Toy store

“ But the toy season was never passed without its doubts and worries. An older employee of the store can still remember a most memorable year when it rained for a solid week after the toy season had opened and the bombazines and the muslins had been put away for the building-blocks and the hobby-horse. ”

“ Inside the store, a long hat-pin box makes a counter. Flowers, leaves, pretty pebbles, shells, and little toys such as you may find among your own playthings may be displayed upon the counter.
A roly-poly tumble toy will make a clerk for the store, or, if you like, you may find both clerk and customers in magazine pictures, and you can mount them on thin cardboard and cut them out. There is no end to the plays you can invent when your store is finished. Polly Ann of shoe-box cottage, Boxville, has just come to the store to buy a loaf of bread. ”

“ Home-made toys are generally longer lived than store toys because the boy or girl who expends a certain amount of effort producing gives them better care. Home-made toys have a greater value than boughten ones because there is as much fun making them as playing with them. Doing something interesting, getting satisfying results out of the work, putting an idea into tangible form, and having a toy to show of which it can be said, "I made this all myself,"—these are the factors in toy-making so fascinating to boys and girls. ”

“ From housekeeping play to storekeeping play is a logical step and one abounding in possibilities for leading interest beyond the horizon line of home environment.
Better than any toy equipment and within reach of every household budget is a "store" like the one pictured here where real cartons, boxes, tins and jars are used. ”

“ To study the shop was to find many suggestions of the types of people living in the surrounding buildings—alphabets and whistles for children; playing-cards for gamesters; camphor cigarettes for invalids; sewing-cases for work-girls; mirrors for coquettes; and toys innumerable, "all one sou." In the grand shops on the fashionable boulevards you may see the last new mode in toys—for no season goes by in Paris without bringing some especial toy or toys to become "the rage"—but in the Rue Mouffetard the toys are all classics. ”

“ Some of the shoes are imported, but they are inferior in style to those made in this country—notwithstanding they come from Paris, and everything from that place is supposed superlatively choice and to be desired, as you are very well aware. In the United States there is one factory—and but one, so far as I could ascertain—which supplies a large quantity, about fifteen hundred dozens, for the American market, sending them to all parts, and furnishing 204 the toy-stores in Chicago and other western cities, as well as New York, Philadelphia and Boston. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All the little poor children in the neighbourhood used to watch to see when she came into the shop to make their small bargains. She never grumbled while they picked out the prettiest faces that suited their fancy among the halfpenny wooden dolls, and she kept a choice corner of very cheap toys on purpose for all these little ones, who so rarely knew what the pleasure of buying a toy was. ”

“ The little shop was a modest place. On one side was a counter where, safe under glass, were home-made candies and cakes, with a rosy-cheeked apple or two. But, lining the walls, tumbling over shelves, crowded into old-fashioned presses, were the toys. There were dolls, of course, patrician wax dolls with delicate eyebrows of real hair, hearty, wooden-jointed dolls that were a real comfort to little mothers. There were wheels of fortune where one could see [12] a steeple-chase if he spun hard enough to make the horses vault the hurdles. ”

“ And the one-jointed doll or penny cart was like a pot of gold to its happy little owner for months afterwards!
"Rose had other friends as well, however, as these poor little ragged customers, for her pleasant face and gentle voice made her popular with all, and she had a tasteful way of arranging the one window of the toy-shop that made it quite attractive to older eyes than the children. One day in late autumn, a lady, with a nurse and a little girl, paused before it for a moment, and after a brief inspection they came into the shop. ”

“ We remained for some time in seclusion on the shelf of the toy warehouse, and were then drafted off to a little toy-shop at the West end of London. Our present owner was a notable little woman, the wife of a head workman at a large cabinet manufactory, and as she had two or three small children, she was glad to make ends meet by fitting out her front parlour as a little toy-shop. It was a very quiet, nice street, not far [Pg 49] from a large hotel, and as the rents were rather high, the houses were only let to fairly respectable people. ”

“ But, also, little children flatten their noses on the window of the toy-shop. They point their thumbs through their woolly mittens in a sharp rivalry of choice. Their unspent nickels itch for large investment. Extravagant dimes bounce around their pockets. But their ears are cold, and they jiggle on one leg against a frosty toe.
Here in the toy-shop is a tin motor-car. ”

“ The great plate-glass windows stretch down the side of a street, and if you go inside the shop you walk through room after room of beautiful things, all arranged to show to the best advantage. The toy department would be enough to make any little girl or boy happy even to look at it. There are toys large and toys small; engines that can be wound up to run by themselves; horses large enough to ride upon; balls of all colours and sizes; and dolls—oh, the dolls! Dolls black-eyed and brown-eyed and blue-eyed, dolls fair-haired and brown-haired, dolls dressed and undressed. ”

“ I thought, my wife, that the end of life had come for me when I knew that I should have to sit here in the shop the rest of the days of my life and make toys for children. Now I know that it was but the beginning. He taught me. There could be nothing greater. The toys will live in the homes of the children. They will find them, too, the toys he bought for his boy—after he has gone. But not every one will know the work that they have done. Nor will all the toys the President left be so easily discovered.... ”

“ It befell at this period, just before Christmas, that on my having gone under pressure of the season into a great shop to buy a toy or two, my eye, fleeing from superfluity, lighted at a distance on the bright concretion of Flora Saunt, an exhibitability that held its own even against the most plausible pinkness of the most developed dolls. A huge quarter of the place, the biggest bazaar "on earth," was peopled with these and other effigies and fantasies, as well as with purchasers and vendors, haggard alike in the blaze of the gas with hesitations. ”

“ THE LAND OF LOST TOYS.
"I suppose people who have children transfer their childish follies and fancies to them, and become properly sedate and grown-up. Perhaps it is because I am an old maid, and have none, that some of my nursery whims stick to me, and I find myself liking things, and wanting things, quite out of keeping with my cap and time of life. For instance. Anything in the shape of a toy-shop (from a London bazaar to a village window, with Dutch dolls, leather balls, and wooden battledores) quite unnerves me, so to speak. ”

“ If you cross the tent you will see the toy-packers at the other side.'
[Pg 102]
The children's eyes sparkled.
'Toys,' they repeated. 'Do you make toys down here?'
The gnome nodded.
'That's our principal dealing with your world,' he said. 'You don't mean to say you thought all the toys your shops are full of are made by clumsy human fingers! You should see our toy factory about Christmas-time. Santa Claus has a time of it, choosing and settling, I can tell you.'
Hildegarde and Leonore were breathless with eagerness.
'Oh, how interesting!' they exclaimed. 'Mayn't we see the toy factory? ”

“ I think boys' toys are much the nicest. Wouldn't she like a tin train?"
"If I was you, I'd choose a doll, or else a nice box of toys. You might get a box of bricks, Miss Hecla; or else a sort of farmyard; or a map of them squares, with pictures on their sides, that's got to be put together."
"But I want a lot of things; not only one thing. That's so stupid. I want it to be a real s'prise packet. Don't you know? I mean to get a ninepence-three-farthings toy, and two penny toys, and two threepenny toys, and one thing for sixpence, and one thing for a shilling. ”

“ He noticed fine private carriages drawn up round corners, waiting for prosperous tradesmen; young men with tennis-bats in their hands, taking prodigiously long strides, eager to get a game of play before dusk; girls who went by twos and threes, chattering, laughing, making funny short quick steps of it, like as if on the dance to reach sweethearts and green lanes. A man selling a mechanical toy—sort of a tin frog that jumped so soon as you put it down—made him smile indulgently. ”

“ Nothing else is real. Toys of tenderness—toys of mirth—toys that sail a man back to childhood—toys that sweep a man into manhood—and beyond." He held the color-bearer passionately close. "A hero!" he said. "Thank God for the man who knows our hearts. The world is his toy-shop and men and women are his toys. He can use everybody—it makes no difference how ugly a toy may be. He loves them even when they are naughty—just like a little girl when she spanks her dolly." Joseph smiled at his own thoughts with tenderness.... ”

“ Matches, Match Boxes, Cotton Reels, Cocoa Tins, Cigar Boxes, and even Egg Shells comprise the materials from which are evolved Shops, Working Models, Dolls' Furniture, Boats, Steam Engines, Windmills, and scores of other toys dear to the hearts of boys and girls.
Perhaps the chief charm of the occupation is that literally dozens of toys can be made at a cost of less than a penny. Every toy described in this book is practicable, and can be easily made by anyone possessing the smallest amount of handicraft skill. ”

“ They are lined with stalls of metal-workers, sellers of incense, candles, violet lotus flowers, jewels, sandalwood mementoes, and souvenirs innumerable, among which the most fascinating to the stranger are grotesque toy figures, with fantastic movable limbs, which would make an easy fortune at a London toy-shop, and before long will doubtless be exported and gradually lose their exotic charm. ”

“ I fear the price of the merchandise which the pretty and well-conducted female assistants at the stalls have to sell. I have been given to understand that incredible prices are charged for India-rubber balls, and that the quotations for drums, hares-and-tabors, and Noah’s arks, are ruinously high. I have yet another reason for not patronising the Pantheon as a toy mart. It frequently happens that I feel slightly misanthropic and vicious in my toy-dealing excursions, and that my juvenile friends have sudden fits of naughtiness, and turn out to be anything but agreeable companions. ”

“ Any series of toys made from the same material—say a series of toys made from match stales or from 'stripwood'—has very limited educational advantages. Toys made from a combination of waste materials are the best—match-boxes, cardboard and wooden boxes of all sizes, mantle-boxes, reels, corks, broom-handles, silver paper, etc., can all play a part in producing an effective, even a beautiful toy. ”

“ But Santa Claus refused to be envious of the toy shops.
“I can supply the little ones but once a year—on Christmas Eve,” he answered; “for the children are many, and I am but one. And as my work is one of love and kindness I would be ashamed to receive money for my little gifts. But throughout all the year the children must be amused in some way, and so the toy shops are able to bring much happiness to my little friends. I like the toy shops, and am glad to see them prosper.” ”

“ In another part of the same room we come upon quite an animated group of talented colourists. Some of the [20] designs done by these children of the slums are most creditable, and at least their faces are radiant with happiness, which is the chief thing after all. The articles produced in the toy-making room are vastly ingenious. Out of the most unpromising materials—such as reels of cotton and match-boxes, fortified by cardboard and coloured paper—the most delectable toys are produced. ”

“ Snubby Nose and Tippy Toes said, "Will it be a candy-shop?"
Grandpa Grumbles shook his green cotton umbrella fiercely and grumbled, "I told you, you could not guess. I am going to open a Toy Shop!"
"A Toy Shop!" shouted the Seventeen Little Bears at the top of their lungs. "A Toy Shop!"
"Who is telling this story?" asked Grandpa Grumbles. He began to tell the story in real earnest. He said, "I am going to open a Toy Shop in the woods."
"Not a real Toy Shop," said Snubby Nose. "You don't mean a real Toy
Shop," said Tippy Toes. ”

“ Thousands of orphaned Belgian and French children have been adopted into American homes. In the days to come are we going to force these children to play with German-made toys? God forbid! American toy manufacturers have stripped us of the last vestige of an excuse for the purchase of toys from the Huns. Our factories are making more toys than we ever imported, and they are not the flimsy jim-cracks we formerly bought from abroad. They are largely exercise toys which develop a child's body, or mechanical or structural toys which train the mind. ”