The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 14, 1902, Page 21

HIE year's Santa Claus is the most pretentious fellow that ever made & speedway of roofs or shot the to throw across the room when s naughty. An ordinary wooden rse 4id very well then, one that teetered back and forth in a motion never known to living horse. But these things are of the past and belong to an ezrlier Christmas. wadays Santa Claus goes In for toys are such close copies of nature that you have to look twice to tell the differ- ce. His dollies, in this merry season 902, are as big s you, too big for you e It ies with. You could no more them across the room in a rage than you could fiing mamma eor your own i They would rise up In their &ig- . They are so tall that it is an easy tter for them to @0 s0. They are so bulky that you can’t lft them easily un- til you are too big to play with dolls. Of course it's an open question whether there is as much pleasure to be had from one of these dignified and heavy infants #s from the old-fashioned kind, little enough to be mauled. But you have to be grateful end know that Santa Claus meant well. His ideas are 8o swell and pretentious now that he cannot satisfy himself with the modest toys of the one-time. You have to take it as he meant it. The smartest little-girl doll of the sea- son is en immense blonde, with the most be-esutiful ringlets. They fall in masses over her plump shoulders. They are long end fiaxen end they look exactly like the ringlets of the princess in the storybook. # v e 4 In to-day’s issue of The Sunday Call appears the first installment of “The Gospel of Judas Iscariot,” by Aaron. Dwight Baldwin—a novel that is proving the sensation of two continents. This book will be published complete in three issues of | The Sunday OCall’s Magazine Section — December 14, 21 and 28. BE SURE TO READ IT. Y IT IS THE NOVEL OF THE { HOUR. | A complete short story by one of the leading writers of fiction of the day is published every week in The Sunday Call. DON’T MISS IT, e 4 THE EUNDAY CALL, hese are not 2 ZIECHANICAL Dozr, 9 cosrs : > B2 AN f A \ Gt ) W ) . W = N “\\y‘;l:!ylg;f. \ 7 W 7 VAN 7, 2 Q v | \!“\ "lu / 4 \v )2 She is so big & lttle girl that the real live little girl whom BSanta Claus shall choose for her little mother will hardly be able to carry her. They will be about of a size. And heavy—dear me, what a load she will be for that same small mother. It will develop her muscles even to lift her into the bed or the buggy. The big doll will have to be a good @resser if she is to display her beauty to the best advantage. Bhe certainly un- @erstands the art. She is arrayed like a lly of the field, gorgeously and far be- yond Solomon in all his glory. Her gowns cost far more, though, than do those of the lily. Moreover, she has a greater va- riety of them. it is nothing nowadays for & dressed doll to cost anywhere from twenty-five to & hundred dollars. A large doll alone is worth ten or twelve dollars, without me- chanical attachments. If she talks, sings, ‘walks, cries or dances, so much the more must be expended on her. It is certainly 0dd to pay extra for a ery—with a human baby you would be glad to pay extra for the lack of one—but in a doll this is con- sidered an accomplishment. As for a sing, that makes her wonderfully valu- able. There are European dolls who can squesk the “Marseillaise” or a German Jullaby if you wind them up. They come at $50. Ot course the price of dolly goes up in proportion as the size of her trousseau does. Bometimes she is bought with very few garments an@ mamma or the family seamstress goes to work to fit her out becomes a young lady of her soclal posi- tion. Sometimes she is bought already = equipped with such & wardrobe as & Paris belle might look at with envy, All sorts of furnishings for her home can be had in the smart toy shops. Her bed must be of white enamel and brass, just like the bed of the young lady who owns her. These little beds are miade to fold, so that little mamma can carry them to any room in the house where it is con~ venient to “play dolls.” . ' The bed, to be complete, must be fur- nished with every article from the mat- tress all the way up through daintlest linen sheets, warmest and snowlest blan- kets, fluffilest down comforter, to the ruf- fled counterpane and pillow cases. There is & smart bolster roll covered with lace to be used in the daytime. When Dolly is put to bed this Is replaced by soft pil- lows to make her comfortable and insure her sweet dreams. Her buggy, too, is as elaborately fur- nished as her bed. In the first place, it is quite as elegant as that belonging to baby sister. It is made of rattan and tinted, as larger buggles are nowadays, either white and gold or the fashionable green. Its parasol is a flounced and frill- ed affair of white lace. Its robes are sometimes hand embroidered—think of itl The little girl who wheels it is almost lost behind the towering affair. Little Miss SBophle Osborn posed behind it to show you in the picture how big it is. The boy doll is in fashion now. He has never been as popular as the girl doll, probably because he is more unruly and ghows less affection. But he is coming into favor and he is as elaborately made us his sister. ST ArNFoeD e ] FEorr FALE BROS - To7o .. In the picture Miss Marion Jacklin is taking him to call upon the girl doll. You see that the dolls are almost too big for the real children to manage at all. They fairly stagger under the loads. But it is a proud day when a youngster can call such a doll her own. The boy doll is shown in his outing costume of gay shirt waist and overalls. But, dear me, this is not the only suit he possesses. He has velvet jackets and broad lace collars for dancing school af- ternoons as well as out-of-door things that he may get dirty if he wants to. The little girls of his world are not the only ones that this year's BSanta Claus will remember—did you boys think you were left out? Dearle me, it would be a sad day if you were overlooked. Such a thing never can happen, at least not until you ere & great deal badder than you have been so far and Santa Claus a great deal less forgiving. Y Look at the Rough Rider outfit in which Master Gordon Osborn posed and then ask if Banta Claus has forgotten you. This Rough Rider costume is one of the treasures that he has stored away in his sack. It is complete from broad hat to the straps of the boots. There is even a cartridge belt. Not a detail is omitted. You can thrust your revolver into the belt and ho, for a ride and & battle. Toy guns are belng made more like the real thing every year, so much so that there are fears for the family safety. If the young hero of ths family cares to indulge in a buffelo hunt Christmas will “provide the buffalo as well as the horsa Ul B EI T o A SOV co' TS 21 DoLZLY ZHAS A NEWB20. The buffalo are perfect miniatures of the live animal. They are covered with long brown shaggy halr and they moo grufly. Some have been made to run by means of & sgrt of automobils within them. This kind makes = spirited hunt and it takes much spurring to induce a horse to keep up with them while you shoot from under your arm. The horse is arranged on & kind of spring which causes him to move with a galloping motion, wondertully like a live animal. His saddle and bridle are of the finest kind. Hobby horses are mot what they used to be, absurdly shaped and spotted, but they are formed like a thoroughbred and colored like nature. Horses cost as much as twenty-five dollars many a time. Besides the horse for you to mount, there are mechanical toy horses that are to be wound. There s a wonderful little trotter hitched to a sulky. The animal can be wound so that he will trot with an approved gait and cover the ground fast enough to please any true sporting man. Even the old toys are improved In countless detalls this year. The drums are louder, the mechanical ships sail faster. The toy makers never sleep, it appears, for inasmuch as they work by day they must invent by night. They are mostly Germans and Swiss as you probably know, and they make small money for the amount their work costs the buyer. The process of importation is an expensive one and the selling price has reached a high mark by the time the wares have reached our country. The toys of this season are 30 wonder- ful that they are Interesting grown peo- ple as well as small ones. They are re- markable displays of mechanical skill and invention. The children may be seen drawn up In line in’front of the toy counters in all the big stores, and the parents and relatives and guardians are behirld them trying to look indulgent and superior, but as a matter of fact they are observing with delight right over the tops of the small heads. “I'll be jiggered if I don’'t want that trotting horse for myself,” sald a papa the other day. Perhaps if he is good Santa Claus will bring him one, toco. What do you think sbout 1t? Dying Do Not Show Tears. “I have stood by the bedside of hun- dreds of dying people,” sald an old physi- clan of Topeka recently, “and I have yet to see a dying person shed a tear. No matter what the grief of the bystanders may be, the stricken person will show no signs of overpowering emotion. I have n a circle of agonized children around a dying mother—a mother who in health would have been touched to the quick by signs of grief in a child—yet she re- posed as calm and unemotional as if she had been made of stone. There is some strange and inexplicable psychological change that accompantes the act of dis- solution. It is well known to all physi- cians that pain disappears as the end ap- proaches. And nature seems to have ar- ranged it so that mental peace will attend our last lingering moments.” (%)