ow that one
large glass manufactory that existed in my younger days--namely, that of
Rice Harris, which stood near where now stands the Children's Hospital,
Broad Street--was disestablished many years ago.

If I remember rightly Rice Harris's glass works had one of those large
old-fashioned brick domes that I fancy are not constructed nowadays. One
or two, however, still remain, and I for one feel glad that Messrs.
Walsh and Co., of Soho, allow their dome to stand where it did, just as
a landmark and to remind me of pleasant bygone days.

I confess, too, that I like to go into one of these big glass hives, or
rather glass-making hives, and see the workmen at their "chairs" blowing
and moulding the hot ductile glass into its appointed form and patterns;
and I like also to see the curling wreaths of smoke ascend and disappear
through the orifice at the top of the dome. And when I look at this I
wonder how that huge chimney is cleaned, and where the Titanic sweep is
that could undertake such a gigantic job. Well, I can hardly say I
wonder, because I think I have been told that the way the soot is
cleaned from these well-smoked domes is by firing shot at the roof,
which brings down the dirt.

When in the winter season I see skates prominently exposed for sale in
our shop windows I am reminded of another of the odd or rather side
industries of Birmingham. I refer to the steel toy trade. The word toy
seems appropriate enough when applied to skates and quoits, but seems a
curious word to designate such articles of distinct utility as hammers,
pincers, turnscrews, pliers, saws, and chisels, yet these articles and
many others of a similar kind are included in the words "steel toys."
This steel toy trade, if not a great industry in Birmingham, is an
old-established one, and has been carried on for years by good
well-known local names, such as Richard Timmins and Sons, Messrs. Wynn
and Co., and others.

XIII.

NEW AND OLD STYLE TRADING.

In an earlier part of these chapters I referred to the new style of
shopkeeping that has developed in Birmingham with the growing size and
importance of the town and city. I now return to the subject again for
the purpose of showing that although Birmingham seems to be much to the
fore in the matter of up-to-time shopkeeping, there are still a limited
number of traders and shopkeepers who keep pretty much to the old lines,
and evidently desire to carry on their businesses in the way