Toy soldier

“ This priceless gift to boyhood appeared somewhen towards the end of the last century, a gun capable of hitting a toy soldier nine times out of ten at a distance of nine yards. It has completely superseded all the spiral-spring and other makes of gun hitherto used in playroom warfare. These spring breechloaders are made in various sizes and patterns, but the one used in our game is that known in England as the four-point-seven gun. It fires a wooden cylinder about an inch long, and has a screw adjustment for elevation and depression. It is an altogether elegant weapon. ”

“ Toy soldiers brave and bold. 4Second Tin Soldier:
We’ve never been in battle but we’re very sure we’re brave
And in any time of danger we’ll be proud our land to save,
And you’ll always find us marching where our bonny flag shall wave,
Toy soldiers brave and bold. Third Tin Soldier:
We’re every one commanders—I give orders just to me
And all the others drill themselves as fine as fine can be.
We’re a most delightful army as you all can plainly see,
Toy soldiers brave and bold. If possible a simple military drill should be performed. They march to one side. From behind counter come books. ”

“ When the Toy Soldier went from the toy shop to live in Gregory’s house the little boy thought that he had never seen such a fine soldier in his life. He made him captain of all the soldier ninepins and guard of the toy train, and he took him to bed with him at night. Then, one day, James, who lived next door and was Gregory’s neighbor, came over to play with Gregory. ”

“ LITTLE BOY BLUE The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket molds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new
And the soldier was passing fair,
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there. ”

“ Toys are made for children's fun,
101 Very frail and quickly done,
And who keeps them long to view,
Bright of paint and good as new,
Robs himself and other boys
Of their swiftly passing joys.
So he looked upon a toy
When our soldier was a boy;
And somehow to-day we're glad
That the tokens of our lad
And the trinkets that we keep
Are a broken, battered heap.
Life itself is but a toy
Filled with duty and with joy ”

“ I’ve been on this toy counter so long I’m beginning to believe I shall always live here. But you–you have been out to see the world! You have had adventures!”
“Yes, I suppose you may say I have,” admitted the Bold Tin Soldier. “But though my men and I have a fine home with Arnold, still I get lonesome for you toys once in a while. I have met the Sawdust Doll, the White Rocking Horse, and the Lamb on Wheels. Now I am glad to meet you all once more. And how is my friend the Candy Rabbit?” the Captain asked, as he saw the long-eared chap standing near him. ”

“ So the toy was mended again, and was almost as good as before, and very glad the Captain was.
“For no matter what your men may say,” he thought to himself, “a Captain without a sword is like an elephant without a trunk–he doesn’t look himself.”
Thanking Patrick very much for what he had done in mending the toy, Arnold went home, taking his set of Soldiers with him. A little later his sister, Mirabell, followed, bringing with her the Lamb on Wheels. And when the two toys were left alone, the children having gone to supper, they talked together–did the Soldier and the Lamb. ”

“ Let me now say a little about toy soldiers and the world to which they belong. Toy soldiers used to be flat, small creatures in my own boyhood, in comparison with the magnificent beings one can buy to-day. There has been an enormous improvement in our national physique in this respect. Now they stand nearly two inches high and look you broadly in the face, and they have the movable arms and alert intelligence of scientifically exercised men. You get five of them mounted or nine afoot in a box for a small price. ”

“ I always used to like toy-soldiers. I never shall again."
"I should not like you to judge of all soldiers by the wooden ones I have told you of," said the Marionette. "We have had in the shop sets of wooden and tin soldiers of the highest character; gallant fellows, beloved and esteemed by all. ”

“ Times are hard and Christmas isn’t what it used to be.
[He goes out, locking door. A light is left burning for the night. A voice calls from back of counter which should be high to make toys seem small.]
Voice: Has he really gone?
Second Voice, from large box in corner. [It is the Teddy Bear.] Yes, I heard the door slam.
First Voice: Come on out, friends, he’s gone.
From behind counter come Tin Soldiers, marching in single file to tune of John Brown’s Body. They sing.
First Tin Soldier:
We’re brave toy soldiers dressed in uniforms so bright and new. ”

“ Every evening it is much the same thing. First, following close upon the heels of sunset, comes a grizzly, tall, and slouching man, in the cap and blouse of a Union soldier, bearing down with his left hand upon a cane, and dragging his left foot heavily behind him, while with his right hand he holds by a string a cluster of soaring toy balloons, and also drags, by its long wooden tongue, a rude child's cart, in which is a small hand-organ. ”

“ With his tin sword he began cutting little niches, or steps, in the wooden sides of the barrel. But as the wood was quite hard, and as the tin sword was not very sharp, it was not very easy work for the Captain.
As the afternoon passed, the other Soldiers in their box on a shelf in the playroom closet began to wonder what had become of their Captain.
“Some of us ought to go in search of him,” said the Sergeant.
“Yes, but we can’t go until after dark, when no one will see us moving about,” answered the Corporal. “That’s the worst of being a toy–we can not do as we please.” ”

“ The toy soldiers stand quite well on closely mown grass, but the long-range gun-fire becomes a little uncertain if there is any breeze. It gives a greater freedom of movement and allows the players to lie down more comfortably when firing, to increase, and even double, the moves of the indoor game. ”

“ But something had happened.
“I can’t get down!” the Clown exclaimed. “The string is twisted around my leg and caught on one of my cymbals! I can’t get loose to come down!” And that is what had happened.
“But still I will save him!” cried the Bold Tin Soldier. He looked around the toy counter and saw a sofa cushion that belonged to a large doll’s parlor set. “Quick!” shouted the Captain. “Put that cushion right under the Clown who is dangling by the string. Then when he falls he will not hurt himself. Over with the cushion!”
“But he can’t fall!” said the Jack in the Box. ”

“ A child, however, will have equal enjoyment by making a toy village out of blocks, stones, and twigs; he can make a miniature theater out of an old kennel that will satisfy him better than the brightly colored ones which can be bought, and he can play store, train, expressman with nothing more than some boxes and a cart. The larger skill and knowledge of the child gives more content to plays of an earlier period. He now invents and conducts elaborate sieges and defenses for his toy soldiers; he not merely plays with his pets, but he harnesses and drives them. ”

“ We got two forces of toy soldiers, set out a lumpish Encyclopaedic land upon the carpet, and began to play. We arranged to move in alternate moves: first one moved all his force and then the other; an infantry-man could move one foot at each move, a cavalry-man two, a gun two, and it might fire six shots; and if a man was moved up to touch another man, then we tossed up and decided which man was dead. So we made a game, which was not a good game, but which was very amusing once or twice. ”

“ The introduction of toy railway trains, moving, let us say, eight feet per move, upon toy rails, needs rules as to entraining and detraining and so forth, that will be quite easily worked out upon the model of boat embarkation here given. An engine or truck within the circle of destruction of a shell will be of course destroyed.
The toy soldiers used in this Kriegspiel should not be the large soldiers used in Little Wars. The British manufacturers who turn out these also make a smaller, cheaper type of man—the infantry about an inch high—which is better adapted to Kriegspiel purposes. ”

“ Those are therefore to be preferred the use of which develops the child's imagination, and with which he can be taught to amuse himself. For boys nothing can surpass blocks, toy soldiers, balls, engines, and cars; and for girls, dolls and housekeeping sets. The complicated mechanical toys now so much in vogue give only a momentary pleasure, and as soon as the wonder at their operation has worn off, they have lost interest for the child except that which he gets in breaking them to see how the thing worked. ”

“ If you want soldiers you must have children. You can't buy em in boxes, like toy soldiers. ”

“ From this instance, which is only one example of many, you will easily understand how the Wooden Soldiers came to be disliked in the toy-shop.
As for the fear they inspired, this was partly owing to the long swords they wore, and partly owing to the boasting way in which they vowed they could use them.
"My men and I really command the whole shop," said the Officer one day. "Moreover, who faces one, faces all, for we all march in the same direction. We not only have our good swords, but we know how to use them. ”

“ And, for a few moments, all that could be heard in Toy Town was the faint sound of the marching feet of the tin soldiers, the rumble of the Rocking Horse and the tinkle of the Calico Clown’s cymbals.
It was close to midnight now—the time [10] when all toys are allowed to do as they please, provided no one sees them. No one must ever look at, or watch, the toys at their play. In fact, no one has ever seen them having fun after dark in the big stores. ”

“ And the workman who made these toys was a funny little dwarf with a green suit and a red cap and a long white beard.
"This is the land of wonderful toys
That are made for good little girls and boys,
Talking dolls and horses that run,
Everything here is made for fun,
But only good little girls and boys
Can have our wonderful, beautiful toys."
"Heigh ho," said Mary Louise, "what next, I wonder," and she looked at a toy regiment of wooden soldiers marching down the street. ”

“ The two sides had already made friends again, and Leads and Woods were eating and drinking at the same tables, and talking in an eager way about the glorious fight they had had. That is the best of a toy army. When one side wins, the other side bears no malice, and of course the regiments that have fought each other today may very well be fighting on the same side tomorrow.
The ambulance corps had already finished its work inside the fort, and was on its way out to the soldiers still lying on the downs. ”

“ P'raps a box of wooden soldiers would be a more suitable toy for a boy, certainly.
[Pg 300]
The V. M. Soldiers, eh?—yes—but you see, it might turn out to be a girl after all—and then——
Salesw. I see, you want something that would do equally well for either. Here's a toy now. (She brings out a team of little tin swans on wheels.) You fix a stick in the end—so—and wheel it in front of you, and all the little swans go up and down. ”

“ Merry young misses drive their ribbon-decked hoops with special relish, and roguish boys spin their tops with equal zeal. Clouds of toy-balloons, of various colors and sizes, flash high above the heads of itinerant vendors, while the sparkling fountains throw up softly musical jets everywhere. Soldiers off duty, strolling idly about, dot the scene with their various uniforms, their shining helmets, and elaborate gold lace. The busy road-way is crowded by a thousand turnouts, drawn by high-stepping horses. ”

“ When a child plays with a doll or plaything, the toy is commonly made to represent in the child's mind some imaginary object which is more or less like it. Wooden soldiers, for instance, or the beasts in a Noah's ark, have a real resemblance which any one would recognise at once to soldiers and beasts, and all that the child has to do is to suppose them bigger, and alive, and to consider them as walking of themselves when they are pushed about. ”

“ Troops without any enemy within twenty feet could be returned to their boxes for facility in moving. Playing on such a scale would admit also of the introduction of the problem of provisions and supplies. Little toy Army Service waggons can be bought, and it could be ruled that troops must have one such waggon for every fifty men within at least six moves. Moreover, ammunition carts may be got, and it may be ruled that one must be within two moves of a gun before the latter can be fired. ”

“ When the night came all the other tin-soldiers went into their box, and the people of the house went to bed. Then the toys began to play at visiting, dancing, and fighting. The tin-soldiers rattled in their box, for they wanted to be out too, but they could not raise the lid. The nut-crackers played at leap-frog, and the slate-pencil ran about the slate; there was such a noise that the canary woke up and began to talk to them, in poetry too! The only two who did not stir from their places were the Tin-soldier and the little Dancer. ”

“ The store of cannon on the neighbouring gun-wharf, had an innocent toy-like appearance, and the one red-coated sentry on duty over them was a mere toy figure, with a clock-work movement. As the hot sunlight sparkled on him he might have passed for the identical little man who had the little gun, and whose bullets they were made of lead, lead, lead. ”