shaped handlebars,
and even roller skates with wheels
protected by streamline tenders.
. Egyptians Used Rag Dolls.
""Toy washboards and wooden tubs
were popular not long ago. Today,
la0ndry- minded little girls demand
miniature electric washing machines.
Small Egyptians cuddled the first rag
dolls-rough shapes of linen stuffed
with papyrus grown on the Nile banks.
nothing less than lifelike reproduc-
tiQns of quintuplets satisfy little
mothers today Even educational toys
have gone modern. Blocks have win
fingers may build apartment houses.
Steel construction sets duplicate the
bridges, engines, looms and other me-
chanical wonders of the age.
ITO determine what types of toys
are preferred by children, and to evolve
new ones, toy makers meet annually
In. New York, Leipzig and other toy
centers. Very young children, it has
been found, prefer simple, bright red
toys. School children show a pref
erence for blue ones. Toy makers
must constantly invent new toys, dress
ola ones in new disguises or pack
them in different cartons to attract
buyers. Although few toys, except
staples, are popular longer than five
years, some, after lapse in popularity,
stage a comeback. An outstanding
example Is the revival of ping pong.
ITO be in demand, toys should be
educational, full of action, or dupli-
Gates of large articles. Most toys used
through the ages fall into one of these
three categories.
Gard Games Modernized.
"Todays educational toys, such as
A B c blocks, bead-counttng racks,
map games and Authors find their
prototypes in the playing cards of
France and Italy produced in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
which were designed to teach children
heraldry, history and geography. Lon
don children of that period received
card games teaching them rules of
grammar, arithmetic or religion.
rSuch toys are usually bought by
adults. If left to themselves children
select different kinds. Noisy toys,
such as drums, whistles and rattles, are
among the most treasured playthings
all over the world. Children in an
cient Athens rolled hoops to which
were attached jangling metal disks.
Young Japan and India beat drums
and shake tambourines. The Lapp
mother hangs silver bells on the hood
of. her baby's cradle. -
The urge to ride or drive, push or
pull articles or other children around
in wagons, is strong in children. Just
as the modern youngSter pedals up
and down the sidewalk in miniature
airplane, so early Greek boys delighted
in dragging along their two-wheeled
clay carts, and the son Of the first
Napoleon enjoyed riding In his tiny
carriage drawn by white lambs.
Action Toys Favored.
"Toys of action are always favorites
Egyptian boys threw balls of reed,
leather or wood. Young Athenians
had swings, whipping tops and threw
knucklebones, similar to our jack
stones. Roman children also spun
tops and caught balls stuffed with
feathers or fig seeds. Children who
are pleased with celluloid pinwheels
now would probably have gone into
ecstasy over the pearl-studded, gold
toy windmill given in 1880 to Isabella
Of Bavaria.
1.-THE recent Yo-Yo craze and the
jigsaw puzzle fad were duplicated in
the eighteenth century in France
when every one, man, woman or child
played with animated pasteboard fig
ures called Pantins.
Mechanical toys, which found theil
apotheosis in the toy nightingale oi
Andersen's fairy tales, are not new
The early Greeks had them. They
were favorites of Louis XIV, and broke
the monotony for women in the har-
ems of Arabia. In the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, when all
moving toys were extremely compli-
Gated, those of Nuremberg became
world-famous.
Bewildering Selection.
"The 1884 child chooses from a be.
wildering selection of talking dolls
music boxes, boats and engines that
run when wound up, toys worked by
the pouring of sand or water, planes
that fly by elastic and electric trains
speeding around circles of track.
MANY children, however, express
the sentiment that they don't want
TOYS that play with me- but toys
can play with One little girl, taker
through toy department by the pro-
pfietor and offered anything she Sc.
RAA n