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You are sure he can have no serious purpose in turning and bending it into
those ridiculous shapes. Quickly a boy seizes it from him, and you cannot
trace him. It has gone over to a fancy vase, where it was needed to
complete the ornament. So each bench has its own little task of skill,
and keeps repeating it over and over, and each boy of the multitude (there
are two or more to every man) has his own particular duties. He pops up
always in the moment and place where he is needed. All the workers are
busy as their wits can make them, for they work by the piece, and the number
of things made determines their wages. They are grouped into sets or
"shops" of three of four, who work together and share profits together on
a well-understood grade of division. Generally four constitute a shop, the
most skilful workman (the blower) at the head, the gatherer (a young fellow)
next, and two boys, one handling moulds or tools, and the other carrying
the products to the annealing oven. The only way to learn the glass trade
is through long
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apprenticeship in these four stages. And no apprentice is permitted to
enter the full privilege and wages of a master workman without the consent
of the order. By this severe means of apprenticeship the glass-workers
keep the skill of their trade in their own control, much like the old
Venetian artisans, and practically dictate their own prices to employers.
But let us look at the other sights in this house
of magic. Here they are making small druggists' bottles called
"prescriptions." The blower has a narrow light tube, and adroitly gathers
a small red lump on the end. He rolls it out into a small pouch, and puts
it into the iron mould held ready for it by a boy. The mould closes together
around it, and the man blows the glass till it fills the mould, and the
remainder swells out into a thin shell at the top and bursts with a puff.
While it is cooling in its mould a second one is being blown in another
mould. The small boy has all he can do to empty the moulds and close them
over the red
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