An ingenious process of producing glass with an iced or crackled surface, suitable for many decorative purposes, has been invented in France by Bay. The product appears in the form of sheets or panes, one side of which is smooth or glossy, like common window glass, while the other is rough and filled with innumerable crevices, giving it the frozen or crackled appearance so much admired for many decorative purposes. This peculiar cracked surface is obtained by covering the surface of the sheet on the table with a thick coating of some coarse-grained flux mixed to form a paste, or with a coating of some more easily fusible glass, and then subjecting it to the action of a strong fire, either open or in a muffle. As soon as the coating is fused, and the table is red-hot, it is withdrawn and rapidly cooled. The superficial layer of flux separates itself in this operation from the underlying glass surface, and leaves behind the evidence of its attachment to the same in the form of numberless irregularities, scales, irregular crystal forms, etc., giving the glass surface the peculiar appearance to which the above name has been given. The rapid cooling of the glass may be facilitated with the aid of a stream of cold air, or by continuously projecting a spray of cold water upon it. By protecting certain portions of the glass surface from contact with the flux, with the use of a template of any ornamental or other desired form, these portions will retain their ordinary appearance, and will show the form of the design very strongly outlined beside the crackled surface. In this manner, letters, arabesque, and other patterns in white or colored glass can be produced with great ease and with fine effect. * * * * * HOW MARBLES ARE MADE. Marbles are named from the Latin word "_marmor_," by which similar playthings were known to the boys of Rome, 2,000 years ago. Some marbles are made of potter's clay and baked in an oven just as earthenware is baked, but most of them are made of a hard kind of a stone found in Saxony, Germany. Marbles are manufactured there in great numbers and sent to all parts of the world, even to China, for the use of the Chinese children. The stone is broken up with a hammer into pieces, which are then ground round in a mill. The mill has a fixed slab of stone, with its surface full of little grooves or furrows. Above this a flat block of oak wood of the same size as the stone is made to turn round rapidly, and, while turning, little streams of water run in the grooves and keep the mill from getting too hot. About 100 pieces of the square pieces of stone are put in the grooves at once, and in a few minutes are made round and polished by the wooden block.