Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/744

 CHILDREN Wax doll dressed as a Court lady of the time of Louis XV I. ; painted brocade dress. lOJ inches. Such dolh are rare and extremely valuable. We deprecate the fashion of freak dolls. Golliwogs, though lovable people in their way, develop no sense of motherhood in a child. Policeman dolls are an abomination. What should a child know of crime and its detection ? Fat women dolls, brownie dolls, black dolls, soldier dolls, all such things are unnatural and absurd. They are a very decadent set, unworthy to take the place of the little girl or baby doll, who can be loved and petted, undressed, put to bed, rocked to sleep, dressed, fed, taught, slapped, and tormented with face-washing and hair- combing, just as nurse has worried the little mother on so many occasions. Professor Stanly Hall, from, statistics gathered in the United States, places the climax of the doll passion in girls at the age of eight or nine. We have, however, known many cases to linger several years longer ; sometimes, after remaining quiescent for several months, it will flare up again, if a child is brought in contact with another enthusiast, such as a younger sister. Spontaneity is one of the most important elements in play, whether for children or adults. When play needs effort of the mind or a spur to the desire for it, it ceases to be play. Pleasure is only taken in a toy when it .satisfies a want. It is for this reason that materials other than toys so often form instruments in absorbing games. The child with fine imagination will unpack her Christmas parcel and for ten minutes delight in an elaborate puppet which can be wound up and will dance and say "Mamma." But she will return for companionship to the old well-worn doll she has played with and woven stories about for years. A boy under similar conditions, if he has a mind which loves best that which makes a demand on the imagination, will watch the mechanical toy, tire of it, and then either open it to see how it works or play with the wooden packing- case, paper, and string in which it was packed. As a rule, children get more joy out of the toys which demand skill and ingenuity in order to build up the play. For this reason, we would place mechanical dolls on the lowest plane. They are suitable only for dull children and adults who have lost that Heaven-sent gift of " let's pretend," which provides, for those who are lucky enough to retain it throughout life, a delicate fascina- tion unknown in any form of materialism. Children are quick to see essentials, and having them, details are comparatively unimportant. Thus we see the most ele- mentary doll has an upright line for body and legs, and a round knob for the head. The dolls used by the children of primitive peoples are usually a stick, and a gourd or nut for the head — these are the essentials. It* is interesting to note that the specimen of native dolls illustrated, though compara- tively high up in the scale of doUdom, having hair and embroidered features, yet retains the upright line much exaggerated in the long neck. The feeling for the upright line was sub-consciously working in the mind of the maker. As the elementary doll advances, a piece of wood is added at the shoulder-line to the upright stick and gourd, so that a rag hung on it, or wrapped round, gives a semblance of width where it should be ; pendant arms follow, and much later some kind of joint or division, so that the doll can sit or bend. When this is achieved, features, hair, fingers, and the rest follow quickly, and the twentieth century has given to the nurseries a Paris A picture showing a child plavmg w: the habit of a nun.