The Indianapolis times., 1935-10-22
Inventor OF
Toys Avoids
Exploitation
Desire to Bring Happi-
ness to Needy Children
Comes First.

New York-May Jean Robins,
dark haired serious, not yet out of
her twenties, has invented num-
Der of toys that children adore and
dozens of manufacturers Clamor TO
promote But Mary Jean won't sell
the patents.
my toys were thought up for
children who can't afford to pay
much for toys and l refuse to let
them be exploited" she declares
firmly.
Children are both her avocation
and vocation. She is part owner
of a school for backward children
and she gives her services as direc-
tor of the Toyery of the HeckScher
Foundation, toy lending library
which, since Miss Robins took it
over, has jumped in monthly mem
berships from 100 to 705. The 705
are mainly children who are glad to
borrow the toys because in their
own homes they have none at all.
Miss Robins makes it point to
fit the right kind of toy to each
child and understanding watches
the enthusiasm and disappoint-
ments of boys and girls who each
week borrow different toys to take
home and pretend they are their
own.
Use Materials IngeniOusly
One result of this observation of
hers is that Miss Robins has started
the children making things for
themselves.
Little girls are taught to dress
dolls in clothes that later they may
make for themselves. Toyery dolls
wear practical skirts, blouses and
Jackets. Their hats are sensible, yet
smart; their coats are the kind little
girls really should wear to school,
With the materials they find on
the street or in their homes, many
members of the Toyery have made
toys as good as the "boughten" ones.
One child has a good-looking.
durable dolls chest of drawers that
was made from cigar box The
drawers are of cardboard and thumb
tacks serve for knobs.
A discarded pocket mirror is the
mirror and the whole was painted
by its maker. A dolls bed is COM
posed of cigar box and four clothes
pms. A box top, spools and thumb
tacks produced a marvelously realis-
tic looking Duncan Phyre table.
A dolls weaving loom was made
of the kind of tongue depressors
that the doctor holds down your
tongue with to make you say
"Ah-h."
Toys Teach
Miss Robins own toys are some-
what on the educational side. To
teach children to learn to button.
she has constructed a duck with
bright green pants whose legs are
buttoned onto his body.
A gay pelican in a red Jacket has
wings and feet that button on and
enormous seven-league boots that
must be laced.
Ihe self-checking multiplication
table is done on the picture puzzle
idea. The problems are set out on
a wooden board and the answers are
bits of board with jagged edges.
Each answer will fit only into one
space. So that if you have the
problem, 2x2, the jagged piece with
on it is the only one that will
go into that particular answer
space
The Toyery children helped Miss
Robins with suggestions for her
block SET which will make up into
neutrality-suspicious., boats, build
lngs. The inventor made paper
models and sent them to a wood
turning mill which copied them in
wood
Borrowers Are Careful
Miss Robins has found that the
child borrowers of toys are much
more careful with them than most
adults are with borrowed treasures.
Recently boy returned a toy that
was different from the one his little
brother had taken out. 1t developed
that his brother had broken the
borrowed toy and they were giving
the only toy they owned to re-
place it.
Every city with heart should
have a toyery," Miss Robins de-
clares. "It costs little. You can
start it with lots of dolls and tea
sets for little girls; balls, bats, mar
bles and books for boys.
TO the normal child, playing is
a serious business. He has a def
mite purpose in mind and usually
wants to accomplish it by himself.
Parents, watching, should not be-
come too sympathetic, for a great
deal of help interferes with a childs
plans, spoils his fun and may make
him too dependent. That is, unless
the child is as ingenius as the small
boy who wistfully watched his ia
ther lay tracks for the little boys
own dearly beloved electric train
and finally said in coaxing voice:
Daddy, if you let me have my
train right now, I'll buy you one
inst like If for x,O1,r