TOYS AND THE CHILD

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 47, 19 November 1917, Page 3

TOYS AND THE CHILD

One sometimes speculates aa to what the toys of tlie children will bo like after tliis'war (states a writer in the Sydney "Telegraph"). . There can be no doubt that a forco which will leave its mark on almost every avenue of life and industry will have as big an influence on the playthings of tho children as elsowhere. And it is to he feared that the belligerent attitudo of the years through which wo are passing will develop a tasto for warlike toys—mimic engines of destruction, warships, submarines, and the hundred and one other playthings in which the spirit of the times can bo reflected. Incidentally one speculates as to whether, if |ho miniature cannon and the sword and the gun had been a'less frequent toy in the hands of the little German boy tho German man and the German nation would ever have brought to such perfection the genius for inventing death-Sealing instruments which it has arrived at to-day. There can be little doubt that the mind of the child is largely influenced by the kind of toys it plays with. The doll develops in the small girl that instinct which by and by is to make of her tho right kind of mother; teaches her to make and mend, and to expend on her dolly the care and affection which eo sweetly ioreshadows the protective tenderness of tho woman to be. And to the small boy the gun and the oannon cannot but help the turning of his thought in tKe direction to whioh the thoughts of the whole world are at the present moment turning. If our hard-won peace is to be maintained, if it is to be a lasting peace, the mothers of the nation will turn back to the simple, old-fashioned toys for tb.2 entertainment of their children. They will encourago the manufacture of those toys | only whtch .will have the best effect upon : the instincts and the unformed'minds. Quite apart from war influences, it iB j interesting to review the change in the popular taste for toys even during the past»fcw years. To a very large extent the doll was ousted from favour by the Teddy bear, and to those of an older generation it was an amazing thing to j see a smnll girl caressing and giving to one of those grotesque-looking specimens the care which we reserved fo rour flaxenhaired beauties. It soon became rare to see a girl past her eighth year exhibiting an interest in a doll. II she possessed such a thing she kept it in hiding, and it was the Teddy bear that went vrith her on her jaunts, Then came the kewpie. And the kewpie has remained. Quaint and amusing as this queer little travesty on Cupid is, it certaiuly lacks charm a 9 a doll. Yet I no child is content unless she carries a kewpie with its body swathed in ribbon, and its wings sticking up stiffly above its shoulders. One could almost wish that when Rose O'Neill's brush refused fo follopv the correct contour of 'the' approved Cupid some other curves had been taken than those which distinguish, ed the kewpie. * It would oe a good thing to see the children go hack to their old lores. | Every mother would rejoice over the re. ' turn. We want the little girls in their "cubby houses,'' with their rag and china and v;axen darling strewn in all directions; and the boys spinning tops and flying kites and driving in miniature cricket pegs. We want to see a game of rounders, with the ball "slogged" desperately by a sturdy arm, and the flying figures bounding from post to post. It is long, long since we heard the voices of children chanting "Green Gravels, s the Grass is so- Green." It takes a lot to satisfy the juveniles of to-day. They" take their joys maturely and scorn to romp and shout. Men and women before 'they enter their teens, by the time they reach 20, the year 3 which should seem so long and sweet and won. derful, are likely to be remembered a 6 no more than a swiftly-passing dream.