GLASS-MAKING. 



599 



water and fishes swimming. For the legend has it that the wisest 

 of men was decidedly curious. The Paul Prys of Jerusalem 

 declared that the queenly visitor labored under the disadvantage 

 of a deformed foot. The ingenuity of the monarch, it is said, 

 suggested the device of the simulated stream, thinking that the 

 lady's anxiety for her draperies would disclose to the court of 

 Israel whether rumor had rightly reported her. But this per- 

 formance is probably attributable to the imagination of one some- 

 what later than Solomon. It hardly sounds like the author of the 

 " Proverbs," nor have we any record that the lady ever repaid 



Sdccessivk Stages in the Manufacture op Sheet Glass. 



him for his discourtesy — a bit of negative evidence that is almost 

 conclusive. But at that time so inhospitable a scheme, even if 

 seriously entertained, could scarcely have been carried out. The 

 hundred and twenty talents of gold and the very great store of 

 spices and precious stones, which to the queen's presence in Jeru- 

 salem added their tribute of admiration for wisdom, could not 

 have purchased in any of the marts of the ancient world a plate 

 of glass sufficiently large and sufficiently clear to have made such 

 a deception possible. 



The glass-blowers of the olden times undoubtedly produced 

 some fine results in color, which can scarcely be equaled in the 

 present. They had already attained, in the fabrication of rare 



