Evening star. [volume], December 22, 1907, Page 3, Image 51

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
FOUR squafes from the "White
House Is the Toy Shop.
No one who has ever been In
Washington asks, "What toy
shop?" for everyone knows the
only historic toy shop is that with the
sign A. Stuntz.
If you happen to he an occupant of the
White House, as Presidents who have
been fathers of children, would have told
you, it is only necessary to walk out the
front gate nearest the Treasury building
to 15th street and there at the historic
Juncture of Pennsylvania avenue and
New York avenue, where countless in
augural processions, great parades and
the Grand Army of the Republic at the
close of the civil war have wheeled into
line for the moment of review, right
there, straight ahead three squares and
in full view, is the Toy Shop. 1
Not every one, however, dwells at the
White House, and to the great majority
?wherever they live the Toy Shop seems to
be within walking distance. It is in the
heart of the residential part of the city,
and for practically the memory of man
has throbbed away under the surface
life of Washington, symbol of the deeper
Joys of mankind and r>art of the heart
life of all that has made the city famous.
It is such a little shop that Joseph and
his wife Appelonia Stuntz founded so
many years ago to be the delight fof
Presidents' children and of the loved
ones of other men. A little two-story
house, just two windows wide above and
only a door and sh^w window wide bg
low, but small as it is with its swinging
alley door to the rear, it was always piled
high in the little tunnel-like room that
ran back to the living room and kitchen
beyond, with every conceivable joy that a
child could wish. Insjide it was fragrant
and Christmassy, and( outside it kept us
eyes wide open upon Jthe windows of the
east r^m of the \\1hite House, whose
DP were destined to carry off so
" manySi^-Jts treasures. Half a century
ago. it looks/today, its showcase
*preaciljrf*ore the wandering eyes of the
childrenfclie wonderful carved toys Joseph
tnadei T'Wiay in a/ marvelously changed
WasJJngtdpi it smues its welcome with
quamL-trtulworld sincerity.
The^ rm the nprth side of New York |
InllQ it has stood for the last fifty-two
kt-ars. for Joseph Stuntz. a color bearer
Napoleon, colored Washington in 1855,
tV same Japanese nation, as a
rault clexpedition of Commodore
entered Into Its place among the
?re^t nations of the world. In Washing
ton ^ie opening of tjie Toy Shop is re
gaM'to as the KMpter >*vent.
So 'fed T.inroHT Thought and Jesse Grant |
ana J#resident Garfield's Ikijs and Scott
a%t H-esident Uartleld s i>oys ana a< on
H*yes. and so have thought countless
hundreds of children now grown to man
hood and womanhood, whose children
think the same thing today.
It was a wotnan known throughout the
lanil^or hoBMocial distinction who went
wearltai into xht shop the other day with
a pf>nBL
"I wflPrn feel.'' she said, "as I did.
when I-Was a child. Haven't you any
taffy?"
Mention Stuntz at any club or dinner
or social gathering in Washington and
the floodgates of reminiscence are |
opened. Through the whole dark days of
the civil war and reconstruction. In days j
of national plenty or panic, the little :
shop kept open a 1 day and through the
evenings to satisfy the wants of children
and brighten the lives of fathers and '
mothers. A warm little love spot, the
only open house of Santa CIhub for years
in a cify of cold marble politics and ab
stract office buildings. v
In Napoleon's Service.
When Joseph Stuntz came to Wash
ington in '55 to be the purveyor of toys
to Presidents, he had already served
a ruler, and had had an adventurous
career. Born in the Tyrol in 1707. as I
a boy of twelve he had Journeyed to
Paris under the spell of Napoleon's fame,
and became apprenticed to a cabinet
maker for the Tuilleries. He had already
1'arned to carve the great N of the em
pi re with dexterity when the emperor
needed his right arm in a desperate cause.
The disastrous Russian campaign called
for the rapid mobilization of a new army,
and Joseph became a color-bearer.
Hut Waterloo came in 1X14 and the boy
had an ugly wound in his fqot. He had
bled for his emperor and his emperor
was taken away. The wander-lust seized
Joseph. He shipped for the new world
and set up a cabinet shop in Philadelphia,
but the young wife the hoy found there
died when his baby died, and alone he
took the road again. Mexico allured him
and for some years New Orleans knew
the skill of the lingers trained in the
empe-or's service. Rut Joseph liked to
get at the heart of things. He spoke
German, French. Spanish and his adopted
Knglish. and l:? wanted to work for no
less an employer than the government.
He had sensed greatness He came to J
Annapolis. Md.. found a wife in Appelonia
Koch of Baltimore, ami began a great
order for furniture to be used for a ship
littlng out at the navy yard of the old
state capital. Time passed, and Joseph's
wound reopened.
It was during the dire days when the
man saw his life work taken from him
that the last journey, that to Washing
ton. was made, and the soldier and the
skilled artisan, with no little baby of his
own. became a fashioner of toys for ofner
little children. With the wounded foot
propped on a chair in the little room back
of the shop Joseph sat for years working
miracles in wood for the children. And
then the wife came 1o the front. Such
taffy, such kuchen. hail never been tasted
in Washington. Why. the baker's daugh
ters on the square above came In when-J
ever they had a penny to buy the luscious
cookies. And how good it all did smell!
Kvery boy and girl, grown to gray hair
now. In Washington wilt tell you there
never was such a fragrance as that of
Appelonia's shop.
It was In the grimmest years of the
civil war that Lincoln, wrapped in his
A $ujrJ)ix At Thl-1
big shawl, in liis restless patrol of the
streets of war-sudden city, found^the toy
shop iind bought wooden soldiers tor Tad.
A bond of sympathy at once sprang up
between the shut-in color bearer and the
war President.
Maj. Albert E. Johnson, who was a sec
retary to Stanton and who lived on &th
street above New York avenue, used to
walk down 9th street and out New York
avenue to the great war -etary's office
every day. He says he o saw Uncoln
in 4iis boots and tall hat ,ie out of the
toy shop with ? pack* for the im
perious young despot of ti White House.
It will be remembered that Robert Lin
coln was already on Grant's staff, and me
other boy. Willie, had died at?the White
House. There was only one boy for whom
Lincoln could buy toys of the old soluier.
Joseph Stuntz died in '(M be/ore the
close of the war, but Uie fame of his
shop had spread, and it had already been
necesswy for the wise-managing wife to
MRS. HELEN LONCSTRBKT. widow
of Gen. James Longstreet, has
announced that she will send
President Roosevelt a persimmon-fattened
'possum for Christmas. Senator Taylor
of Tennessee, who? is an authority on
'possums, tells this good stQjry about an
old negro in his neighborhood:
"One of the most peaceable and kind
hearted old negroes I ever knew was
old Uncle Pompey, who liked to hunt
'possums and also liked to eat them. One
day the old man was arraigned before his
boss for unmercifully beating another
negro who was a town visitor to the plan
tation. The town buck had his eyes
bandaged, his nose was split and a piece
of one ear was gone, while his clothing
was in tatters.
'? 'Pompey,' said the master, 'is this the
negro you had the trouble with?"
?? 'Dat's de nigger, master," was the
reply, 'but I didn't have much trouble
wid him. He's de one dat had de trouble,
sah.'
" 'But, Pompey, why did you beat the
negro so unmercifully?'
I " Master, I'se gwine ter tell yer de
[ trufe. He comes down here an' all
drc#sed up in biled shirt ai>d high colla.r,
torpentf; toyshop e
add to their stock with toys from Balti
more. imported from the old country.
Wh'at .little boy in Washington, wliether
northerner or southernei*. was not made
happy in those daye with soldiers in nice
German non-committal colors.
Every one who wanted favors of Lin
coln knew the tender path to his heart
and brought a toy for Tad. It is ilaj.
Johnson who also tells the story of the
men who were packing up the Lincoln
possessions after the assassination, and
who came across an unused room full of
toys. What political problems and what
momentous events to the nation were
prefaced by these recognitions of child
hood? War and slavery could not blot out
of men's minds the happiness of children.
An International Shop.
There were two schools near the toy
shop in those days. Mme. Burr's, on the
south side pf New York avenue near
the White House, and Mrs. Kerr's, 011 12th
near I street. These were French finish
ins schools for fashionable young ladies,
anil it is hecause of these that the toy
shop gainedfmore than a local reputation.
There was no other store where decorous
young ladies out for a constitutional with
a school chaperon could purchase such
cakes and such taffy. North and south
uaited on the matter of Mrs. Stuntz's
taffy. Today its memory lingers and tHe
little shop is enshrined in a halo of senti
ment. A few weeks ago one of these
girls, now a grandmother, received! a let
ter from her daughter in Hawaii. It was
a request that she go to St?;ntz and buy
dolls and dolly furniture for the little
granddaughter way off in the Paoiiic.
How could a little girl whosevmamma and
grandmother had addressed, letters to
Santa Claus in care of Stuntz be sure of
safe delivery by any other agent? Soon
the toys were started on their transconti
nental journey.
In much the same spirit another lltt'e
girl who now lives in California, but who
had spent some time with her grand
mother at the capital, wrote:
"Dear Gram:
"I must have some pewter dishes. You
can only get them at Stuntz's. You can't
miss them. Go right in and walk back
to the back counter. They are next to-the
peni^y table. Please g?t me some."
The penny toys and the' pewter dishes
are on. their way to California. Express
age even on penijy toys counts up. but
who would be economic in a question of
sentiment.
Wliite House Purchasers.
President Andrew Johnson's grandchil
dren knew where to buy toys. There was
a group of them: Belle and Andrew Pat
terson, and "Lillie, Sarah and Andrew
Stover, and besides a third Andrew, the
President's twelve-year-old son. Belle was
a beauty, and a little German boy who
lived near the shop promptly fell in love
-Itli her. Aftpr Jesse Grant's time, who
was a famous base ball player and knew
all the boys, came the Garfields.
When Garfield was a member of Con
gress he lived at the corner of I and 13th
streets. That house faces Franklin
square, where- the Shermans also lived.
JtVhat he found at the shop was pretty
'POSSUM FOR PRESIDENT IN SOUTHERN STYLE.
an' while we niggers wuz er 'tendin' ter
our own business he axes me wuz er 'pos
sum fitten for ter eat, an' dat's de last I
'members 'j-ept dat I vindicated de 'pos
sum.' "
* ? =?
Representative Griggs: "One of my
newspaper friends has recently quoted me
as an authority on 'possums, and I sup
pose I am familiar with the varmint. I
trust the President will enjoy the 'pos
sum Mrs. Longstreet sends him, but down
in Georgia a 'possum supper is regarded
as synonyrfloua with a political confer
ence, and this reminds me of what ex
Representative Candler of my state wrote
when he was invited to a 'possum sup
per when he was a candidate for gov
ernor. He knew that the meti invited to
the supper were not altogether favorable
to him, and he decided not to be present.
'A political 'possum supper,' he wrote
to the host. Ms not the place for a one
eyed man.' The remark went all over
the state, the hostile guns were spiked,
the supper failed to unite the opposition,
and the shrewd one-eyed plow boy of
Pigeon Roost was made governor by a
tremendous majority."
* * $
Representative Livingston: "If the
President has an old-time negro cook to
prepare his 'possum he will And It a far
more palatable dish than his Rhode Is
land turkey; but he needn't expect a first
class 'possum supper unless the varmint
is properly cooked with fine yam pota
toes an'd there is an abundance of good
old corn pone to go with it. The 'pos
sum, the yams and the corn 'dodger' must
be there or it will be a scrimpy 'possum'1
supper."
* * *
'Possum suppers aro regarded as great
vote-getters in the south, but the plan
adopted by the lamented Henry W. Grady
to capture votes for prohibition, when the
contest was on in Atlanta years ago,
didn't pan out well.
Grady rented one of the largest ware
houses in the city, and buying all the
'possums he coutd get hold of he gave a
'possum supper to about 400 'doubtful'
negro voters the night before election.
It was arranged that these ndgroes should
remain in the warehouse until the polls
opened next morning, and with plenty to
eat and good speakers the night was
spent.
Capt. Kvan Howell, Grady's partner in
the newspaper business, was on 'the other
siue of the fence' in the campaign, and
when he got wind of Grady's game he
employed a few trusty negroes to kill and
cook a tloaen or more cats and take-them
to the warehouse early in the morning
and tell the negroes that Grady hud
given them a supper of cats and not
'possums.
There was consternation in the camps
of the sons of Ham, and so forcefully did
the Howell negroes argue the point that
they had been duped and not given a
'possum supper that only a few of them
cast their ballots for prohibition. Grady
had fluked and said to Captain Howell:
"Well. Evan, I have spent sleepless
nights thinking of your lost condition, and
now I realize that there is no hope for
you. It will be impossible for me now
to get even a Shine in thift town, and I
can never look another 'possum in the
face."
* & *
Representative Clayton of Alabama: "I
am glad the President is to enjoy a 'sim
mon-fed 'possum, for it is a luscious dish.
Most 'possum hunters in the south always
fatten their 'possums after they are
| caught, and this reminds me of a negro
preacher who had a big fat 'possum
stolen from him. The pieacher got up
on S&nday morning and found his var
mint gone, but he managed to get to his
church, and during his discourse said:
" 'I wahns yer agin de sin uv crap
shootin'. I wahns yer agin de sin uv
whisky drinkin'. I wahns yer agin de
sin uv lyin'. I wahns yer agin de sin
of takin' watermillions. and I wahns yer
agin de great sin uv stealin' 'possums." ,
a devout worshiper in the rear of the
much the same as Lincoln did, but there
was a special box of toys known as
"Grandel's artillery" which was a prime
favorite with his boys. All the Garfield
children loved the place, and little Mollie
would have no other dolls.
Mrs. Stuntz soon after the war took a
little apprentice girl, ami it was this
"Miss Kate," the owner of the' shop since
Mother, Stuntz's death, that the young
James Garfield, the present Secretary of
the Interior.^ found behind the same little
counter recently.
"I want some toy soldiers." he sa'd. He
has boyfe of his own. Wonderful leaden
soldiers were produced, as they arg now
made in Germany.
"No, not these." he cried. "Wooden sol
diers?T want wooden soldiers that come
in a box that I had when I was a boy."
It was not until 11X11 that the widely
loved old lady Stuntz died. She was nine
ty-one years old. and had been a personal
friend of every one of note in the city.
Not a bit bigger than it was half a cen
taury ago. the little toy shop, to adjust it
self to the new life of Washington, with Its
large department houses and countless
stores, has taken in some alien stock. The
taffy and cookies and rosy-cheeked apples
are gone, and in their stead are spools of
cotton, tape, darning thread and othsr
notions. And somehow the grown-ups
find as much delight in buying these
church jumped to his feet and said ex
citedly, "Dat's er fac', parson."
" 'Whuffo' does yer, my brudder, r'ar up
an' 'rupts me w'en I speaks uv 'possum
stealin'?' x
" 'Kase, yer jist 'minded me uv whar I
lef' my overcoat." "
No whits man or woman can ever cook
a 'possum to such perfection as the old
black mammies. These good old souls
Just seem to know how?comes natural
with them?and after the varmint is
baked and flanked with large yellow
yams it does the old soul good to stand
and see her "white folks 'joy da 'pos
sum." Plain corn pone and the "cracklin
bread" are not absolutely necessary ad
juncts. but mawmy has them to com
plete the feast. With her head covered
with a red bandana and a long white
apron reaching nearly to the floor, she
stands in the door watching her "whtte
folks" eat with a relish, and she thinks
she Is a third degree graduate in the
culinary art. And
Yer kin talk er 'bout yer chicken, an" yer tur
key, an' yer (roose; ?
Yer kin talk er 'bout yer spir'rit*, an' yer
Nasaidfre, ef yer choose:
Yer kin talk er 'bout yer beefsteaks, an' yer
inuttou ail' roast pig.
An' all the hlghfalutln' dlslies that er Frenchy
cook can rig:
Yer kin smack yer lips an' wish fer everything
ter eat.
But lem'me tell yer, massa, dat er 'possum can't
be beat.
things now as they once found in the
taffv. Miss Kate is not sure when cab
inet ladies like Mrs. James Gartield op
senators' or members' wives come la
whether they want cotton or some subtler
substance made ,un of memory and senti
ment which is given away with the pur
chases. It was Miss Sherman, tlie gener
al's daughter, who said:
"You can buy more for a penny at
Stuntz's than anywhere on earth."
History. youth. Joy and simplicity all
are wrapped up in the package. All the
frequenters of the shop remember tlia
Shermans. There were Tom, who has
since become a priest, ifnd red-lieaded
brother and two sisters. Bift it is not
only Presidents and politicals who dis
covered the toy shop. The army and
the navy, the judiciary and the depart
ments. the merchants and the clerks all
rame in turn.
The Nabob of the Street.
. One boy known everywhere as "Little
Lord Fauntleroy" was particularly ap
preciative of the good things to be got
there. The two sons of Frances Hodgson
Burnett were Lionel and Vivien. It was
Vivien who proved to be the nabob of
the neighborhood, the Burnetts living
near the shop. The little lord swore by
the shop.
"Go into Mrs. Stuntz's. you can get any
thing vou want there for nothing." Ha
had observed the credit account of his
mother. Lord Fauntleroy's following in
creased strangely, and were peculiarly de
voted. Then one day his mother discov
ered that his own account, quite innocent
ly run up. amounted to $40.
With all its history and the celebrity of
Its patrons, the little shop has never
grown opulent or lent itself the air of a
big store. Through the long year needles
ana thread and such things are sold, and
generations of normal school girls from
the big training school two squares away
come and go with kindergarten beads and
gaily colored worsted and other school
primary essentials, but at the holiday sea
son the little shop blossoms out like a
Christmas rose and returns to Us own
again.
"But why have they not made a for
tune?" asks the practical stranger when
he learns of the place the toy shop holds
In the hearts of the people.
Washington children smile: they know
Stuntz and his wife and the little appren
tice girl have the Christmas heart.
"You can buy more for a penny there
than anywhere."
Loneliness.
From Woman.
A woman should cultivate the capacity
to be alone, and the habit of grumbling
must be checked. Loneliness Is bound to
come to us all as agu advances, but there
need be no loneliness of soul or heart, b?
cause our hours of solituda may ba mors
peopled than hours spent in company.