COT CASES CURED

NZ Truth, Issue 1204, 27 December 1928, Page 15

COT CASES CURED

New Heads For Dolls < and [ New Sthiles For Mothers

' Many and various are the communications received by Moran's Doll Hospital, Wellington, from quaintly-shaped ' hundlei i with old dolls tucked inside to little letters such as thid;- ,-..... w , _

B ! "Dear Sir,— My doll is very sick B. and her head has come off. Will B. iyou please take her into your hos- ■ pi tal and make her well? - She has "> ■ bjeen m your hospital before) so . B she will not be lonly. Please let B ■me n° whon you can take her.— B Yours faithfully, Freda Powell." . ■THIS little letter, written m pencil B 1 and m a childish hand which has B . tried very hard to be neat and ■ careful, is 'one of the many which Bflrift into Moran's Doll Hospital, ManBnerfc Street,- Wellington. ■ The Dolls' Hospital is the only place Bin ' New Zealand where casualties ■among china and celluloid babies are Beat ered for on a really large scale. B Twenty years ago "Doctor", Morgan Bfirst dried the .tears of k young lady ■trhose wonderful doll had come to m honorable combat by putting bits together again. ■■ ' ! V Tht) mending of broken dolls beB 'name a steady part of the business, B though all that the good physician B then received for fee Avas the sunBi shine m small faces, for whom no new doll could be quite as good as X the old. . ■> ■■ \ Hr But eventually, so manj r more or less dolls, wooden elephants ■[and clockwork trains • adorned the ■' shelves ' that it became necessary .to

open a casualty ward— and the : Dolls' Hospital has had its name painted m red letters on a signboard ever since. > Inside, there is no display .of neat white beds or sympathetic nurses. The dolls lie just as they come m, some With small clothes attached, others m Htate o£ complete nudity. There are boxes of eyes— very . round .and unwinking — bundles of v curls;*; stray legs and arms, and over all the' sickly, sweet smell of the liquid celluloid, "the dolls' anaesthetic." But marvels of plastic • surgery • are done m this little shop. Even if, m unreasonable mood; one's small brother has completely battered the nose off one's favorite kewpie, ( the damage can be repaired. '\. '-„'. '';'*' ; New noses, new eyes ana new blushes are, all a part oi, the trade. The liquid celluloid is applied wherever necessary, and painting fresh roses on Uds and cheeks is a matter m which many years' experience has given "Doctor" Morari skill. ' "Are dolls as popular- as ever?" Far more, so," says the Doctor., iriterspers/.tag remark's with an occasional twist *of the cord which he is , threading through an electric doll's interior. "All the Girl Guide sections Jearn mothercraft with the use ■ of dolls, which means a. very steady .demand. "The same science is taught at homes and schools, and, too, , playtime is better catered for m the various, homes and orphanages • "than it was twenty years ago. '.'We can mend broken legs or hearts here. But the hearts m the case usually belong to small ladies whose oldest, ugliest and best-loved dollies have come to a sad end. The hospital' really plays a comforter's part then. Dolls come m here very sorely afflicted and distressed, but with their names neatly printed on them by the little 'mothers.' "The old Teddy bear is still, a favorite and Germany still the home of dolls. Most of the sophisticated' .'French' ones would really speak with a German accent if they could talk. And the lady doll hasn't followed the fashion of shingling-. . "Bobbed wigs can be obtained, of Course, but there is so much glorious hair going to waste m Continental barbers' shops .lust now that the dolls could have hair down to their feet without much expense." The electric 'doll; can waggle an arm very amusingly, and one of the allegedly French dolls sits on a shelf, looking down on the company from under blue-pencilled, disdainful eyelids. But m the 'majority, the dolls are just the same blue-eyed, pink-cheeked Gretchens whom we all loved to distraction "when we were very young."