for the American market, sending
them to all parts, and furnishing the toy-stores in Chicago and other
western cities, as well as New York, Philadelphia and Boston.

This manufactory is at Bordentown, New Jersey, and has been in existence
about twelve years, and the value of stock now sent out is about seven
thousand dollars a year; so much money for the wee feet that run on no
errands, and save no steps for anybody! The wholesale jobbers of course
advance the price, and in the retail stores they are higher yet; so that
each tradesman through whose hands they pass has his trifle of profit in
helping to shoe the feet of the doll-people. They retail from a dollar
and a dollar and a quarter a dozen, to three dollars and seventy-five
cents, according to the style.

[Illustration: DOLLY'S SHOES]

They "run," as the dealers express it, in twelve sizes; the "common
doll's shoes" (which means shoes for common dolls) vary, however, from
the class made for wax dolls, which have grades peculiar to themselves,
being not only extra full and wider in the soles, but numbering fewer
sizes, from one to six only. Of the common kind, the slippers and ties
run from one to twelve, the others from three, four or five to that
number. They come packed in regular sizes, a "full line," as those for
children do, or in assorted sizes and styles; in small, square boxes,
such as shoe dealers know by the name of "cartoon," which is another word
for the French _carton_, meaning simply that they are made of
paste-board. The tiniest is not much more than an inch long, but is a
perfectly formed and finished shoe on that miniature scale; and the
largest is almost big enough for Mrs. Tom Thumb, measuring about four
inches, and it could certainly be worn by many a baby you have seen.

As for the names, they come in this order:--slippers, ties, ankle ties,
Balmorals, buttoned boots, Polish buttoned, Polish eyeletted, and
Antoinette, which is a heeled, croquet slipper, in which her doll-ship,
when engaged in that out-of-door game, can show off her delicate, clocked
stockings to advantage.

But what shall I say of the variety in color and trimmings? They are in
white and crimson, in buff and blue, in scarlet and purple, in rose color
and violet, in bronze and silver and gold, everything but black, for
dolls don't like black except in the tips of their gay Balmoral or Polish
boots. And the stuff they are made of is such soft material as can only
be found