Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 71, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1909 — THE MOTHER OF THE TEDDY BEARS. [ARTICLE]

THE MOTHER OF THE TEDDY BEARS.

(Copyright, 1909, by American Press Association.)

ONCE upon a time—not so many years ago either—there sat In the doorway of a small cottage in Germany a young woman with smiling eyes, a child loving heart and an invalid body. The children of the little village all knew her and sat in groups around her doorway listening to stories, telling her of their childish adventures, and then, greatest joy of all, receiving in turn some delightful toy that her deft fingers had been fashioning while they, talked together.

Day by day the children gathered about this doorway. They told of the latest flower that had blossomed on the mountain side, of the wonderful span of horses that Hans, the best carver of the village, had cut from a single block of wood, of the dear little blossoms that baby Gretchen had painted upon the set of wooden dishes that were to go to the Christmas market. And to them all the young woman listened, smiling, while she plied her needle or cut—snip, snip—with her scissors.

And while they talked or while they listened the eyes of the children rested eagerly upon the busy fingers, for they firmly believed that in those fingers lay a magic which none others possessed. And why should they not believe it. for when the sun began settling down toward the mountain crests and it was time for them to run away home to their suppers of bread and milk the fingers were always stretched out toward some new member of the group, and upon them rested a wonderful animal—a kitten, or a rabbit, or a duck, or a tiny bear—and the likeness was so wonderful that the children always breathed forth deep “Oh’s” and “Ah’s” and knew for a certainty that there was magic tn the maker’s fingers. No one else in all the country could make such animals as these—not even Hans, the marvelous carver.

Always the busy worker sat in her doorway, where she could see the rugged mountains, the green grass, the nodding flowers. Perhaps It was the strength, the grace and the beauty of these that wrought themselves into her simple work. Then it came about—and no one was more surprised than this child loving young woman herself—that she found herself making hundredsand hundreds of toy animals, for toy buyers from England and America had heard of her wonderful ducks and rabbits and bears and they wanted them for the children of their countries too. And who. do you ask. was thia young woman in faraway Germany? I can only tell von this: Rhe is known now far and wide as the “mother of the Teddy bears.” JULIA DARROW COWLES.