I can't help wondering if any of the little maidens who are having so
much comfort with their beloved dolls in these Christmas holidays, ever
think that _somebody_ must have taken a great deal of pains to dress them
up so nicely, and above all, to make the tiny garments and hats and
shoes.
The doll's _shoes_!--so pretty, so daintily shaped, so beautifully
stitched and trimmed, so perfectly, faultlessly finished from heel to
toe, the "cunningest things" in all dolly's wardrobe--did it ever occur
to the girlie "playing mother," to ask where they came from, and by whose
dexterous fingers they were fashioned? She knows well enough that when
Angelina Christina, or Luella Rosa Matilda Jennette, has worn these out,
there are enough to be bought in the toy shops for twenty-five or thirty
cents a pair; _but who makes them?_
That was the question which came into _my_ head one day, and I set to
work to find out--doing just what must suggest itself to anybody who
wants information, whatever the subject: that is to say, I went to
head-quarters, and asked questions.
There are two places in Boston--one a "shoe and leather exchange," and
the other the establishment of an importer and dealer in shoe store
supplies, where they furnish doll's shoes "to the trade," as the phrase
is: one is on Congress street, and the other on Hanover; and the
proprietors, Mr. Daniels and Mr. Swanberg, instead of being amused at my
errand, very kindly told me what I wanted to know.
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 the toy-stores in Chicago and other
western cities, as well as New York, Philadelphia and Boston.
This manufactory is at Bordentown, New Jersey, and has been in existence
about twelve years, and the value of stock now sent out is about seven
thousand dollars a year; so much money for the wee feet that run on no
errands, and save no steps for anybody! The wholesale jobbers of course
advance the price, and in the retail stores they are higher yet; so that
each tradesman through whose hands they pass has his trifle of profit in
helping to shoe the feet of the doll-people. They retail from a dollar
and a dollar and a quarter a dozen, to three dollars and seventy-five
cents, according to the style.
[Illustration: DOLLY'S SHOES]
They "run," as the dealers express it, in twelve sizes; the "common
doll's shoes" (which means shoes for common dolls) vary, however, from
the class made for wax dolls, which have grades peculiar to themselves,
being not only extra full and wider in the soles, but numbering fewer
sizes, from one to six only. Of the common kind, the slippers and ties
run from one to twelve, the others from three, four or five to that
number. They come packed in regular sizes, a "full line," as those for
children do, or in assorted sizes and styles; in small, square boxes,
such as shoe dealers know by the name of "cartoon," which is another word
for the French _carton_, meaning simply that they are made of
paste-board. The tiniest is not much more than an inch long, but is a
perfectly formed and finished shoe on that miniature scale; and the
largest is almost big enough for Mrs. Tom Thumb, measuring about four
inches, and it could certainly be worn by many a baby you have seen.
As for the names, they come in this order:--slippers, ties, ankle ties,
Balmorals, buttoned boots, Polish buttoned, Polish eyeletted, and
Antoinette, which is a heeled, croquet slipper, in which her doll-ship,
when engaged in that out-of-door game, can show off her delicate, clocked
stockings to advantage.
But what shall I say of the variety in color and trimmings? They are in
white and crimson, in buff and blue, in scarlet and purple, in rose color
and violet, in bronze and silver and gold, everything but black, for
dolls don't like black except in the tips of their gay Balmoral or Polish
boots. And the stuff they are made of is such soft material as can only
be found in goat and sheep and kid and glove kid, and _skivers_, which is
the name for split leather. I strongly suspected that they were all made
of scraps left from large slippers and shoes, but, though this is
generally the case, some whole skins have to be used because nothing is
ever manufactured for real people boots and shoes and slippers for all
kinds of dolls, high and low, rich and poor; to walk in, to dance in, to
play croquet in, or to stay at home in; to match their costumes, to match
their hair, to match their eyes, to suit them if anything on earth
_could_ suit. And every doll could be sure about her "size," for the
number is stamped on the bottom of the soles; and I must not forget to
say that they have also the "trademark," which is the imprint under the
number; this "trade mark" is a pair of boots smaller than anything you
can think of.
Now I am coming to the original question--"_who makes them?_" They are
made in large quantities during about six months of the year,
accumulating in the summer, ready for the trade, which begins in August,
and drops off after the first of January, and is over with for that
season by March. In those six working months the factory employs about
forty women, and they are mostly invalids or old persons who are not able
to do anything but light work, and who receive only small wages, because
they are not capable of earning much. So they are generally thin, pale
hands and slender fingers which patiently and skillfully fit the
patterns, and sew the seams, and do the even nice stitching, and dainty
ornamentation, which help to make glad the hearts of the many little
girls all over the country, who have found a precious doll, all so
daintily shod, among the gifts of their Merry Christmas.
[Illustration: MY DOLLY! MY OWN LITTLE DAUGHTER!]