TOY GAMES AND TOY-MAKING.
In treating the subject of toy games adapted for in-door recreation, it should be stated at the outset that many of the manufactured and expensive toys which form the groundwork of an almost innumerable number of games are not described with any detail, because descriptions of these toys with their various uses are invariably supplied to their purchasers, and further instruction here cannot be needed. To those who can afford to procure a constant supply of new and original toys and games, no better means of learning of their appearance can be had than is supplied in the catalogues issued, for the most part gratuitously, or at a very small cost, from time to time, by the leading firms engaged in the toy trade.
As to the most simple toys, particularly those which can be made at home by the exercise of a little skill and ingenuity, and at small cost, it should always be remembered that the making of such simple toys is in itself a recreation, and affords that variety of amusement which makes recreation truly valuable. Again, there are many toys provided by the purveyors of amusements for the youngsters, which can neither be classified among toy games nor as toy-making; but it will not be altogether out of place to mention them here by way, as it were, of parenthesis. The toys more especially alluded to now are those intended to find occupation for youngsters not blessed with playmates, or who are sometimes without playmates.
There are toy bricks and toy building materials of endless descriptions and varieties. By the way, a very amusing and ingenious trick may be performed with a box of bricks familiar to all, that partakes of the simplest character. The bricks referred to are those about two inches long, an inch wide, and half an inch thick, and which are supplied in boxes containing a large quantity of bricks all of that size. If these bricks are set up on end at distances apart of about an inch and a half to an inch and three-quarters, and the one at either end gently touched, so as to fall on to the one placed next to it, the whole set will gradually fall one after the other. The bricks may be arranged serpentine fashion, winding backwards and forwards like a figure 8 or letter S; but provided the distance named is adhered to the result will be the same, and the effect of two or three hundred bricks leisurely knocking each other down will, if the figure in which they are set up be well arranged, have an almost comical appearance.
Then, again, there is the class of toys now known by the name of the originator, "Crandall's toys," all of which are made on the principle of fitting parts of the same structure together by joints. These toys are being constantly extended and made more complicated, and they afford amusement not only to those piecing them together, but also to a numerous company of on-lookers.
The Animal Album: a Talking
Picture-Book.
Among the other leading toys for in-door recreation we would mention "Noah's Arks," "Farm Yards," "Shops," "Railways," "Omnibuses," "Tram Cars," "Wagons," "Horses" (an endless delight to the very young, and which may be had in almost any form, from the simple wooden toy drawn by a handle to that now so common, and which is mounted on a miniature but well-made tricycle), animals of all sorts and noises, singing and talking birds, miniature toy musical instruments, and other toys of a never-ending variety made especially for the male portion of the juvenile population, without mentioning here, in this Boys' Book, those dolls and other toys intended for the amusement of the boys' sisters and female cousins. As an illustration of the ingenuity of the toy-producers, it may be stated that among the latest additions to the more expensive of the mechanical toys is that known as the animal album, of which we give an engraving. This book has represented on the left-hand page the figure of some animal, and on the right-hand page there is some text descriptive of the creature exhibited. On pulling a small button attached to the book, the noise or sound peculiar to the animal on the opened page will be emitted from under the opposite leaf. In the woodcut the letterpress facing the portrait of Chanticleer has been removed to show the mechanism for producing the cries of the various animals.
In short, before proceeding to the description of those toys and toy games selected for more detailed treatment, it may be observed that the possession of toys is in itself a good thing; that the making of and making use of them is better; that the capability of obtaining amusement from those owned, be they simple or be they complicated, is better still; but that it is best of all to be able also to be the means of imparting amusement to those about us.