Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/366

the learning that is much needed but also a spirit of true democracy. The country is very interesting and vies with Switzerland in its picturesque aspects. With the help and cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks, Russinia will soon emerge from the stagnation in which it has been steeped for a thousand years by Magyar tyranny.

Užhorod, the capital, with a population of 18,000 inhabitants, is 800 kilometers from Prague, with which it has direct railway communication.

A study of children’s toys aids the ethnographer, the historian, the artist, the psychologist, the pedagogue and even the economist in their tasks. Certain types are repeated in all eras and by all nations. Difference is found merely in technical production because as culture advances playthings shed their primitiveness and their characteristics are changed by advanced factory production, which, at all times, makes for uniformity. But internationalization, frequently, places them beyond childish comprehension. Such means of amusement are discovered by archeologists with mummies, in graves and in caskets of the young. This is also demonstrated by the excavations of Pompeii as well as by observations of explorers in countries inhabited by nations less advanced. All leading museums possess in their collections, specimens of rattles, dolls, boats, tops, hoops, balls, animals, soldiers, whistles, etc. It is highly probable that all of these toys were made in various places almost simultaneously, without doubt independently and without any connection.

The division of labor has also reached into the production of toys, which thereby are made an article of commerce to be purchased for the youngster, for the parents of this age have not the time, inclination, tools or even possibly the ingenuity to create them.

Display windows of toy shops are frequently overfilled with wonderful specimens which renders selection difficult, particularly when the desires of the child exceed the capacity of the purse. Intense competition and feverish publicity and activity have permeated the industry. Much is manufactured. That production should be simple, rapid and prices within reach, wood replaces metal, papier mache is substituted for wood and the molder takes the place of the wood carver.

To fundamental types are added the new, the modish—locomotives, autos, aeroplanes—which reflect the comparative state of civilization and the feverish mood of the day.

It is regrettable that the present day toy industry literally pours out such quantities of finished articles, which, through quantitive production, lose individual characterization.

It is sad that we overlook the opportunity to bring the soul of the child in harmony with the purpose of the toy—that we repress wholehearted participation. When a parent desires to purchase a book for a child he consults authoritive critics as to what is most suitable. But where will he find a consultant in the selection of toys? Who is an authority in the vast labyrinth of toy goods? Which toy will bring out and hold the child’s instinctive interests and feelings? Which toy brings into play the senses, which urge to action?

It is necessary to differentiate between toys made by common people and those by professionals. People’s toys, like folk songs, are the embodiment of the spirit of the creators. They are anonymous, unequalled and thus far unexcelled for simplicity, gaily colored and fully capable to awake illusions. Just as in the middle ages, Germany was far-famed for its toys and the French basket weavers and wood carvers for fashioned toys, so in Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia we excel in the present day. In these impoverished districts we find families, in fact whole generations, which live by making toys. An experienced granddad assorts the wood, men carve, women decorate, while children glue and varnish finished parts. The return for this labor is very meagre, therefore it is nec-