SUSSEX SOFT TOYS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THIS " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—As many readers of the Spectator have taken so much interest in our toys, I venture to write a little more about this small enterprise.
Since last November, when we first put our toys on the market, we have done wen. Through a piece of great good luck and by dint of perseverance and tact, we managed to secure at the eleventh hour a space for exhibition at the "British Industries Fair." This great annual exhibitjon, which lasts a fortnight, is not open to the general public, but is reserved for buyers only, and is visited by business men and women from all over the world. The goods exhibited include glass, china., stationery, books, leather, and fancy geode and toys. We had a little stall, all palest blue and white, erected on the thirty-six square feet space allotted to us, and our toys, being mainly black and white with a touch of colour, looked very well. We had to decide on a title for our signboard, and we were advised to adopt some non-committal name, because "the trade" is very conservative and does not like dealing with new enterprises, especially if they be village or women's industries. We did not want to be passed by with a sniff and a gibe, "Oh, another of these female businesses!" so we took the uncompro- mising name of "East Sussex Toys." We had trade-cards and price-lists printed and launched forth on our venture, not knowing If we should secure enough orders to pay our expenses, but conscious of the goodwill of many friends anxious for cur success. it was the test of the merit of our toys and of our efficiency.
Within the two weeks we took orders for three thousand six hundred toys, and in most cases delieery was not required before' the middle of June, so we had plenty of time to complete the orders. On the last day an Australian gentleman bought up the forty Exhibition samples for export. We also took an order from a South American firm.
The sale of the toys will bring in over £300. Naturally we were pleased, especially as my husband, who held the stall for us during those fourteen weary days, heard many people say that our toys were—of their kind—the best 'made at the exhibition. The orders are now all distributed among the various Women's Institutes in the Sussex villages where I have taught toy-making, and the goods will shortly be completed and despatched, and we hope that these orders will lead to others.
Our chief difficulty now is in obtaining material, especially cotton-plush, of which so many of the toys are made. However, we adapt ourselves to circumstances, end make our new designs such as can be carried out in obtainable materials. We now make " Cuthbert " the sleeker drawn by " Poy" of the Keening News) in three ekes, fourteen-inch, ten-inch, and eight-and-a-balf-inch, and the smallest is the most popular.
Every one of our women workers who turns out a toy takes a special pride in her work, for sike knows that on her depends our reputation, and that we stand or fall together, and then careful work is our greatest asset and she realises her responsibility. The competition between the villages to turn out the best goods keeps the standard high. The spirit of the old Guilds, the pride of craft, has come back again to Village life, and the country need be no
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