rTHE SAN FRANCTSCO CALL, SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 1911.—THE JUNIOR CALL.
HOW THE "DO WITH" DOLLS CAME INTO EXISTENCE
BECAUSE one little child rebelled
1"^ against .the kind of toys Santa
Claws put In Ills Christmas stock
ingl one year and declared he wanted
toys he could make play with him, not
toys that played all by themselves, a
whole new scheme of playthings 'has
been evolved by a young \woman who
understood what the child meant by ■
his toy rebellion.
An aunt sat listening. to the child's
attempt to explain, what would amuse,
and Interest him. and why the toys he \
«had were not the right kind. ■ Then
her : mind began , planning something
different in toys, and before long a spe
cial, family had been brought into the
world for the; purpose of, being played
with by the , modern .child.*'••
First. (he investigating aunt looked
over all the toy, offerings from this
country . and . from. Europe, and she
found that,they were- divided Into; two
classes—those that do ". nothing, just
• look pretty and soon grow tiresome,
and those that do things all by them
, selves and likewise soon cease to bo in- .
teresting. -—\ ■
Among the latter els are the me-;
chanlcal toys, 5 which are wound up and
* then set going until they run down and
need winding op again. ah the play- ■
ing is done by the'toy Itself without
an] assistance from the child after
the winding up. Then this aunt: dis
covered hundreds of other toys all
planned after'either one of: these two,
schemes, which she found did not
please the modern thinking girl or boy.
Having found what they do not like
it was only another step to decide upon ,
something:they would like, and soon a
whole scheme of toys that you could do
things, with, was planned. First came
the "Do With" family, a set of wooden
dolls sturdily built and simply dressed,
which children can.make stand, walk.
sit. -lie down or do " almost anything.
Following the introduction of the fam
ily came the ''Do With" animals, all
barnyard pets, horses that could he har
nessed and unharnessed with real
leather harness; horses -into which the ."
.family fitted and barns for the animals;
then carts for the family to go out '
driving in .when .they could spare old
■ Daisy- from the fields and hitch her to
tie new two wheeled cart. \ t Thus the
"Do With" family has grown and [ de-.
veloped and acquired more andjnjre of :
the comforts of life; according,to. their
social status. For the;"Do iths" are
Just plain, ordinary country folk with
wholesome' ways and " healthy: bodies.
The toy designer,',who is Miss Caro-.
lii'.o Pratt, is only: starting on her ca
reer -and profession. The, "Do Withs"
are still in their infancy, and at pres
ent they are all born in Greenwich vil
lage,'where Miss Pratt presides over a
small workshop It; ; which model*! are
designed and then sent out to a fac
tory near by to be copied in sets of
hundreds find thousands. The dupli
cates are then sent back to the Green
wich village ■ studio,' where they are
kept packed until Santa Claus forwards
his orders for the children who have .
seen or heard of :these new toys anil
who think * they ■ want to try playing
with dolls and horses that can play
with them. .
THE IIJVEXTOH'S sronv
Miss Pratt was discovered the other
day, in her workshop, '■'. where : she was
sorting out toys for ' the 'holiday de
mand. ,: In front of her was a large
wooden table 1, strewn .' with paint
brushes, paint pots and unfinished toys,
which needed touches of color .:-.- to make
them 5 look real and - dressed. With a
businesslike paint-brush In one hand
and a clean wooden cow'ln the other,
, she was in the act of stenciling some
reddish spots on Bossy's sides.
■"I always . use • black, ." brown or red
dish yellow for the cows, because chil
dren know these arc the colors : real
cows have." explained Miss ; Pratt, .as
she -looked :up from her work. "And
I paint my barns and houses the shades
children expect to see them wear, be
cause I' want .my toys ■to suggest in
every possible way the real surround
ings of the child," and she dabbed some:,
bright green on, the shutters iof a com
fortable looking farmhouse into which
the "Do i "With" family fitted perfectly.
"Since I j became ■ interested in the ;
making of toys I have found that toy
buying is "done by. the parents or the
grown up relatives; instead of by the
children themselves, and they buy toys
that ; interest * them and do not give -so ■
•much.as a : thought to: ■what" the chil
dren might like," said Miss Pratt.
"Mechanical toys appeal to the grown -
■ ups because they interest them for. a
few. minutes and' then the toys run
down and; the Interest wanes.:..
"The grownupsi like the 'Look Ons'
and the 'Do Nothings'.because they do
not want to play, really. They only
pretend to want' to, when they really
would much rather sit comfortably en
sconced .in chairs a.nd .press electric
buttons or pull strings while the toys
do all the playing for them. -And the
grownups think . because this amuses
them-for a little r while It will amuse
children by the hour. . ,
"The 'Look On' toys are the kind
that, do all the playing themselves,
. alter you have wound them up with a
key. and leave, you nothing to do:: but ■
sit and look on. The 'Do Nothings' are
.the . kind : that do not play themselves,
nor are they much fun to play with.
They simply do nothing.
• "But the 'Do Withs,' my kind of toys,
are the ones that say to the children.
The Cows and Calves Going Home.
'Come play,' and this is why the chil
dren like them. The 'Do With' men,
women and children dolls have houses
built for tht-m. They have chairs,
tables and sofas which tit them as well
as the houses. And they have carts to
ride in and horses for the carts and
stables for the horses and carts. They
have their own sheep, cows, pigs and
dogs, and just lately colts and calves
have been born. The horses are the
right size for the man dolls to tide and
the ponies fit the girl and boy 'Do
Withs.'
"Grown people seem to think that
anything is good enough for dolls'
houses and dolls' furniture. They buy
a large doll or a family of dolls with
out giving a thought to the relation of
each to the other. They choose a
dolls' house that is much too small for
ThePp With Children Watch Farmer Do- With Depart for the VillaeC for Supplies of Food.
RUTHLESS KIL,UHVa OF? 810 GAME
While writing very enthusiastically
of South, Africa as a field for sports-,
men, a' recent author expressed alarm
at the exterminating, process which Is
going on among big 1 game.
There are stringent regulations in
Cape " Colony, New :Zealand and other
'districts, controlled, by \ white " men.
against wanton,destruction, but ,so far
It has not been checked. > \
No one can- now blind to the fact
that with -the exception of!a, few wild
elephants : and . perhaps 'buffalo,.which
will eke out a : harried r existence, ..; al
though protected by the .colonial gov
ernment's forests, and also an old troop
of zebras, koodoos and probably harte
beest, which .serve as : ornaments in »a
semldomestlcated ; condition on some ; of
the out " of; the , way arms,' t the • remnant
of the noble game which once roamed In
countless thousands; all over the coun
try, and for which southern Africa was
pre-eminently renowned, has .been., by
wanton, and ruthless'slaughter deci
mated or driven; far beyond the outer-,
most boundaries of civilization into the
pathless veldt ,of . the' Kalahari,; or the
inhospitable territories ,of ■' the abor
igines of the interior.
Notwithstanding the rapid absence
of civilization northward, the coloniza
tion of British Bechuanaland, and-the
opening! up within the last few years
of large portions of the territories of
Zambesia, game could scarcely have
decreased with such rapidity in the in
terior,had not a shortsighted govern
ment at the cape permitted the indis
criminate importation of the most ap
proved and,highly accurate patterns of
modern breech , loading, rifles, and . the
distribution of vast supplies of ammu
nition among the different native tribes,
some of t}\B child's dolls, while it is
too large f>r the others. Nothing fits,
and the eh Idren know that something
is wrong, even though they may not be
able to explain It to themselves. Yet
they see that their doll world is not
like the real one, and soon they begin
to ask Why and grow dissatisfied with
their playthings.
THE VIEW OK Till-: CHILD
* "Children are reared in surroundings
where there is a strict observance of
the proper proportion of inanimate ob
jects tr> animate ones and where the
relation of each to the other is care
fully Studied. They see that every
thing bears a certain relationship to
everything else, and when they live in
their makebelieve world, where every
thing is just as real to them as real
things are to us, they have to stretch
who, when on their hunting forays,
and' possessing weapons of -'great ac
curacy, spare ; nothing ;In € the , way of
game, and old animals as well as their
immature offspring equally fall victims *.
to their remorseless bullets.
" The prodigies Of slaughter »-ay be
conceived when ■it is : stated on reliable
authority that nearly 300 giraffes-have,
during:, the last ; two ; years,! been' exter
minated *in the ' Ngami ; country' merely -
for the sake of their hides.
Only a few years • ago, when Sir •
Charles Warren led an English expedi
tion | through > this : country against some
rebellious natives, "thousands of spring- :•
buck, large : troops >of i blessbuck and „
numerous,, hartebeest and ,wildebeest
roamed on the.vast plains of the; coun
try . now known .as '■ British Bechuana
land., T * ■ "' .'"') ' ... .' . ■", "
/Warren's victory. was achieved blood- 1
lessly. so far as human life was con
cerned, but his ' advancing squadrons
of mounted Infantry found plenty- of :
use.for their,cartridges and other tar
gets, for. a mark beside the bodies «f,
the offending filibusters; and, at the-•
present; time- the .presence of ;a* single
springbuck, not to speak of' larger
game, within L the, boundaries of one. of "
-the most recent acquisitions to British
territory,"wouldl bo .looked upon as an.
event worthy of record. ':.
• In order to stem the tide of slaughter •
it is now proposed •to form a sigantic - ;
preserve in south Africa; ■;Immediately,
west iof i the territories, , in the; Bechu
analand protectorate, there are number
less thousands of -square miles;of the
rolling, well timbered grass country of
the Kalahari, unoccupied except by a
few half starved families of Vaalpens
and wandering" bushmen,' whose sole
means of subsistence depend entirely
their Imaginations somewhat to make
their dolls seem to belong, to one fam
ily and the clothes fit into the general
scheme of the,toys.*
. "The 'Do With" dolls have their own '
furniture.'. made to be ,sat. in, and the »
pieces> are. strongly built, after an old »
design—perhaps a Chippendale pattern
or a Sheraton design."; v '
"And as. fur the animals, they have
only the: bout. One of our; good Hoi
stein cows la warranted 'to supply all .
the ; milk a 'Do With 1 family can pos- .
sibly .use. _-- One look at the horse will
quiet any doubts? as to his .ability to
pull a 'Do' With family. He is most
ail pull.. , The St. Bernard dog is ready
trained to stand by.,the small boy and
girl under, all; elrcumstances. danger-^,/
OUI ;or otherwise. The"; pigs; are of . the 1;
gruntlest.J and the sheep; the meekest, V
andl as: for the new. colt, it. says *ConM
play!', harder than all the rest put to
gether." v |'3BBH|HBQB
The "Do WUhs" started with the
family, as the center of the toy, scheme./ >
First there were Mr. and Mrs. ! "Do
With" and gradually there came little :
boy and * girls ' to. brighten; the*." house
hold, only ; there wasn't* any house in
the .beginning.; That followed and.then \
tin toy designer built furniture for the
house/planned all; the barnyard scheme
and completed that, and after this is
established .she will . have Janother ; toy
scheme which' will bear a relation to all
the other schemes. \ / ..
.The toy dolls are strongly made of
wood, with Joints; which move and do
not break. The doll; has feet •so j ; that
Brie 'can stand, and: with the : set 1 come
clothes which , can' be* * put on: and i taken
off. And there are patterns to be had
so that 1 more clothes can be made If
the child has a fancy for sewing. All
the garments are very simple -and the
patterns of the materials are ones that
go; with 1 the "Do Withs" admirably. Of
course there might be dressier, things
•for them to wear if the chiVdren wanted
them,_but. somehow; the \ plain , little
painted ; wooden i faces "do not look so
attractive ;in the usual, doll finery as
in their simple blue and white dotted
muslin, , checks and serviceable * khaki.
Wm.%Mil° ' ■■•■•■f-------i-»-*immi..*i»j»i< uf r-,»--.
on such edible roots as are afforded
by the soil, of the welcome, but seldom
obtained addition to their frugal fare,
of the flesh of some animal of the chase.
No matter how valuable It may ulti
mately become for the purpose of cat
tle ranching, it is improbable that this
country—so unjustly termed a "desert"
—will ever prove capable of supporting:
a poputation of either white or black,
owing to the great scarcity of surface
wattr, and, although forming a por
tion of the dominions of the chiefs at
Kanya and Molopolole, it can scarcely
be termed the true home of any race Of
human beings.
Undisturbed In the recesses of its
little trodden solitudes, the eland he'.-e
attains a far greater sizr than rise
where on the African continent, and it
is the natural resort of the giraffe, the
Komsbu<-k and the wild ostrich, while
hartebeest. wildebeest and roan ante
lope, when unmolested, are capable of
thriving anil multiplying in a marked
degree.
If the world were searched from be
ginning to end, it would be impossible
to discover a locality possessing such
natural advantages as this portion of
the K.-iluharl for the establishment of
a great game, preserve.
Capetown can now be reached from
Southampton in the short space of 10
days, and by a further journey of four
days, by road and rail, the traveler cm
easily arrive at Mafnking. on the south
western confines of Kalahari. It would
bo possible witli'n a couple of years
after the establishment of such a pre
serve for a limited number of sports
man to bo in a position to vit>it the
irt," and there ot>t:iin several .^p
imens of the UkXffftr antelopes and still
leave plenty for the future.—Philadel
phia Inquirer.
3