TOYS IN COUNCIL.
THERE is a "Toy Conference" at the Royal Aquarium, Westminster. Like every other class, they have their grievance, and in this case the complaint should meet with sympathy, for the bitter cry of the toys is that, though made
for English children, they are manufactured in Germany.
Clearly the agitator has been at work, for most toys are of an ancient race, unchanging from generation to generation, -conservative as childhood itself. It is this which makes a visit to the toy exhibition seem a renewal of old, almost the oldest, friendships. Somewhere, in the back attics of the brain, there lie little locked chambers. The toy-show opens them again. The walls draw back, like the fronts of the dolls'-houses, and there we see again for a moment, fresh and 'undimmed down the vista of time, the serious realities of children's play. If any one doubts the passive endurance of memory, let him try the experiment, and spend an hour alone among the toys. It is true that we are no longer in the inner circle. We are only lookers-on. We can make friends with the toys, though we can no longer be one with the children at play. For children at play, when fancy and imagination are weaving tales told aloud over
their toys, are jealous as fairies, shy as elves. Trespass on the magic ring and they vanish illusive. Perhaps they
are right : for mortals who for once saw the fairies at play were doomed to die. This world was too hard for them ; their perceptions too light and airy for the rough company of men. We have no place among phantoms dressed in the gossamer garments of fancy ; and may be thankful if even memory flows back to the age which, like love, has in fable its- " world, its home, its birthplace, Delightedly dwells among fays and talismans, And spirits; and delightedly believes Divinities, being itself divine."
Yet, taken as a mere museum of curiosities, the toy-show has its interest, apart from old memories that will come in to upset philosophising and scout new discoveries. Who would
have thought, for instance, that the toy-horse, almost the sole puppet which is still, as it always was, of true English breed, was an animal with a history and a pedi- gree ? The toy cart-horse has characteristics as fixed and unchanging as those in the stud-book of the Royal Agri- cultural Society. He has his "classes" and his "points," on which his market value depends ; his strength is great, and his endurance of rough usage remarkable. To begin with, the toy cart-horse is always a thoroughbred Clydesdale dappled grey, with a thick, arched neck, wide loins, and a flowing mane and tall. In his build nothing is left to chance. Chippendale, in his delicate fretwork, combined layers of wood laid three- fold with the grain in opposite directions, so as to secure extra strength. That is the principle of structure in the toy-horse. Even his neck has three thicknesses of wood ; and his tail only succumbs to the roughest and most vindictive treatment. There is a second and coarser breed, but much beloved by
children, which, while equally lasting, is less elegant. It is said to belong to an older and ruder stock. Its legs are straight, and regardless of anatomy, and there is less fulness of line about the neck,—a useful animal for all that, and good for rough work. It always draws a certain kind of cart, an exact reproduction of the " tumbril," or two-wheeled waggon of the farm. An even earlier type of horse is to be found in " Noah's Ark," one which has generally been considered to be the most primitive species inhabiting the nursery. " Noah's Ark " itself, perhaps the oldest toy in Christendom. is now always made at Olbernhan, in Saxony. The real original Noah's Ark " never varies in form, and its wonderful animals, just one less in number than the miraculous draught of fishes, are the same in colour, shape, and size, as when our grandfathers and grandmothers played with them. The printed list still begins with "the family of Noe, consisting in eight persons," and ends with " two spiders, two flies, two glowworms ; " and it is still as difficult as ever to distinguish the spiders from the flies, and the glowworms from the pigs, when their legs are broken. The dove with its olive branch is still painted on the roof, and the puzzle of how to get all the creatures into the ark is as great now as it must have been at the rising of the flood Was not "Noah's Ark" an early Puritan toy? is the question which suggests itself to inquisitive maturity. Certainly Noah and his family, in their long grey coats, broad-trimmed hats, and black buttons, are exactly like the prints of the curious Lutheran Colonists who settled on the frontier of Transylvania, and retained till the beginning of the present century the costume and religion of their persecuted ancestors. Wooden soldiers have almost gone out of fashion. Boys are exacting critics in military matters, and will have nothing that is not of the latest pattern in uniform and weapons. Yet the wooden soldiers are a charming survival. They are all British grenadiers, and wear swallow-tailed coats and white trousers. Originally, they were clean-shaved also; but the German makers have so far fallen in with recent army regula- tions as to allow them moustaches, though economy of paint has been pushed to an extreme in depriving them of months, to compensate for the expense of this adornment. Nurem- berg is the great recruiting ground of the " lead " soldier,— who is to English boys what dolls are to English girls, except that the lead soldier is always a grown man, taking his orders from, and occasionally admitted to conference with, his boy- commander. These miniature troops are almost the highest form of art in toy manufacture, mounted on well-modelled horses, clothed in the exact uniforms of the corps they represent, and armed with the latest pattern of repeating-rifles. They are, in fact, models of the English Army of to-day, for, except the German cuirassiers, they are nearly all British troops, including Sikhs and Bengal lancers ; even the gold-laced band of the Horse Guards and the Chelsea pensioners are represented. Savages are there, too, in plenty, Soudan Arabs and Afghans, or even Red Indians attacking the "Deadwood Coach "!
The only " modern " development in the toy-world is the " mechanical toy," and even that has not replaced the delightful train and engines which run by mere impulse on their wheels, or the climbing monkeys and jumping clowns which climbed and jumped, not by clockwork, but at the will of their owners. The circular saw and toy drills and fire-engines and magic- lanterns are poor things in themselves, and leave no room for imagination. Even the walking-dolls and automatic bicycles make a sorry figure by the side of the old favourites of the nursery. The wooden doll holds her own against all modern improvemen's ; though the lovely wax-faced ladies, with eyes which shut when they are put to bed, should be formidable rivals. But there is nothing like the wooden dolls from Tyrol. Their faces are still as varied and charming as ever. No two are alike, except for the severity of expression which their resolute mouths lend to features otherwise more florid than expressive. They have character, which the wax-dolls have not. Who ever heard of an insipid woman being compared to a wooden doll ? It is the wooden dolls who supply all the fun of the "doll's room." It is they who are dosed and lectured, and have their failings and defects. One cannot spell ; another fails in subtraction sums. It is they who are taught and improved, sent to school, fall in love with undesirable young men, are punished, married, taken into society, fall ill and die. We knew one little girl
who always preached to her wooden dolls on Sunday evening, robed in a nightgown. No doubt they needed it. There are beautiful doll's-houses at the toy-show, with different sets of furniture in each room, and nice cool dining- rooms for meals. It is the wax dolls who will live in these ; not the wooden dolls, who can make a shift any- where. If girls have any advantage over boys in this world, it is in their exclusive possession and apprecia- tion of dolls,—the best toys in the world. The boys will never learn to understand either the dolls or their owners. Somehow they fail to please, even when they try their best. "I showed her my big magnet," we heard a small boy remark the other day, " and I offered to lend her a large file, and she did not seem to care much for either of them." But the choice of toys, like other tastes, does not admit of argument. It is enough that English children, and most English men, have not forgotten how to play.
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