lass, and
takes up a little on the end of it. This he passes quickly to another
man, who dips it once more, and, having twirled the tube around so as
to lengthen the glass ball at the end, gives it to a third man, who
places this glass ball in an earthen mould, and blows into the other
end of the tube, and soon the shapeless mass of glass becomes a
bottle. But it is not quite finished, for the bottom has to be
completed, and the neck to have the glass band put around it. The
bottom is finished by pressing it with a cone-shaped instrument as
soon as it comes out of the mould. A thick glass thread is wound
around the neck. And, if a name is to be put on, fresh glass is added
to the side, and stamped with a seal.

[Illustration]

This is also the process of making the beautiful jug just mentioned,
except that three workmen are engaged at the same time on the three
parts--one blows the vase itself, another the foot, and the third the
handle. They are then fastened together, and the top cut into the
desired shape with shears, for glass can be easily cut when in a soft
state.

You see how clearly and brightly, and yet with what softness, the
windows of the room are reflected in that exquisite jug It was made
only a few years ago.

I will now show you an old Venetian goblet, but you will have to
handle it very carefully, or you will certainly break off one of the
delicate leaves, or snap the stem of that curious flower.

Such glasses as these were certainly never intended for use. They were
probably put upon the table as ornaments. The bowl is a white glass
cup, with wavy lines of light blue. The spiral stem is red and white,
and has projecting from it five leaves of yellow glass, separated in
the middle by another leaf of a deep blue color. The large flower has
six pale-blue petals.

[Illustration]

And now we will look at some goblets intended for use. They are of
modern manufacture, and are plain and simple, but have a beauty of
their own. The right-hand one is of a very graceful shape, and the one
in the middle is odd-looking, and ingeniously made with rollers, and
all of them have a transparent clearness, and are almost as thin as
the fragile soap-bubbles that children blow out of pipe-bowls. They do
not look unlike these, and one can easily fancy that, like them, they
will melt into air at a touch.

[Illustration]

Because the ancients by some means discovered that the union of
silica, lime, and soda made a