One day while sitting at table, with our little girl, nineteen months
old, on her mother's knee near by, we picked up her rubber doll and
began to whip it violently. The child first looked frightened, then
severe, then burst into tears and plead with her mother not to "let
papa whip dolly."
Few people realize how much toys become a part of the life of the
children who play with them. They are often looked upon as nothing more
than "playthings for children." This is a very narrow view of their
uses and relationships. There is a philosophy underlying the production
of toys as old as the world and as broad as life, a philosophy which,
until recent years, has been little studied and cultivated.
Playthings are as necessary a constituent of human life as food or
medicine, and contribute in a like manner to the health and development
of the race. Like the science of cooking and healing, the business of
toy-making has been driven by the stern teacher, necessity, to a rapid
self-development for the general good of the little men and women in
whose interests they are made.
They are the tools with which children ply their trades; the
instruments with which they carry on their professions; the goods which
they buy and sell in their business, and the paraphernalia with which
they conduct their toy society. They are more than this. They are the
animals which serve them, the associates who entertain them, the
children who comfort them and bring joy to the mimic home.
Toys are nature's first teachers. The child with his little shovels,
spades and hoes, learns his first lessons in agriculture; with his
hammer and nails, he gets his first lessons in the various trades; and
the bias of the life of many a child of larger growth has come from the
toys with which he played. Into his flower garden the father of
Linnaeus introduced his son during his infancy, and "this little garden
undoubtedly created that taste in the child which afterwards made him
the first botanist and naturalist of his age, if not of his race."
No experiments in any chemical laboratory will excite more wonder or be
carried on with more interest, than those which the boy performs with
his pipe and basin of soapy water. The little girl's mud pies and other
sham confectionery furnish her first lessons in the art of preparing
food. Her toy dinners and playhouse teas offer her the first
experiences in the entertainment of guests. With her dolls, the
domestic relations and affections.
No science has ever originated and been carried to any degree of
perfection in Asia. There is no reason why this statement should cause
the noses of Europeans and Americans to twitch in derision and pride,
for there is another fact equally momentous in favor of the
Asiatics,--viz., no religion that originated outside of Asia has ever
been carried to any degree of perfection.
The above facts will indicate that we need not hope to find the
business of toy-making, or the science of child-education in a very
advanced state in China--the most Asiatic country of Asia. Child's play
and toy-making have been organized into a business and a science in
Europe, as astronomy, which had been studied so long in Asia, was
developed into a science by the Greeks. And so we find that what is
taught in the kindergarten of the West is learned in the streets of the
East; and the toys which are manufactured in great Occidental business
establishments, are made by poor women in Oriental homes, and the same
mistakes are made by the one as by the other.
The same whistle by which the cock crows, enables the dog to bark, the
baby to cry, the horse to neigh, the sheep to bleat and the cow to low,
just as in our own rubber goods. The same end is accomplished in the
one case as in the other. The two, three or twenty cash doll does for
the Chinese girl what the two, three or twenty dollar one does for her
antipodal sister,--develops the instinct of motherhood, besides
standing a greater amount of rough handling. Nevertheless it usually
comes to the same deplorable end, departing this world, bereft of its
arms and legs, without going through the tedious process of a surgical
operation.
Chinese toys are less varied, less complicated, less true to the
original, and less expensive than those of the West,--more perhaps like
the toys of a century or two ago. Nevertheless they are toys, and in
the hands of boys and girls, the drum goes "rub-a-dub," the horn
"toots," and the whistle squeaks. The "gingham dog and calico cat,"
besides a score of other animals more nearly related to the soil of
their native place--being made of clay--express themselves in the
language of the particular whistle which happens to have been placed
within them. All this is to the entire satisfaction of "little Miss
Muffet" and "little boy Blue," just as they do in other lands.
When the children grow older they have tops to spin that whistle as
good a whistle, and buzzers to buzz that buzz as good a buzz, and music
balls to roll, and music carts to pull, that emit sounds as much to
their satisfaction, as anything that ministered to the childish tastes
of our grandfathers; and these become as much a part of their business
and their life as if they were living, talking beings. Furthermore,
their dolls are as much their children as they themselves are the
offspring of their parents.
Chinese toys embrace only those which involve no intricate scientific
principles. The music boxes of the West are unknown in China except as
they are imported. The Chinese know nothing about dolls which open and
shut their eyes, simple as this principle is, nor of toys which are
self-propelling by some mysterious spring secreted within, because,
forsooth, they know nothing about making the spring.
There are some principles, however, which, though they may not
understand, they are nevertheless able to utilize; such, for instance,
as the expansion of air by heat, and the creation of air currents. This
principle is utilized in lanterns. In the top of these is a paper wheel
attached to a cross-bar on the ends of which are suspended paper men
and women together with animals of all kinds making a very interesting
merry-go-round. These lantern-figures correspond to the sawyers,
borers, blacksmiths, washers and others which twenty or more years ago
were on top of the stove of every corner grocery or country post-office.
When we began the study of Chinese toys our first move was to call in a
Chinese friend whom we thought we could trust, and who could buy toys
at a very reasonable rate, and sent him out to purchase specimens of
every variety of toys he could find in the city of Peking. We ordered
him the first day to buy nothing but rattles, because the rattle is the
first toy that attracts the attention of the child.
In the evening Mr. Hsin returned with a good-sized basket full of
rattles. Some were tin in the form of small cylinders, with handles in
which were small pebbles: others were shaped like pails; and others
like cooking pots and pans.
Some of the most attractive were hollow wood balls, baskets, pails and
bottles, gorgeously painted, with long handles, necks, or bails. The
paint was soon transferred from the face of the toy to that of the
first child that happened to play with it, which child was of course,
our own little girl.
The most common rattles representing various kinds of fowls and animals
known and unknown are made of clay. Others are in the form of fat
little priests that make one think of Santa Claus, or little roly-poly
children that look like the little folks who play with them.
As the child grows larger the favorite rattle is a drum-shaped piece of
bamboo or other wood, with skin--not infrequently fish skin, stretched
over the two ends, and a long handle attached. On the sides are two
stout strings with beads on the ends, which, when the rattle is turned
in the hand, strike on the drum heads. These rattles of brass or tin as
well as bamboo, are in imitation of those carried by street hawkers.
We said to Mr. Hsin, "Foreigners say the Chinese do not have dolls, how
is that?"
"They have lots of them," he answered in the stereotyped way.
"Then to-morrow buy samples of all the dolls you can find."
"All?" he asked with some surprise.
"Yes, all. We want to know just what kind of dolls they have."
The next evening Mr. Hsin came in with an immense load of dolls. He had
large, small, and middle sized rag dolls, on which the nose was sewed,
the ears pasted, and the eyes and other features painted. They were
rude, but as interesting to children as other more natural and more
expensive ones, as we discovered by giving one of them to our little
girl. In not a few instances Western children have become much more
firmly attached to their Chinese cloth dolls than any that can be found
for them in America or Europe.
He had a number of others both large and small with paper mache heads,
leather bodies, and clay arms and legs. The body was like a bellows in
which a reed whistle was placed, that enabled the baby to cry in the
same tone as the toy dog barks or the cock crows. They had "real hair"
in spots on their head similar to those on the child, and they were
dressed in the same kind of clothing as that used on the baby in
summer-time, viz., a chest-protector and a pair of shoes or trousers.
Mr. Hsin then took out a small package in which was wrapped a
half-dozen or more "little people," as they are called, by the Chinese,
with paper heads, hands and feet, exquisitely painted, and their
clothing of the finest silk. Attached to the head of each was a silk
string by which the "little people" are hung upon the wall as a
decoration.
"But what are these, Mr. Hsin?" we asked. "These are not dolls."
"No," he answered, "these are cloth animals. The children play with
these at the same time they play with dolls."
He had gone beyond our instructions. He had brought us a large
collection of camels made of cloth the color of the camel's skin, with
little bunches of hair on the head, neck, hump and the joints of the
legs, similar to those on the camel when it is shedding its coat in the
springtime. He had elephants made of a grayish kind of cloth on which
were harnesses similar to those supposed to be necessary for those
animals. He had bears with bits of hair on neck and tail and a leading
string in the nose; horses painted with spots of white and red, matched
only by the most remarkable animals in a circus; monkeys with black
beads for eyes, and long tails; lions, tigers, and leopards, with
large, savage, black, glass eyes, with manes or tails suited to each,
and properly crooked by a wire extending to the tip. And finally he
laid the bogi-boo, a nondescript with a head on each end much like the
head of a lion or tiger. When not used as a plaything, this served the
purpose of a pillow.
"Do the Chinese have no other kinds of toy animals?" we inquired.
"Yes," he answered, "I'll bring them to-morrow."
The following evening he brought us a collection of clay toys too
extensive to enumerate. There were horses, cows, camels, mules, deer,
and a host of others the original of which has never been found except
in the imagination of the people. He had women riding donkeys followed
by drivers, men riding horses and shooting or throwing a spear at a
fleeing tiger, and women with babies in their arms while grandmother
amused them with rattles, and father lay near by smoking an opium pipe.
From the bottom of his basket he brought forth a nuber of small
packages.
"What are in those?"
"These are clay insects."
They were among the best clay work we have seen in China. There were
tumble-bugs, grasshoppers, large beetles, mantis, praying mantis, toads
and scorpions, together with others never seen outside of China, and
some never seen at all, the legs and feelers all being made of wire.
In another package he had a dozen dancing dolls. They were made of
clay, were an inch and a half long, dressed with paper, and had small
wires protruding the sixteenth of an inch below the bottom of the
skirt. He put them all on a brass tray, the edge of which he struck
with a small stick to make it vibrate, thus causing the dancers to turn
round and round in every direction.
The next package contained a number of clay beggars. Two were fighting,
one about to smash his clay pot over the other's head: another had his
pot on his head for a lark, a third was eating from his, while others
were carrying theirs in their hand. One had a sore leg to which he
called attention with open mouth and pain expressed in every feature.
From another package he brought out a number of jumping jacks,
imitations as it seemed of things Japanese. There were monkey acrobats
made of clay, wire and skin, fastened to a small slip of bamboo. A doll
fastened to a stick, with cymbals in its hands would clash the cymbals,
when its queue was pulled. Finally there was a large dragon which
satisfied its raging appetite by feeding upon two or three little clay
men specially prepared for his consumption.
But, perhaps, among the most interesting of his toys were his clay
whistles. Some of these burnt or sun-dried toys were hollow and in the
shape of birds, beasts and insects. When blown into, they would emit
the shrillest kind of a whistle. In others a reed whistle had been
placed similar to those in the dolls, and these usually had a bellows
to blow them. Whether cock or hen, dog or child, they all crowed,
barked, cackled, or cried in the self-same tone.
"What will you get to-morrow?"
"Drums, knives, and tops," said Mr. Hsin. He was being paid by the day
for spending our money, and so had his plans well laid.
The following evening he brought a large collection of toy drums, some
of which were in the shape of a barrel, both in their length and in
being bulged out at the middle. On the ends were painted gay pictures
of men and women clad in battle-array or festive garments, making the
drum a work of art as well as an instrument of torture to those who are
disturbed by noises about the house.
He had large knives covered with bright paint which could easily be
washed off, and tridents, with loose plates or cymbals, which make a
noise to frighten the enemy.
The tops Mr. Hsin had collected were by far the most interesting.
Chinese tops are second to none made. They are simple, being made of
bamboo, are spun with a string, and when properly operated emit a
shrill whistle.
The ice top, without a stem, and simply a block of wood in shape of a
top, is spun with a string, but is kept going by whipping.
Another toy which foreigners call a top is entirely different from
anything we see in the West. The Chinese call it a K'ung chung, while
the top is called t'o lo. It is constructed of two pieces of bamboo,
each of which is made like a top, and then joined by a carefully turned
axle, each end being of equal weight, and looking not unlike the wheels
of a cart. It is then spun by a string, which is wound once around the
axle and attached to two sticks. A good performer is able to spin it in
a great variety of ways, tossing it under and over his foot, spinning
it with the sticks behind him, and at times throwing it up into the air
twenty or thirty feet and catching it as it comes down. The principle
upon which it is operated is the quick jerking of one of the sticks
while the other is allowed to be loose.
"To-morrow," said Mr. Hsin, as he ceased spinning the top, "I will get
you some toy carts."
The Chinese cart has been described as a Saratoga trunk on two wheels.
This is, however, only one form--that of the passenger cart. There are
many others, and all of them are used as patterns of toy carts. They
all have a kind of music-box attachment, operated by the turning of the
axle to which the wheels of the toys, as well as those of some of the
real carts, are fixed.
The toy carts are made of tin, wood and clay. Some of them are very
simple, having paper covers, while others possess the whole
paraphernalia of the street carts. When the mule of the toy cart is
unhitched and unharnessed, he looks like a very respectable mule.
Nevertheless, instead of devouring food, he becomes the prey of
insects. Usually he appears the second season, if he lasts that long,
bereft of mane and tail, as well as a large portion of his skin.
The flat carts have a revolving peg sticking up through the centre, on
which a small clay image is placed which turns with the stick. Others
are placed on wires on the two sides, to represent the driver and the
passengers.
These in Peking are the omnibus carts. Running from the east gate of
the Imperial city to the front gate, and in other parts of the city as
well, there are street carts corresponding to the omnibus or street
cars of the West. These start at intervals of ten minutes, more or
less, with eight or ten persons on a cart, the fare being only a few
cash. Toy carts of this kind have six or eight clay images to represent
the passengers.
Mr. Hsin brought out from the bottom of his basket a number of neatly
made little pug dogs, and pressing upon a bellows in their body caused
them to bark, just as the hen cackled a few days before.
What we have described formed only a small portion of the toys Mr. Hsin
brought. Cheap clay toys of all kinds are hawked about the street by a
man who sells them at a fifth or a tenth of a cent apiece. With him is
often found a candy-blower, who with a reed and a bowl of taffy-candy
is ready to blow a man, a chicken, a horse and cart, a corn ear, or
anything else the child wants, as a glass-blower would blow a bottle or
a lamp chimney. The child plays with his prize until he tires of it and
then he eats it.