China and white marbles are also used to make the round rollers which have delighted the hearts of the boys of all nations for hundred of years. Marbles thus made are known to the boys as "chinas," or "alleys." Real china ones are made of porcelain clay, and baked like chinaware or other pottery. Some of them have a pearly glaze, and some are painted in various colors, which will not rub off, because they are baked in, just as the pictures are on the plates and other tableware. Glass marbles are known as "agates." They are made of both clear and colored glass. The former are made by taking up a little melted glass on the end of an iron rod and making it round by dropping it into a round mould, which shapes it, or by whirling it around the head until the glass is made into a little ball. Sometimes the figure of a dog or squirrel or a kitten or some other object is put on the end of the rod, and when it is dipped into the melted glass the glass runs all around it, and when the marble is done the animal can be seen shut up in it. Colored glass marbles are made by holding a bunch of glass rods in the fire until they melt; then the workmen twist them round into a ball or press them into a mould, so that when done the marble is marked with bands or ribbons of color. Real agates, which are the nicest of all marbles, are made in Germany, out of the stone called agate. The workmen chip the pieces of agate nearly round with hammers and then grind them round and smooth on grindstones.--_Philadelphia Times_. * * * * * DRAWING-ROOM PHOTOGRAPHY. Among the examples we have received are some which would certainly do credit to any professional artist, alike for the posing, lighting, and general treatment; indeed, we may say that some of the poses are of a high artistic order, and quite a relief from the conventional positions and accessories so frequently seen in professional work. The expressions secured are also, as a rule, unusually pleasing and natural. This is, no doubt, in a great measure due to the sitter feeling more at ease in the amateur friend's drawing room than in a stranger's studio. Particularly is this the case in some excellent work--full-length pictures--sent from the other side of the Atlantic, and taken in a room of very modest dimensions, and with only one window. Among the failures (if such they may be called) the chief fault lies in the lighting, and from either under or over exposure--the former chiefly arising when a landscape lens was used, and the latter when a portrait combination was employed. Some correspondents also complain of the long exposure that, in their case, had been imperative; but, curiously enough, with all the successful pictures a very brief exposure has always been mentioned, and generally with an exceedingly small window.