THE USES OF WOOD 



733 



A CARRYING CASE FOR TOOLS 



The boy sees a workman carrying a tool chest and he wants 

 one for himself. Boy Scouts are the greatest tool carriers 

 among children. The chest here shown is designed for carrying. 

 It is of chestnut wood which is light, attractive in appearance, 

 end has all the strength needed for practical purposes. 



mills are built like the old frontier affairs, once common but now rare. Farm 

 houses, barns, granaries, and other buildings suggest country life; and the coun- 

 terpart of these is the village, with its streets, schools, churches, and stores. The 

 railroad station, the wharf, the tunnel, and the bridge are duly copied or imitated. 

 They are sometimes placed in the child's hands in complete form, but usually they 

 are in blocks, and the child sorts out the blocks, fits them together, and constructs 



the objects in their entirety. He 

 thus has the double pleasure of 

 building and of seeing the work 

 after it is done. The toy maker 

 studies carefully the psychology of 

 the child, and instruction and 

 amusements are provided in 

 healthful proportion. Styles of 

 architecture are worked out in 

 wood, finely shaped and nicely 

 fitted. Norman towers, Gothic 

 arches, Greek columns, Egyptian 

 doorways and temples, Turkish 

 minarets, Hindu pagodas, and the 

 sagging roofs of Chinese edifices 

 are all shown in the list of archi- 

 tectural toys. Color schemes are 

 not overlooked and woods of dif- 

 ferent tints and shades are com- 

 bined- to give pleasing effect to 

 finished buildings. The child's contact with work as it is carried on about him 

 every day, sharpens his desire for something in imitation of the machines em- 

 ployed in trades and in business. Wagons are the most common objects in real 

 life, and the most common in toyland. In size and fashion they are almost 

 infinite, but every one is a model or an imitation of a vehicle used for business or pleasure. Though a toy cart may 

 not weigh a quarter of a pound, it is intended to be a copy of a real vehicle. It is so with all sorts of little wagons. 



These are modeled after the delivery wagon which the butcher drives, or 

 the grocer's, the express, or the heavy truck, and it would be difficult to 

 find a child with a wagon who could not tell what kind it is. Most toy 

 wagons are of wood, but it does not appear that the toyman has yet 

 succeeded in making a wooden automobile, though he has provided rail- 

 r o a d locomo- 

 tives wholly of 

 wocd, from 

 tender to cow- 

 c a t c her ; but 

 they are not 

 made to do 

 much running 

 under power 

 other than a 

 push or a pull. for the kindergarten class 



r i r e ngnting Toy furniture may be highly useful, and a pretty large class of that kind 



r . 1 orlr 1 * s on tne market and evidently finds buyers. It is a sort of connect- 



OUtll IS lend j ng ijnk between the home and the school. The principal difference 



+ Vi mcpivf<; between it and regular furniture is in size. Similar patterns and 



tne nl Selves ]^ e materials prevail in both. 



readily to 



wooden imitations, and toyshops are full of them. The engines are 

 generally of metal, but the ladders and carts are of wood. Toy makers 

 study the wants of the village or city child, rather than of those of the 

 rural districts. That is doubtless because the largest sale of toys is in 

 towns. The surroundings of country children may have something to do 

 with the relative smallness of toys there. They need fewer artificial 

 playthings because they have more real ones, such as lambs, cats, ducks, 



A blackboard from toyland 



Children do not always get as much 

 blackboard at school as they want, and 

 they make up the deficiency by equip- 

 ping the play room at home with models 

 somewhat like the real boards at 

 school. The toy boards are of smooth, 

 fairly hard wood that holds paint well 

 and wears in a satisfactory manner. 



TEACHING ORDERLY PLAY 



Toy makers are generally careful to provide both 

 the toys and a place in which to keep them; for 

 it is a good business proposition to make the toys 

 popular with parents as well as with children. 

 That result is reached by providing a place for 

 the playthings when not in use, thereby keep- 

 ing them oat from underfoot. 



