DOLLS AND CHARACTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19792, 12 November 1927, Page 1 (Supplement)

DOLLS AND CHARACTER.

BY ALICE CARE TIBBISS.

STUDIES IN CHILDHOOD.

Said a well-known idealist a few weeks ago, "I am much concerned with the passing of the doll, as a children's toy of great antiquity. The mimic child in the child's possession seems to be, in some form or other, almost as old and universal an institution as children themselves, and the child who cares nothing for a doll will in due time care nothing for children." This set mo thinking—contemplating a future of doll-less girl-children and childless wives. I decided that the picture was unpleasant, and determined to find out if the doll was really passing, or had passed. I am glad to know that, according to the men whoso business in life it is to dispense toys to little ones, the doll has not passed; for when one remembers the aching desire of one's heart toward some inaccessible beauty in a shop window, as daily one pressed one's nose out of shape to get a nearer view, it would seem that human nature itself must have changed for the worse if it were so. But no. I am assured that these ancient playthings of child-life are not in danger of becoming extinct as nursery gods, giving way to the modern craze for the unnatural, bizarre—as indicated by the large showing of toys representing animals of grotesque shape and expression—many of them actually fearsome to a sensitive child mind. Hatural Choice. These toys, I argued, must be sold. . . Then were they the child's unbiassed choice, or merely the outcome of perverted instincts on the part of grown-ups? The latter, I was told—that few girl-children deliberately chose splay-footed, hunchbacked, cadaverous cats with a Siamese grin, or similar montrosities, that the boys poked fun at them, although ready to admit that dolls were ridiculous. The wail of one little girl when urged by a parent to buy a huge furry creature with bulging eyes is touching. "No, mother, please! You know you kept my last Christmas cat on the shelf for an ornament:"

Quite small boys, it seems, often crave dolls, but are so teased by their parents that any natural desire for such is promptly smothered, which is. perhaps, as it should be—yet who knows what latent fatherly instinct finds an early grave by such treatment ?

The doll, even if it does pass, must always be interesting—it has reigned so long. Uncounted centuries ago, when wee baby hands were folded to rest with pagan rites, tiny, slim, straight figures formed roughly of baked earth were placed beside ere the soil was thrown, as if, indeed, they were some inseparable part of the child.

Then,, too, so much of a child's character is revealed by its treatment of a doll. Why? Because, to the child mind the doll is human—subject to the child as child is to the parent—the only being to whom it can express its natural instincts without suppression. It will be seen that while many children play with dolls, they play in different ways and for different reasons. Hints of Maturity. I ' One child, in reference to her maimed doll: "I shall never iove another doll like this; you see, it has only got one eye, one leg, and one arm, and nobody would love it .-if I didn't." What a promise of womanly kindness, faithfully cheering some life needing comfort —some erring mortal whom "nobody would love if she didn't." The mother instinct is plainly shown when the child keeps still for ten long minutes pretending dolly is asleep; when she presents her with an imaginary cold in order to doctor her with sips of medicine and wrap her in a shawl. That child is the future mother of loved babies whom she will prize more highly than the most aristocratic of Pekingese. Another child, showing a characteristic defect, that of lack of perseverance, though full of good intentions, will begin her doll's wardrobe on a magnificent scale, then get tired, leaving it unfinished, and have nothing but an ill-dressed doll. Yet another goes about it more simply, working patiently at one thing at a time, and finishing satisfactorily, indicating a future helpful, industrious little woman. Then there is the child who likes her doll dressed stylishly, grown-up fashion, modern as her own big sisters, and who, when the fine clothes are spoiled, cares nothing for the doll itself; can we not see that trait developing to the final result—a vain woman ? The indolence of luxurious vanity has also its childish exponent when the owner of an expensive doll craves feathered hats and so forth for its head, minute powder boxes and miniature toilet accessories for mimic use, but would not trouble to cut or make anything for it herself, and who would not own the doll were it not dressed like the mannequin of some fashionable emporium. This trait, fostered, might result in the sorry specimens of old-young children paraded like puppets by misguided mothers. Last—and least pleasing—wo have the type of little people who are not at all credulous in regard to doll-life. No human resemblance of the toy rebuffs them when they attack dolly with knife or scissors to discover—like young Frankensteins — the secrets of her vitality as to inward squeaks or shutting eyes. How is it that Billy and Billy's sister can extract the blue, life-like eyes of the creature without being startled by a sense of atrocity ? How is it that Billy's sister will calmly accept possession of the extracted orbs as curiosities even when she has not actively assisted in the mutilation ? This opens up such a Bluebeardish train of thought that T shrink from its pursuit, fleeing in horror from what might appear to be the logical conclusion, hoping that some refining influence may turn all these youthful vivisectionists into citizens of anti-murderous design. Eternal as the Stars.

How shall the doll pass, even, though father blesses its übiquity' when he sits clown to read his paper, and mother grumbles at its propensity for shedding' bran ? Far down the ages they confront us —clav, rag, wood, india-rubber, china, composite and wax, an immense doll population; some only able to remain upright by leaning against something or each other, some wajking with ludicrous, staccato steps; somo dumb, and others, imitating baby humans, giving forth through parted lips an intestinal squeak when squeezed. I think they are eternal, like the stars. While there are children there will be dolls.

Who does not know of Maggie Tulliver's doTT? George Eliot's masterly characterisation shows the vivid imagination and strange working of the child mind which turned a loved plaything into a detested Aunt. Glegg, driving nails into its head, knocking it upon the floor, and grinding it against the brick chimneys in the loft. This is one of the most curious illustrations of the ways of children and the importance of a doll; from the primitive ragbaby to the waxen, flaxen beauties with human hair and bodies "thoroughly sprung." " 'By their very! likeness to, the human form dolls must continue to "he," play the part of loved and disliked according to the imagination of present and future little Maggie Tullivera.