Did you watch the workmen--the "gatherer" and the "blower," with their long, hollow iron pipes? How the "blower," with his trained fingers, gave an easy, constantly swaying motion to the pipe, into which he blew and expanded the hot glass at its end? The tempering oven, through which all glass productions must pass before they will resist changes in temperature or even stand transportation? Did you follow the process of cutting glass; see the wheels like grindstones, driven by steam power? Wheels of stone that come from England and Scotland, and carry with them the old-country names of Yorkshire Flag, New Castle and Craigleith, stones that are very hard and close-grained, capable of retaining a very sharp edge? Wheels of iron, which are used to cut the design in the rough; wheels of wood, cork, felt, and revolving brush wheels, used in finishing and polishing? Did you know that the trained eye of the cutter and his experience were the only guides he had to secure the requisite depth to his cutting; that he must exercise great care and judgment, else the vibration of the glass renders it extremely liable to break, and that an intricate design requires many days of constant manipulation? Did you watch with interest the making of glass cloth, see how the thread of glass was drawn out and wound on the big wheels that revolved hundreds of times a minute? How the glass thread was woven with the silk thread, producing a pliable glass cloth of soft sheen and lustre, that could be folded, pleated and handled in all ways like cloth? Do you recall the Crystal Art Room? Did you realize that under that ceiling, bedecked with ten thousand dollars' worth of spun glass cloth, was collected the finest display of cut glass the world had ever seen? Do you remember an old glass punch bowl, used in 1840 by Henry Clay, and that near this relic of ancient glassware was another punch bowl upon which five hundred dollars' worth of labor had been bestowed? [Illustration] Did you mark the difference, the deep and brilliant cuttings, how effective they were, how they brought out the beauty and richness of the design? Then, when you examined the hundreds of other articles, the sherbet and punch glasses in Roman shapes, the quaint decanters in Venetian forms, the celery trays, flower vases, and the ice-cream sets and cut-glass dishes for every use, you saw the clearness of the glass itself, and that this deep and brilliant cutting of perfect design, that brought out the beauties of the great punch bowl, was a marked characteristic of the Libbey Cut Glass. Did you not, as an American, feel proud of the progress that your countrymen had made in this old art of glass making?