MARBLES AND MARBLE PLAYING. Marbles are small balls of baked clay, marble, agate or spheres of glass, used as toys and play things for children. They are manufactured in large quantities in Saxony for exportation to the United States and to India and China. They were also largely manufactured in the agate mills at Oberstein on the Nahe, in Germany, for the American market. The material used in Saxony is a 'hard calcareous stone, which is first broken Op into square blocks with a ham mer. These arc then thrown 100 to 150 to gether into a mill,•which is a stationary flat slab of stone, with a number of concentric fur rows upon its face. Over this a block of oak of the same diameter, partially resting upon the small stones, is kept rotating, while water flows upon the stone slab. In 15 minutes the marbles are worn completely round and are fit for sale. An establishment with three mills will manufacture 60,000 marbles in a week. Agates are made into marbles at Oberstein by first chipping the pieces nearly round with a hammer and then wearing them down upon the face of large grindstones.
The game of marbles is variously played; usually with a circular ring marked on the ground, the player taking one marble between the thumb and forefinger and dexterously shoot ing at other marbles within the circle, striking them with sufficient force to throw them outside the limits of the ring. This form is called ring taw, and the marbles placed in the apt to be clay ones, called "commys" which. is prob ably short for "commons?' A larger and better of marble is used for the hen a player misses a shot, it is then the turn of his opponent. Sometimes he also loses his turn when he drives his shooter outside of the ring. Play is often for "keeps," each boy win ning what he knocks out. Another game of marbles is called "nine holes,° though it may be played with a less number of holes. A row of
small cup-shaped depressions are made in the ground, and the object is to toss or bowl one's marble into each hole in succession, the one accomplishing it with the fewest plays winning. Very likely golf had its fundamental idea in this simple game of marbles. In a variant form the boys shoot at other marbles to knock them into the holes, but their own shooter must not fol low, under forfeit, suggesting the basic princi ple of the game of pool. ((Hit and span'' is an other game much played. One player tosses his marble to a distance, and the other player tosses his marble as close to it as he can; if he hits it, it is keeps; if he comes within a handsbreadth or span he makes a hit and scores one. Then they reverse, and his opponent tries, the one making the most hits or points winning. This game can be played in walking along a country road, and appears to have been invented by boys who wanted to•play on their way to school. In some games of marbles it is fair to toss or bowl the shooter; and in others the player must touch the large knuckle of his forefinger to the ground when shooting, and this the boys call '