introduction of women into the business. I saw three sisters bronzing in

New York. They told me each receives $5 a week, and works about nine hours a day. It requires but a few months' practice to become perfect, and seemed to be an easy business. The young ladies employed at it looked genteel enough to grace any calling. Men get $10 a week. Women do it just as well, if not a little better, and accomplish just as much, yet receive only $5. I called in the store of the Ornamental Iron Works, New York. The young man says they employ about twenty-five German bronzers. It is a work easily done, and would require but a short time to learn. Women could just as well do it as men. If women were employed, it would be desirable to have a separate room for them to work in. Their men work ten hours a day, and receive from $1.50 to $2 a day. =466. Canvas and Cotton Bag Makers.= The firm of B. E. C. & Co. employ about forty females during the whole year, and seventy during the summer. Men cut out the bags. The folding and turning is done by little girls, who receive, some $1.50 per week, and some more, while the sewing is done by machines, for which the operators receive $4.50 per week. I do not remember what the spoolers were paid. This business is confined exclusively to seaports or river cities, and is not very extensive. The usual time required is ten hours. For extra work, girls receive double wages. C. & Co. have certain regulations, requiring morality and order. The girls were more cheerful, neat, and genteel-looking than the general run of work girls. They have a dressing room, where each one has a peg for her bonnet and shawl, and a small box in which to lay her dinner. They have washbowls and all the conveniences needed. Spring and fall are their most busy times, but they are able to keep their hands all the year in prosperous times. They are always busy just before the sailing of vessels, as they supply many vessels with bags to carry grain. They are well located for their business, being immediately on the river. The prospect for learners C. thinks very good, as bags are considered almost as essential as boats; and now they can be purchased so cheaply they are used for purposes to which they were never applied before. V. employs fifteen girls all the year, and sometimes extra help. Some girls get $3.50, and some $4 a week, of ten hours a day. Most of their machines are propelled by hot air. They never have any trouble in getting hands. There are a few bag factories in the West. W. & O. make cotton bags for flour, seed, grain, &c. We saw the girls sewing on machines moved by steam. They are paid $3 a week, ten hours a day. Their girls are not punctual, and are so often absent that they find it necessary to employ more hands than they want, that they may not get out of a supply. I met an old woman with bolts of heavy unbleached cotton, who was going to make up bags, sewing them with the needle. She receives seventy-five cents for one hundred bags. A bag manufacturer in Boston writes: "We pay by the week; girls, from $3 to $4--men, $7.25. The men's branch requires from six to twelve months to become proficient and reliable. Women require about one week. Perseverance and industry are needed by workers. Business in future is dubious. Winter and spring are the best seasons, but we are generally employed ten months out of the year. The hands work ten hours, unless driven up by brisk trade, when extra wages are paid _pro rata_. They receive all the comforts which women of this class require, viz., sufficient to live upon, with a small surplus for the priest, and to send to 'ould Ireland.' The labor of the men and women are entirely dissimilar. The advantages have been entirely in favor of the city of Boston; but from present indications, I fear that this business, if done at all, will be done in the cities of Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, and New Orleans. The women can scarcely read; none can write. They can have free access to the city library and free evening schools. Board, $1.25--mostly whole families in one room." =467. Carriage and Car Painters.= At a very large car establishment in New York, I was told that when they take boys to learn ornamental painting, they pay $2.40 a week the first year. After that, eight cents a day more, the next year; and so continue until the apprenticeship expires. Three or four years are usually given. We saw a foreman ornamenting the side of a car to be sent to Liverpool, who was taken by the firm when a penniless boy. He now has $3,000 deposited with his employers, drawing a handsome interest. The painters are paid twenty-five cents an hour while ornamenting cars, and omnibuses. They do their work better than when paid by the piece. They prefer Germans, as they have more taste, and are more easily obtained. Miss H. knew a young lady that painted a cutter. Her father was a coach painter, and she painted in oils on canvas. A lady, if she would give time and attention, might become an ornamental painter of carriages, omnibuses, and cars. E. G. & Co., car builders, in Troy, write: "There are some portions of our ornamental painting women might be instructed to perform, that would be suitable for them, and, if proficient, they could make good wages at it." =468. Carriage Trimmers.= I was told by G., a carriage maker, that women usually make the cushions and trimmings for carriages. At a railroad-car and omnibus factory, the trimmer told me the work was too hard for women. The sewing is all done by hand. Much wax must be used on the thread, and a machine will not draw the threads tight enough. A shield of leather is worn on the little finger. I have read that "landscape painters, upholsterers, and trimmers of cars and carriages receive from $1.50 to $2 per day, of ten hours, in New York and New Jersey. Women are not generally employed; but they are occasionally serviceable in preparing the hair for seats, by which they could make, at steady employment, from $3 to $5 per week." B., at his carriage manufactory, said he intends employing two women to make curtains for his carriages. He now employs a girl to make covers for them. He thinks the curtains and much of the lining might be stitched by a machine. He thinks women might make fair wages at it--say, $4 or $5 a week. A carriage maker in Boston writes me: "I employ female labor only to the amount of about $50 a year. It is done by the piece, and a woman who is tolerably smart with her needle can in a very short time learn to do it, and can earn from eight to ten cents an hour. The work is irregular, a large portion of it coming in the months of April, May, and June, and sometimes requiring to be done at short notice." Car builders in Albany, N. Y., write: "Dear Madam--In reply to your inquiries, would say that, out of seventy-five to eighty hands employed by us, two only are women. One has charge of a sewing machine, the other picks curled hair. They have constant employment, at $5 a week." Carriage makers in Syracuse reply to a circular, saying: "We employ one lady to run the sewing machine in making leather and cloth tops for carriages. The work is healthy. We pay from $3 to $4 per week, of ten hours a day. Girls receive from one third to one half as much as men. It requires about two months to learn. Learners receive from $2 to $2.50 per week. The prospect for more such work to women is increasing. The employment is steady. There is a demand for women capable of good, heavy stitching." C--s, of New Haven, write: "We employ about twelve women in carriage trimming, running sewing machines, &c. Good wages are earned--from $5 to $9 per week, of ten hours a day. We pay mostly by the week. At the same kind of work our girls earn as much as men. The main part of their business being sewing, women are preferable at the same wages as men. In two days any ordinary person can learn to use a sewing machine; but to learn all parts of the business would require from two to three months' time. Girls receive a small compensation while learning. They are never out of employment, except in hard times, like the past winter. Two thirds are American girls. The girls employed by us are intelligent and happy; earning good wages, and always have work when we are doing anything. Board, $2.50." =469. Chair Seaters.= The putting of seats in chairs, the material being of cane, hickory, flags, willow, and corn husks, is carried on very often in orphan asylums, institutions for the blind, or for the deaf and dumb, and in penitentiaries. There is a large establishment in Worcester, Mass., where women are employed. At the House of Refuge, on Randall's Island, I saw the boys seating chairs with rattan. It is learned in three months. It is very severe on the fingers at first. In a small second-hand furniture store, I saw a woman seating chairs with cane. I stepped in and inquired of the woman how long it required to learn the work. She said she learned it in one day, of a German who kept a furniture store next door, and who wished her to work for him. She could seat two chairs in a day, and earn by doing so a dollar. For such a chair as she would be paid sixty-two cents the cane would cost twelve cents, leaving her a profit of fifty cents a chair for her work. It cuts the fingers some. She has most family work in winter; but her husband can always get enough for her from the stores. Another German woman seating chairs said she could seat three in a day. She charged fifty cents apiece for ordinary chairs. At a chair-seating factory, I saw several girls caning chairs for the proprietor, who receives orders from stores. We were told that it is always piecework. Some girls earn from sixty to seventy-five cents a day. They have work all the year. The girls were very clean-looking. They stood while at work. A girl told us it would take but three weeks to learn. Work is most apt to be slack in January, February, August, and September. The work is mostly done by German women. At another factory, I was told the prospect for work is very good. The man said, three years ago he had more work for his women than they could do. They are not paid while learning, and have work the same all the year. His best hands can earn $4 or $5 a week. The work is always paid for by the piece. The superintendent of the Monroe County Penitentiary, N. Y., writes: "We employ our female convicts at the manufacture of both flag and cane chair seats. They are equally adapted to the employment of women; the flag seats, however, cannot be made except near a chair manufactory, because of the expense of transporting the frames upon which they are made. The cane-seat frames can be easily transported; but the market is overstocked, and has been for years. They are made in many Northern and more Eastern prisons, and are made by both sexes. At the Albany (N. Y.) Prison, the females are employed at cane-chair seating, and at some part of the manufacture of shoes. At the Erie County Penitentiary, Buffalo, N. Y., the female convicts are employed at cane chair seating and packing hardware, manufactured by the male convicts; and at the Onondago County Penitentiary, Syracuse, caning chair seats. New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Michigan are the only States, probably, having county prisons, where the convicts are regularly employed. Cane seating is a business employing many females (free labor) in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and is well adapted to girls and women of the lower grades of intelligence; and the same is applicable to flag seating. They can earn, on an average, about thirty cents per day. The business may be acquired in a few days--say, thirty." The proprietor of the Oswego chair factory writes: "I have in my employ about forty women and girls in the cane-seating department. An attentive worker, possessing ordinary skill, can earn about fifty cents per day, of ten hours. Young persons of either sex are much more sprightly at the work than older persons." By a chair manufacturer in Fitchburg, Mass., several hundreds of women, girls, and children are employed in seating chairs, which they do at home. =470. China Menders.= All parts of this work are very suitable for women. Covering and repairing fans, mending china, wax dolls, works of virtu, &c., require care and taste. Connected with this might be the mending of jewelry, card cases, work boxes, and other ornaments of the toilet. A china mender told me he estimates his time at twenty-five cents an hour. His prices vary, according to the quality of the article, and the time and care required. He sells the composition for cementing at twenty-five cents a bottle. His work was beautifully done. I talked with another china mender and glass driller. After the fourth of July he goes to the country and mends ware. Some learn his business in a short time. He charges $10 to teach to make cement, drill, and mend articles. He thinks, in Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, there are probably openings. He says money can be made at the business by advertising, and having some one to go for the articles and collect the money. He is recommended by one customer to another, and so has enough to do; yet, from the want of capital, barely makes a living. If he could get a place in a china store, ladies could get their china mended there, and the store would give him some. He makes between thirty and forty kinds of cement. Some of them stand water. If a lady would learn, he would pay her $3 a week for her services. =471. Cigar Makers.= At F.'s, Philadelphia, we were told that girls who make cigars are usually idle; but when we afterward saw the rapid motion of their fingers, we felt disposed to doubt the charge. Habits of order, temperance, industry, and the _reverse_, are said to run in some trades. F. had heard some employer lamenting that there is no such thing as a sober reed-cutter. May not the flavor of tobacco, in making cigars, produce an excitement that craves some artificial stimulus? We think it would not be strange if it did; but have no means of ascertaining, and hope that it does not. Bending over was the only item mentioned by F. as being uncomfortable or injurious in the work. "In Philadelphia, the whole number of employés, journeymen and girls, engaged in making cigars, is fully four thousand. The average labor expended upon each thousand cigars costs $3.50, and the average cost of each thousand cigars is $8." In Philadelphia, many Americans work at the business; but in New York, almost all are Germans. In Germany, many women make cigars. A cigar maker told me that some women find the odor too strong; and even men with weak lungs are likely to have the consumption, if they work at it long. He pays women the same price as men, and he pays according to the quality and the workmanship--$2, $3, $4, $5, and $6 per thousand. Quickness in the use of the fingers is necessary. He has never known women to make the finest cigars. At K.'s, New York, I saw some bright, pleasant-looking girls at work. They are paid six cents a hundred. One girl told me she generally made thirteen hundred a day--seventy-eight cents. Women receive the same rates of wages as men. The son of the proprietor told me he had thought the work not altogether healthy; for the men you see working at the business are pale and thin. His father's girls are kept busy all the year. Girls generally make from $3 to $4 a week. There are enough of girls at it in New York, though there are but few places where girls are employed. The atmosphere almost stifled me, the tobacco scent was so strong. I inquired of a girl if she thought it unhealthy. She said no--that when she first came there, her head ached all the time, and she had constant nausea of the stomach; but now she never notices the smell of the tobacco, and does not feel any bad effects. She said she had learned to make cigars in three weeks; another girl said she learned it in one week. In summer, when the days are long, a girl earns most. A bundler is paid the best price, as she receives six cents a hundred. It is very dirty work. A cigar dealer told me he pays from $2 up to $6 per thousand. A man can make two hundred per day, and so earn from 40 cents to $1.20. He thinks it not unhealthy, where there is a circulation of air. The rapidity in making cigars depends much on the quality of the tobacco. Some leaves are not so well dried, nor so fine and perfect, as others. Such, of course, require a longer time to make. D., New York, says women mostly make the quality called sixes; and he knows that, farther East, in making that kind they often earn $1 a day. They can make the common ones more rapidly than men. He attributes the inability of women to make fine cigars to the want of instruction. Men do not like to teach them, because they are afraid of the competition that may be created, causing them to lose work or have to do it at lower wages. Now and then a woman may be found who makes cigars equal to any man. It requires a knowledge of tobacco, to select the different kinds for the various grades. Some judgment and intelligence are needed to cut the leaf economically, and to select tobacco of proper strength for making various brands. It is usual for a boy to serve three years, who is paid about $30 a year, and boarded. He has boys fifteen years of age working for him as journeymen. He says cigar makers in New York earn from $6 to $15 per week. Good hands can usually find employment. It can easily be learned in one year. All seasons are favorable for the work. From five hundred to fifteen hundred cigars are made in a day, according to the expertness of the manipulator and the kind of tobacco. Machines have not as yet been found to work well. The machine cigars are finished at the end by hand. He remarked that machines never can succeed so well as men, until they have the brains of men. A very nice widow, who kept a cigar store in New York, told me that many more women are employed in making cigars in Philadelphia than in New York; but the cigars made and sold there are mostly of the cheap kind, selling for two or three cents apiece. Six months' practice is required by a learner, to become perfect. Careful and rapid movement of the fingers, and ability to use the left hand, are desirable. I would suggest that a few smart women learn of a competent workman to make the best quality, and instruct several of their own sex. I find the making of cigars is paid for, altogether, by the thousand, and cigar makers earn from $3 to $18 a week. The usual price paid for a thousand cigars is $5, and a fast worker can make fifteen hundred a day. =472. Cigar-End Finders.= Mayhew says: "There are, strictly speaking, none who make a living by picking up the ends of cigars thrown away as useless by the smokers in the streets; but there are very many who employ themselves, from time to time, in collecting them. How they are disposed of, is unknown; but it is supposed that they are resold to some of the large manufacturers of cigars, and go to form a component part of a new stock of the best Havanas. There are five persons, residing in different parts of London, who are known to purchase cigar ends. In Naples, the sale of cigar ends is a regular street traffic. In Paris, the ends thus collected are sold as cheap tobacco to the poor. In the low lodging-houses of London, the ends, when dried, are cut up and sold to such of their fellow lodgers as are anxious to enjoy their pipe at the cheapest possible rate." =473. Cinder Gatherers.= I saw some girls gathering cinders. They burn them at home, after washing them. One pailful lasts from one and a half to two days. The larger girls gather two pails a day, generally; the smaller girls each gather one. =474. Clear Starchers.= The doing up of muslin, in large cities, has made for itself a separate calling. Where there is constant employment, it pays well. Mrs. N. charges from sixteen to twenty-five cents for doing up a set of muslin. She does most of the work herself, as she feels responsible for the way in which it is done, and would be afraid a stranger might tear or burn the muslin. When she has not enough to do, she fills up her time crocheting for the stores. I think the best locations must be in a part of the city where the best residences are. =475. Clock Makers.= The amount and variety of wooden clocks manufactured in this country are very great. The low price at which they sell, puts it in the power of almost every one to purchase. Clock-case and clock-movement making are two distinct branches. Connecticut is the only State in which clock movements are made; but there are many shops all over the North in which the cases are manufactured. In 1845, there were twenty establishments in New York city, in which the cases were made. "Wages of clock makers are poor. Women are occasionally employed in painting the cases of clocks, painting the dials, and making part of the movements." The New Haven Clock Company employ women to paint the glass tablets, and in lettering, or putting the figures on the dial, at which work they can earn from 90 cents to $1 per day, of ten hours. They also use quite a number in making trimmings, and the lighter part of the movements, at which they earn about seventy-five cents per day. All their work is done by the piece. The time necessary to learn depends much on the intelligence and aptness of the person. Manufacturers of clock dials in Farmington, Conn., write: "We employ twelve American women figuring clock dials. The spirit of turpentine used is unhealthy to some. They are paid by the piece, and average $2.50, with board. Men are not employed in the same department. It requires about four weeks to learn, and learners are furnished with board. The amount of employment in future is indefinite. Fall, winter, and spring are the best seasons for work; but constant employment is given by us. Board, $2." =476. Clothes-Pin Makers.= A clothes-pin manufacturer in Vermont writes: "Women are employed in packing clothes pins, and are paid from 25 to 50 cents per day, usually working ten hours. Our women are Americans. The clothes-pin business should be carried on in a sparsely settled community, where timber can be obtained at cheap rates." =477. Clothes Repairers.= We have seen it suggested that shops for repairing, remodelling, and remaking ladies' clothes, would, in large cities, if conducted by competent persons, probably yield a support. The mending of ladies' shoes, and mending second-hand ones to sell again, could employ the time of a number. =478. Cork Assorters and Sole Stitchers.= The principal use made of cork in this country is for bottle stoppers. It is also used in making cork soles for shoes. Cork is mostly imported from Spain, Portugal, and the south of France, in large blocks, and cut in the shapes wanted. A member of a large cork-cutting company at the East writes: "In France, Spain, and Portugal, women are employed to a limited extent in cutting the smaller description of corks, and a few are also employed in England, but not to any extent." He thinks the employment not suitable for women, and says none are employed in this country. But from the public reports of the city of his residence, I find women are employed as cork cutters in that city. At one establishment, we saw men at work cutting corks. There did not appear any objection to women employing themselves in this trade. A good deal of practice is required. S., of New York, cuts by machine, and employs six girls to assort. He pays 50 cents a day, of ten hours. At another cork store, I was told they employ boys and girls to assort, who receive from $2 to $3 a week. The coverings of cork soles are put on by women with sewing machines. A good hand, we were told, can make eight dozen pairs a day, and is paid eighteen cents a dozen. I suppose it requires at least a day to cut out and baste on the covering of that number; so the compensation is not as great as one might at first suppose. Some can baste five dozen a day, and could stitch from twelve to twenty dozen a day. Girls are paid 10 cents a dozen for basting, and 6 cents per dozen for stitching them on machines. A cork-sole manufacturer in the upper part of the city, pays for basting covers on, 10 cents a dozen. Some women baste five or six dozen a day. It requires care and a little skill. If not properly done, it is almost impossible to stitch them correctly. He pays 6 cents a dozen for stitching, and an operator can stitch from twelve to twenty dozen a day. He has often sold two hundred dozen in a year. =479. Daguerreotype Apparatus.= In most large cities, daguerreotype apparatus is manufactured. A maker of daguerreotype cases and materials told me that his girls earn from 50 to 75 cents a day, the latter being the highest price ever paid. S., whose factory is in New Haven, employs about one hundred and fifty girls. It is piecework. The business is increasing, but still is so limited that it cannot furnish employment for a great many. No difficulty is found in getting hands, as there are a great many girls in New Haven. No factory in the South or West. New York is the depot for everything made in a limited quantity, and for everything new in style. G. Brothers have given work all the year until lately. It is piecework. Girls earn from $4 to $6 a week. It does not take a smart girl more than eight days to learn. The busy time commences in April. It is an increasing business. The foreman at A.'s factory said a nice, steady, cleanly girl, that has sufficient dignity to command respect, can always get work. One that is not very sensitive to ridicule, and independent in the performance of duty, will be sure to succeed in that establishment; for so many learners are taken in and need supervision, that such a one is sure to be prized. He has seventy-five girls. It requires but a week to learn, and the girl that instructs gets the profit of that week's labor. In some branches they stand, in some they sit. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to $6 a week. Some of their girls learn bookbinding; so, when there is much to do in that line, they find it difficult to get hands. The manufacture of daguerreotype apparatus is increasing; so the prospect for learners is good. Most of his hands have work all the year. He has found many work girls very trifling. (No wonder, with such training, and so little encouragement to do right.) They have all their photograph pictures colored by ladies in New York, except the glass ones. It pays well, and is done at home. I think some lady would do well to learn to color the glass ones. No manufactories West or South. A firm in Waterbury write: "We employ twelve women making daguerreotype mattings, &c. We prefer them, because men work better with a few women to work with them. We pay by the piece. They earn $3 per week, ten hours a day. They are paid the same as male labor in the same business. It requires one month to learn. Activity and common sense are all that is necessary for a learner. The majority are Americans, and pay for board $1.75 per week." =480. Feather Dressers.= Those that purify the feathers of beds, also renovate the hair and moss of mattresses. A gentleman told me he thought the business of a feather dresser too hard for a woman. Carrying bags of feathers, weighing them, assorting and filling other bags, he considered too heavy. Feathers are cleaned by steam. Some people, to renovate feathers, place them in the sun for a few days in summer, and then bake them. There is never any need of renovating feathers, if they are properly cured at first. =481. Flag Makers.= At A.'s, New York, the young man said it requires about a year to learn the business thoroughly. The hands employed in the house are paid by the week, and receive $4. They work from half-past seven to six o'clock, having an hour at noon. Those working out of the house are paid by the piece. They do not always have enough of good hands. They do not require the girls to invent designs, but like to have them quick to understand and execute any particular device or new pattern. To sew well and rapidly are the principal qualifications. He thinks about two hundred women are employed in this way in summer, but not more than fifty in winter. The sewing and embroidering are confined exclusively to females. The cutting is mostly done by those who carry on the business, whether men or women. Learners receive a compensation of $2 per week while learning, after which they receive from $4 to $6 per week. Some employers require their hands to spend six months at it as learners; but any one that can sew neatly, and has taste, could as well make a flag, after it is cut out and basted, as a bedquilt. The most busy seasons are spring, summer, and fall. When employed by the week, the hours are ten. The business is pretty well filled. Probably the most flags are made for vessels, and the next most for military and other processions. A flag maker told me he employs some girls and women, paying from thirty-seven to fifty cents a day, of ten hours, to those working in his rooms. Those that work at home, often earn seventy-five cents, as they sew in the evening also, and are paid by the piece. He does all his cutting. He has most work to do in summer and in political campaigns. In winter, vessels are laid up, and consequently no flags are wanted for them. Most work is done in seaports. More is probably done in Boston than any other city. In Philadelphia, flag stitching is done by machines. He will not have it done so, because it will throw women out of employment, and their pay is small enough at best. He takes those that can sew, and pays from the first. He complains that most women are mere machines, and display no intelligence in their work. (Query: Whose fault is it?) Mrs. McF. pays her girls $3 a week, of nine and a half hours. She employs eight now (January, 1861), but sixteen in summer. In summer she makes flags for vessels, but in winter she has made national flags. When she wants any intricate pattern prepared, she employs a regular designer, but cuts the goods herself. Ability to draw well is a great assistance to a flag maker. She does all her own cutting, even to the letters that are placed on her flags. Her forewoman sometimes assists in cutting the figures. She works some for a house in Mobile that sells flags. It requires taste and ingenuity to succeed, but a good sewer can soon do the mechanical part. She has been in the business nineteen years. We suppose there are some openings in the South for this business. =482. Furniture Painters.= F., who confines his business to the ornamenting of furniture, says it requires taste and a knowledge of colors. He thinks the Americans excel the Europeans in applying ornament to works of utility. He has a man of twenty-five that he employed when a boy in his store. He observed that he had such talents as would make him a good ornamental painter, so he gave him instruction. The first year he paid him $4 a week; the next, $6; and now he earns from $12 to $20. The young man invents when F. has given him an idea of the style he wishes. A manufacturer of enamelled furniture said no women are employed in enamelling, to his knowledge; that lifting and turning the furniture about would be too heavy for women. So it would; but they might have a man to do that. Another one told us he did not know of any women employed in enamelling furniture; but with a knowledge of painting, they might be. Men often earn $20 a week at it. A manufacturer of chairs told me that he pays ornamenters (men) from $9 to $18 a week, of ten hours a day. The men sit while painting them. A girl must have a natural taste for such work to succeed. The coloring requires experience. The French and Germans do most of it. It is piecework. A girl, no doubt, could get work, if she were competent. The Heywood Chair Company write: "We employ women to some extent in ornamenting chairs. The work is not considered especially unhealthy. We pay by the piece, and our women earn from $5 to $6 per week, averaging ten hours a day, the year round. There is no difference in the prices between the two sexes. Six months' apprenticeship is required, at $3 per week. Nimbleness, neatness, taste, and a true eye are needed in a worker. In ordinary times, there is no difference in the amount of work. We employ women, because they will do the same work better, faster, and cheaper than men. We would employ more, if they could perform other parts of the work. Women are inferior in strength to men, superior in manual dexterity, neatness, and taste. All are Americans. We can hardly speak with confidence of any considerable opening for female labor in our business. Most of our work requires skilled mechanics, or hard, rough bone and muscle. We have for five or six years employed all the females we could find room or work for, and can see no chance for any increase." According to the census of 1860, the number of hands employed in the New England, Middle, and Western States, in _making_ furniture, were 21,953 males and 1,880 females. =483. Gilders of Mirror Frames.= About the same arrangements are made with apprentices in this as in other trades. In the old country, women do as much of the work in all its branches as men; but in this country, the custom of women working in shops with men is not so common, and consequently some females that learned it in the old country will not engage in it, because of having to work with the men. I have been informed that in Dublin there are at least forty women employed in gilding--some in business for themselves. A good male worker earns $12 a week. Gilders calculate to make twenty cents an hour, the most usual price for good hands in all trades. In some trades men are paid twenty-five, some twenty, some eighteen, and in some but fifteen cents an hour. Gilders that manufacture frames for mirrors and artists, are most likely to have work all the year. In most shops there is a slack time just after New Year, and after the Fourth of July. It is a very close, confining business, in summer, while laying the gold leaf on, as it is so light it is apt to fly, and should be done in a close room. It is not at all unhealthy. Most of the work is done standing; but, I think, in gilding, women are permitted to sit. A German that sells ornamental furniture, thinks women might do the gilding on furniture. G. employs a number of girls in gilding oval frames. They earn, on an average, from $4 to $4.50. It requires but a short time to learn the business. B. used to employ some for the same purpose, paying $4, $5, and $6 a week. I think this work preferable for women to most mechanical employments, and, no doubt, in a few years many will be so occupied. I was told by a gilder that women are employed, because they can be had cheaper than men, seldom, if ever, receiving over $5 a week, of ten hours a day; and they have no knowledge of the business, except the one department in which they work. The frames are sold cheaply for photographs. There are no extensive gilders in the South or West, except one in Cincinnati, and one in Chicago. In the mirror and picture frame departments, there are now a great many stores that cut up the business of the large establishments, and the times are hard--so the business is dull. Not more than forty women in New York city are employed in gilding frames, and twenty of them are at G.'s. A gilder in New Hampshire writes: "It depends upon how much painted work there is in the same room whether the occupation is unhealthy. As far as my observation goes, women are as good workers at this business as men." One in Massachusetts writes: "My wife sometimes does my gilding, which is no harder than sewing. The carver's daughter in Essex, near here, did all his gilding for ten years." Gilders in Boston write: "We employ a girl to burnish, and pay from $3 to $5 per week, ten hours a day. Men get from $9 to $12. Fall and spring are the most busy seasons. Most of the cities northeast of Baltimore are good for this work. Board, $2 to $3." =484. Globe Makers.= H., manufacturer of school apparatus in Connecticut, writes: "From four to six women are employed by us, in the construction of globes and other articles. Some are paid by the piece, and some by the week, and earn from $3 to $5 per week, ten hours a day. Women receive less than one half the wages of men. They do not perform the same kind of labor. Women are employed at the lighter work, requiring less strength, but an even amount of skill. The abundance of the supply of labor prevents the increase of wages. Learners are paid, and it requires but a few weeks to succeed. A nicety of eye and readiness of hand are necessary for a worker. The prospect of employment is good, but limited. The winter is best for the work, but hands are occupied at all seasons. The employment is pleasant, and as well paid as any in this vicinity. Women are employed in all parts of the work suitable for them. The work is best adapted to the Eastern States. All our employés are Americans, and live at home. Board here, $2 a week." =485. Hobby Horse Finishers.= In summer time, Mr. ---- has children's carriages trimmed by women. They are paid by the piece, and earn from $3 to $4 a week. At B.'s they are employed all the year. The horses and carriages could be painted by women, and the manes, tails, saddles and bridles could be put on by them. At C.'s, one lady is employed for trimming children's carriages--$5 a week--ten hours a day. She sews by machine. C.'s busy season for children's carriages, is from February to November, and he employs his hands the rest of the time at hobby horses. He says there is one factory in Columbus, two in Chicago. He thinks there are good openings (1860) in Richmond and Petersburg, Va., for they sell many there. He thinks wrong must succumb to right--that there is no justice in withholding from women their proper compensation for labor, and the time will come when the prejudice will be done away that now exists on that subject. =486. Horse Coverings.= I was told, at a store in Philadelphia, they pay twenty-five cents a piece for ordinary blankets and linens, and a woman can make from three to four a day. One, on which was considerable chain stitching, the storekeeper paid $2 for making, and he thought a woman could make one in a day. A saddle and harness maker, New York, told me the prospect of getting such work is good. The wives of his workmen make his blankets, and can earn from $1 to $1.50 a day, as he pays thirty-seven cents a blanket. Another one told me his girls earn from $4 to $6 a week at such work; and another rated the payments still higher, from $1.25 to $1.50 a day. At a large store on Broadway, I was told all the work is given to one woman, who employs other women to help her. Her workers can earn $4 a week, if industrious. They make horse linens and blankets, and rosettes for head ornaments. Netting for horses is made by hand, in a large establishment near New York. L. L. & Co. pay for the coarsest blankets twenty cents apiece, and a woman can make two a day. For some they pay as high as from $4 to $5. A very swift sewer could make one such in little over two days--consequently her day's wages would be $2. So the prices vary according to style. The chain stitch, so much used for ornamenting, is done by hand, because in that way the edges of the cloth can be more neatly and securely turned under. L. L. & Co. employ ladies, who in their turn employ others. The coarse heavy blankets are generally lined, and the work is mostly done by Irish women. They are most busy on blankets from June to January, and on linen from February 1st to May 1st. Linen covers are used on horses in stables, as flies annoy horses much where they are standing quiet. Out of doors, nets answer, because they are kept in motion by the horse. When busy, L. & L. employ about one hundred girls. The business is growing. The blankets are mostly used in the country. The manufacture of them is confined principally to New York and Boston. Those in the cities are different in style; indeed, each city has its own style. Many are made in Chicago. The rosettes pay very well, but it requires a long time to become expert. One lady they employ earns occasionally $50 a week. Tassels are paid for by the piece, and girls can earn from $2 to $4. Tassel making requires some time to learn perfectly. Cloth goods are confined to seasons, and consequently occupations in which they are involved are confined to seasons. Styles of trimming are apt to change. A man who makes blankets for a large wholesale house, employs from one hundred to two hundred women. They earn from $3 to $7 a week. The stitching is done by machine, but the ornamental part by hand. Men do all the cutting. He has paid as high as $100 for one pattern of blankets and ornaments. There are no blankets made in the South or West, except here and there a saddler's wife will make a few. In Williamsburg, I saw a number of women in the basement of the employer's residence. They looked sad, and the rooms were small, damp, and filthy. The employer told me most of his stitching is done by machine. Anybody that can sew tolerably well, and has strength, can do it. Women seldom, if ever, cut them out; but I think they could. A manufacturer in Brooklyn writes: "We employ women for making horse clothing, who are paid by the piece, and earn from seventy-five cents to $1 per day. Spring and fall are the best seasons for work. We have no difficulty in procuring hands." =487. House Painters.= The tools of a painter cost but little. Women might be employed in glazing, and in painting the inside work of houses. Their ingenuity and taste might be successfully exercised in embellishing walls and ornamenting doors. The style for doors, called graining, would be particularly appropriate. The business could be best carried on by men and women in partnership, as the outdoor work is most suitable for men. An apprenticeship should be served of two or three years. The work would pay well. Most of it is done in spring. A woman would need to make some change in her style of dress. The Bloomer would probably be best--at any rate, hoops should be laid aside. The vocation presents a very good opening to women, who could best engage in it, at first, in towns and villages. =488. Japanners.= Japanning is one of the few arts that had its origin in a heathen country. It is now practised in all civilized countries. Many metal articles are japanned--as tea trays, candlesticks, &c. Wood is also japanned. In a late report of one of the schools of design in England, we observed on the list of female students the names of two japanners. Care, and ability to stand, are all that are required for success, to those doing the plain painting; but some taste is required for ornamental japanning. There is a good prospect for employment, as the tin trade has been increasing rapidly in the last two years, and is likely to, as our country grows older, and depends less on other countries for a supply. California has created quite a demand in the last few years, and it is supplied mostly from New York. M., in New York, told us he and his partner employ some women to japan. They pay from $3 to $4 a week. They have one woman to do the ornamental work, painting flowers and gilding. To ornamental painters they pay from $10 to $15 a week. They had a man to whom they often paid $15 a week. Most of the men that have been employed in ornamental japanning have gone to painting clocks, which pays better. They sometimes find it difficult to get hands--so if some women could take it up, they would be likely to find employment. The painters design as they paint, not using a pattern. Japanning of the heavy kind could not be done by women. The pieces are too heavy to lift. B., an ornamental japanner, used to employ women to put on the pearl scraps, but now employs boys, because he can get them cheaper and take them as apprentices. He can send them on errands and make use of them in that way. He pays an apprentice $1.50 a week for one year, then increases at the rate of fifty cents a week the next year, and so on. B. thinks no women are employed at it. Women are employed at such work in Paris. Japanning, he thinks, is not unhealthy, although the ovens into which japanners must pass are often heated to 260°. The spirits of tar used in japanning renders it healthy, and consumptives go frequently into japanning furnaces, feeling that they are benefited by it. At a firm of japanners, the boy told me they employ an artist to come and paint for them. They once had a lady that painted landscapes and flowers on piano boards in oils. They were not baked in a furnace afterward, but the oil permitted to dry, as with a painting on canvas. S. used to employ women in making pearl piecework, but it is not much used now. For painting clocks, not more than six cents a piece is paid for many. Men are so rapid that they can make money, but women could not earn more than $2.50 a week. Some men earn $25 a week, and formerly even $35, at painting the finer clocks; but there are now so many in the business that wages have fallen, though the business is increasing. At a tin manufactory in Williamsburg, I saw two girls employed in tying up goods, and seven girls employed in putting the first coat of paint on tin ware--grounding, it is called. They are paid from $1.25 up. One woman they have earns $6 a week. She is an English woman, and has been at the business nearly all her life. She is quick and skilful. A boy who paints flowers on tin ware, after the first coat is put on by the girls, gets $1 a day for his work. Japanning is done in England by women. Many women are employed through the country, in the Eastern States, in making tin canisters, &c., and some in japanning; but japanners carry their work into ovens, which he thought would be too hard for women. Yet he thinks doing so is not unhealthy. If the employment is unhealthy, it arises from the evaporation of the turpentine in the paint. The unhealthiness of the common painter's business arises from the turpentine, in evaporating, carrying off with it white lead, but no white lead is employed on the tin ware. Girls are paid by the week. Men, for graining, a style resembling the graining of wood, and in fact being the same except on a different material, received $2.50 per day. Male labor is twice or three times as high in their establishment. Why women are not better paid the man could not answer, but, like many other men with whom I have talked, thought it unjust they were not paid at the same rate as men. Their girls are employed all the year. They work ten hours a day. They were mostly Americans, and miserably dressed. The work soils their clothes greatly. They wore old skirts over their dresses to work in. I think some men and boys work in the same room with them. The fine work could be well done by them, if they would take time to learn it efficiently, for it requires taste, ingenuity, and delicacy of touch. At an ornamental japanner's, I was told it requires three or four years to learn the business well. A good workman earns from $12 to $18 a week. It is piecework. =489. Knitters.= The knitting done by machinery is not so soft, so warm, or so durable as that done by hand. It is almost impossible to obtain ladies' hand-knit hose in cities. Gentlemen's are sometimes made by the Shakers, and bring a very high price. We have no doubt but some old ladies might even now find it profitable to knit to order, or supply some store where their goods would be brought forward and disposed of to those who can appreciate the difference between machine and hand knitting. The Germans are famous knitters. "The peasant women of the Channel Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, &c., knit a great deal. They are seldom, if ever, without the materials for this occupation. On the way to and from market, and at other times, knitting forms their almost constant employment." A knitting machine has been invented in Seneca, N. Y., that is said to knit a perfect stocking in less than five minutes. Aiken's knitting machines are very popular. We have thought ladies would do well to try them, and devote themselves to making up hosiery. We doubt not but it would pay very well. The cloth is knit in a straight piece, and another lady cuts it into shape and sews into the articles wanted. A machine has been invented by Mr. Aiken, also, for toeing and heeling socks. A manufacturer of knit goods writes: "We employ about twenty hands, one half of whom are girls. Their wages are from $3 to $5 per week, except when working by the piece. Those who run the knitting machines are paid by the piece, and earn from 75 cents to $1 per day. Males receive from $1 to $1.75 per day. The work done by them is generally harder, and such as females could not well do. To effectually superintend the knitting business would require at least five years. The part performed by females can be learned in six months. They are paid while learning, from $2.75 to $3 per week. The business is overdone at present; although there is always a demand in our section of country for girls. They work regularly throughout the year, twelve hours in summer, ten in winter. It would be better for all parties to run their mills only ten hours per day, and thus tend to keep down the production, and so keep up the prices to a fair profit. Those tending sewing machines are generally married, or widows with children, and in general support their families. Their machines are repaired by a foreman, but with a little practice they can learn to do it themselves. In other branches generally pursued by girls, they earn sufficient to dress well, but seldom accumulate. A location is preferred in some thickly settled place, on account of getting sewing done by hand, as all the goods are finished off by hand. After working twelve hours a day, they will be necessarily rather too much fatigued to go through any mental processes otherwise than reading a novel. If all the mills of all descriptions would work ten hours only, and establish evening schools, and request all to attend, it would greatly elevate them in the social scale. But selfishness rules, and where one manufacturer would agree to this arrangement, two would not. Board, $1.50 per week, including washing." A hose manufacturer in Holderness writes: "We employ about sixty females in the mill. Work is given out to three hundred. Almost all are American. Their wages are from $3 to $6 per week. The wages in the knitting department are not much less for women than men. Women learn the knitting so as to earn good pay in three months. Women are paid $2 per week for the first four weeks; after that, by the piece. A learner should be steady and quick with her fingers. The employment is healthy, as the knitters sit only about half the time. We run all the year eleven hours a day. There is not female help enough. We are trying women where men have been employed. I think women are in some respects superior workers to men." Manufacturers of seamless hosiery, in Connecticut, write they "pay from $3 to $5 per week, eleven hours a day--that it requires from six to eight weeks to learn--that their hands have access to libraries; and board is for men $3, for women $2." At Cohoes, N. Y., is a manufactory of shirts, drawers, &c. I have a letter from the company saying: "We employ two hundred and fifty women, and pay from 40 cents to $1 per day. Some are paid by the piece, and some by the week. Men receive from 75 cents to $2.50 per day, of twelve hours. The reason why they obtain better wages is that they do work which women cannot do. (Query: Do not the women perform work that men cannot do?) Men are continually learning. Women can learn to perform certain work in a few days. The best qualifications are soundness of mind and body, activity, steadiness, quick perception, and a desire to make money. The business is increasing yearly. Occasionally, in the winter, the mills stop for a month. There is at present (October, 1860) a surplus of labor. Board, $1.75 to $2." At L.'s knitting factory, in Brooklyn, the foreman told me there are six machines in operation, each of which cost between $5,000 and $6,000. The articles made by them are softer than any knitting done by machine I have seen; but it may be owing to the quality of the wool: I cannot say. Those working at machines stand, the others sit. The machine operators receive from $1.50 to $3.50: those in the finishing room are paid by the piece, and earn from $2 to $5. A foreman superintends the work and puts the machinery in order. A woman of good abilities can learn in three months, if the factory is in a position to put her forward. From May to December is the best time for work. Double price is paid the hands for night work in busy times. They prefer American girls, because they are neater. A manufacturer of factory supplies, in Massachusetts, writes: "We employ thirty women in knitting loom harnesses. The work is not more unhealthy than any employment that requires one to sit all the time. They are paid by the piece. The employment is sure so long as cotton manufacturing is good. The work is equally good all seasons. Board, $1.62 to $2.25 per week." The secretary of the Waterbury Knitting Company writes: "We employ one hundred hands, at from 50 cents to $1 per day, working twelve hours in summer, ten in winter. Women are paid as well or better than men of the same age; working by the piece, they are paid the same. The women are not thrown out of work at any season. Women are inferior in mechanical genius. We are obliged to keep a man to every fifteen women to overlook them. A woman will run a knitting machine for seven years, and never be able to straighten a needle, or knit the cloth slack or tight. A boy or man will learn to oversee a whole room in half that time. Women cannot be made to think or act for themselves in the least thing, or in any case to rely on their own judgment. This is equally true of the stupid Irish, German, and English, and of the more acute Yankee. Women are superior perhaps in good looks." S., of Enfield, N. H., has his daughter write: "I use three of Aikens's knitting machines, and other machinery for making yarn. The wool is first made into yarn and then knit into webbing, and marked for heeling and toeing. It is then divided into dozens, and distributed around the country to be heeled and toed, in which branch we employ usually five hundred American women. We pay $1 a dozen for heeling and toeing; for tending the machine, $2 per week, of eleven hours a day. Women are paid less, because they are not usually as strong as men, and therefore cannot do the same work, or, if the same kind, not so great an amount in a limited time. Men can be employed by paying them what they require, and as they are considered, or rather seem to consider themselves the 'lords of creation,' they demand higher wages than women. In four weeks the females can perform their part without trouble. Learners receive their board. The prospect is good for the same number employed as at present. The summer season is the best for work. If at any time there is a want of work, it is in January and February." =490. Lace Bleachers.= Mrs. L. spent five years learning the business in Paris. A girl that spent two years learning with her, is now doing well in the business in St. Louis. She prefers to take learners a week on trial. She charges from $1 to $1.50 a pair for curtains. The French are the most successful in that line. She often has thirty or more pair from a hotel and other large houses. One can make a good living at it. L. says the work is unhealthy, particularly while the vapor of the chemicals is warm. The curtains are not wrung out, but the water pressed out with the hands. The dirt, of course, is first washed out. It requires strength to handle the goods. Curtains are put on frames to dry, and women, he says, are not strong enough. It requires strength to get the extra starch out, as it is done by squeezing. It is surprising how many objections, as regards health and physical strength required, can be presented by selfish men, who do not wish women to engage in their occupations. None but those who have had occasion to test the matter would believe it possible that the majority of men are so selfish and unjust in this respect. Another man told me he does all the washing and drying himself, because he is responsible for the goods, and is not willing to trust them to strangers. He charges $1 a pair, except for a very large size. Different kinds of laces require different methods of washing and ironing. =491. Lacquerers.= Lacquering is warm work, and in summer is done in rooms the temperature of which is over 200°. M. thought women could be employed in burnishing, lacquering, polishing, and bronzing. Girls were at one time employed in lacquering gas fixtures on William street, New York; but they were dismissed, because they did not prove steady and efficient workers. The process previous to lacquering, called dipping, is dirty work. It requires but a short time to learn to lacquer. F. told me that in France women do all the fine lacquering, and they do it much better than men can. They take it home with them to do; and the same plan could be followed in this country, and probably will be before long. The finest lacquering, such as ormolu clocks, &c., is done with gold dust. The varnish must be put on evenly. It requires care and delicacy of touch. Most of the gas fixtures sold as brass are merely zinc gilded, and then lacquered--the bronzed part the same metal, bronzed. Zinc can be bought at six cents a pound--brass is thirty cents a pound. Mathematical instruments, daguerreotype cases, and gas fixtures are lacquered. A man earns from $8 to $10 a week, working ten hours a day. Lacquering, I was told, is not unhealthy, and a person can sit two or three feet from the fire while at work. A firm in New York, manufacturing gas fixtures, wrote to us as follows: "Lacquering is a suitable occupation for women; but we do not employ them, because men are considered more reliable as to regularity of hours, and are more easily managed. Women can be made equally good lacquerers with the men; but when employed by us, some years since, we found, with few exceptions, that they produced inferior work, owing, as we think, to want of application. Women are employed in similar establishments to ours in England and, we learn, in Boston. The employment is not unhealthy. They are paid by the week in England. It requires from three to five years to learn the business. Steady application and a good eye for colors will make a good lacquerer." =492. Life Preservers.= R. employs two women to stitch his life preservers with a sewing machine, and pays the usual price of operatives. None are made South or West. (Would not New Orleans offer an opening?) =493. Lucifer Matches.= This is a business that has been largely entered into in New York. The making and selling of matches have furnished employment for hundreds and thousands of boys and girls in all our large cities. The making of matches is a dangerous employment. Its unhealthy tendency (owing to the use of sulphur), and the long period of twelve, and even fourteen hours' confinement, no doubt serve to account for the sad and woe-begone faces of the poor little operators. At a match factory where I stopped, girls are paid three cents a gross for cutting matches and filling boxes. Some can do as many as forty gross a day; but very few can. It is best for girls to commence early in life, and most do so. Some girls earn as much as $5 to $6 per week, if we may believe the proprietor's statement. Girls are paid for filling the frames in which they are to be dipped, sixty-two cents 100 frames, each frame containing 1,500 double, or 3,000 single matches. The factory is open from seven in the morning to ten at night. The business for women and girls is not crowded. Most learners become discouraged and leave it, because it is so long before they can become expert enough to earn fair wages. It is not as healthy, he says, as some occupations. I should think not, judging from his sallow face, and the pale, spiritless faces of all I have seen in the match factories. He buys bundles of sticks, ready to cut for matches, of those who make it a business to prepare them. They are cut by hand. He pays twenty-five cents a bunch, and a man can cut a bunch in five minutes. They never stop work, except in December and January. A brisk hand can earn from $5 to $7 a week. They make from twenty to forty different kinds of matches, to suit all climates. At the store of this manufacturer, the bookkeeper told me that, if a person has a tooth extracted, the phosphorus will be absorbed by the jaw bone and cause it to decay, if the individual works in the factory before the gum is entirely well. A lady told me she knows a girl that earns $6 a week in a match factory. In H.'s factory, I saw small girls and boys putting matches in the frames to be dipped. They are paid sixty cents 100 frames, containing 1,500 double matches. They can seldom fill more than 85 frames a day. They commence work at 6½ in winter, and work until 8; in summer, they commence at 6, and work until 7½. They are not obliged to work all the time, as they are paid by the piece; but with the exception of an hour at noon, which all have the privilege of taking, they no doubt work the full time. They were poor, dirty-looking children. In the room where the boxes were filled, large girls worked. Most match makers are Germans and Irish. A manufacturer told me that he now employs boys only--that girls he found so wild he could not manage them. He says some of his girls used to earn $5 a week. He thinks none but strong, healthy persons should work at the business, as the fumes of sulphur are injurious. A manufacturer in Vermont writes: "Women are employed to pack matches. They are paid by the thousand, and their wages amount to fifty cents per day, of ten hours, after they get accustomed to it. Women's work in this department is lighter than men's--so will not yield as good wages. A learner will gain the trade in about six months. An increase of this business is not flattering. No difference in the seasons for work. Women are more nimble in the use of their fingers, and consequently succeed better in this kind of work." =494. Mat Makers.= Door mats are made of sea grass, corn husks, worsted, manilla, hemp, and cocoa-nut fibre. At the largest manufactory in the United States, I saw the process of making several kinds. No girls or women were employed. The superintendent told us it was too heavy work for women. In one establishment in Philadelphia, girls are employed as tenders, which is merely picking the substance to be woven--jute, hemp, or wool--into bunches of the right thickness, and handing to the weaver. Some of their mat weavers earn $14 a week--boys, from $1.50 to $3. Mats are sometimes made by women of osier, rushes, and straw. =495. Manufacturers of Musical Instruments.= The manufacture of different musical instruments is engaged in as so many distinct branches of business. Musical instruments are usually classed as follows: 1. Wind instruments, of wood or metal. 2. Stringed instruments. 3. Keyed instruments. 4. Instruments of percussion. 5. Automatic instruments. 6. Miscellaneous articles in connection with musical instruments. On wind instruments made of wood and ornamented with metals, as flutes, clarionets, &c., women might be employed to polish the metal. Those that are all metal, as horns, trumpets, &c., are polished in making, and could not well be divided into a separate branch of work. Of stringed instruments, the ornamental part, as painting, inlaying of pearl, &c., would be very pretty work for women of taste. The smaller strings could be covered by women. Of keyed instruments, some of the smaller and finer work would be very suitable for women. In instruments of percussion, the drum and tambourine are probably the only instruments presenting a field for woman's work. Of automatic instruments, mechanical organs are the only ones, I think, at which women do work. I cannot learn that women are employed in making musical boxes, which are imported from Switzerland, Germany, and France. Women are employed to some extent, in other countries, in the manufacture of musical instruments. Z. thinks the reason women are not employed in the manufacture of musical instruments in this country is, that they do not understand the business.--1. _Wind Instruments._ Women might polish the metal on flutes, and even paint the woodwork. I was told by a manufacturer in New York, whose factory is in Connecticut, that he once employed women in that way, but they did not succeed, because they did not try.--2. _Stringed Instruments._ I called on L., engaged in the manufacture of harps. There are but two harp manufacturers in the United States. Ladies might do the gilding and ornamental painting on harps. Sizing is put on, and then gold leaf laid on, and smoothed down with a small brush. The varnishing could be very well done by women. The same kind of work is executed on guitar frames, of which a number are made in the United States. The painting is done as on enamelled furniture. L. employs an Englishman to do the gilding and ornamental painting. The other manufacturer, B., thinks there is no part of the work in making harps that could be done by a lady. The ornamental part is done by the varnisher, and varnishing requires much strength. It requires a regular apprenticeship, and some artistic taste. So few harps are made in this country, that it would not pay a woman to learn. He was evidently opposed to women having anything to do with the business.--3. _Keyed Instruments. Accordions._ In making accordions women could put on the keys and kid, and do so in Germany. Accordions are nearly all imported, because they can be made more cheaply in Europe than in this country. L., Philadelphia, says he is in partnership with his brother in Germany, who has musical instruments made there, and employs a number of women and girls.--_Melodeons._ C., New York, manufacturer, says he does not know of any women being employed in the making of melodeons; but much of the work, I am sure, could be done by women. Cutting the keys, polishing, gluing them on the board, and fastening the hammers on, are done by hand, and the work is as suitable for women as men. Men receive for such work, $2 a day. Women properly trained, and with a good ear for music could also tune the instruments. Men who do so, earn about $3 a day. A manufacturer of melodeons writes: "We do not employ women, but think larger firms might."--_Organs._ I was told by a manufacturer that in Germany some women assist their husbands in making the action, but there is lighter work and more of it in piano actions. J., another organ builder, told me that in England, in some organ factories, women are employed to gild the pipes. In making the organs turned by a crank, used in some churches in England, women, he said, are employed in putting the pins in the cylinders. They are made on the same principle as the music box. J. seldom makes more than one of these organs in a year, and I think he is the only one in the United States that does make them. Mrs. Dall says "there are women, who strain silk in fluting, across the old-fashioned workbag, or parlor organ front." =Pianos.= In England, the men engaged in making piano actions used to do much of the work at home, and their wives and daughters would assist them. In the United States, each branch in the making of pianos is now done separately, except in very large establishments, and consequently most of the work is done at home by the workmen. At a factory in New York, an apprentice, nearly out of his time, told me that an individual to learn the business is bound, and must remain until of age. Otherwise he could not get a certificate, and is not likely to find employment without one. An apprentice receives $3 a week the first year, $4 the second year, and more afterward if he is bright and quick to learn. A journeyman receives from $10 to $12 a week for his work. At W.'s piano manufactory, New York, we were kindly permitted to pass through and see the entire process of making. Among other parts that I thought could be done by women, were those of varnishing and polishing. This work forms a separate branch of itself, and requires an apprenticeship of three or four years. It looked to be very simple. The pianos are first rubbed with pumice stone, to render them smooth and susceptible of a polish, then with rotten stone. Rubbing with pumice stone all day might be too laborious, except for a very strong woman; but the other process is feasible for any woman of moderate health. Indeed, the finest polish could be better given by women than men, because it is done by the naked hand, and the softer the hand the better. The ornamenting of the sounding boards could be done by women that know anything of painting, and also the gilding on the inside top and outside front. I asked an old Frenchman, doing that kind of work, how long it would require to learn. He said he had been at it fifty years, and had not learned it perfectly yet. It is pretty work, and very suitable for a woman of taste. The delicacy of woman's touch, with some knowledge of drawing and painting, would enable her to succeed. Covering wire, and putting it in, is another branch that might be done by women. Bleaching ivory for the keys, cutting them, and gluing them on, are also within woman's range. Cutting leather and buckskin, and gluing it on the hammers, are very light and simple work. Another branch suitable for women is regulating the tone of pianos. Men, said W., would oppose women working at the piano business in large establishments, but a man would not be likely to suffer inconvenience from employing women in his own house to do the part he carries on. If he were independent of his business it would be better. At ----'s, New York, a manufacturer of pianoforte actions, I saw two girls at work. It is very nice, clean work. Part of the time they stand, and the remainder they sit. One is paid $3 a week, and the other less. The young man who showed us through the factory, said much of the work in making pianoforte action that is now done by men could be done by women. D----'s girls looked to be Americans. They have work all the year. It mostly consists in covering hammers. A manufacturer of pianofortes writes: "Our men are paid both by the piece and by the week, according to the departments in which they are engaged. The time of learning is from five to seven years for men. Apprentices (boys) are paid from 25 cents to $1 per day, beginning with the first amount, and increasing from year to year. In some departments, physical strength is required, in others, aptness and ready tact--in others, a cultivated musical ear. The prospect for future employment is very fine in all branches for men--in some, equally good for women. The majority of workmen are below mediocrity, as compared with most all others in manufacturing." A manufacturer in Meredith, N. H., writes: "We once employed a lady in our key and action department. She was the wife of one of our workmen. She earned as much as her husband, and in every respect did her work as well. She learned her trade in half the time it took her husband to learn the same. Theirs was jobwork; the two earned about $3 per day. She did her housework besides. I think there might be many ladies employed in our business, to the advantage of all concerned. We expect to test the matter further by employing some in our varnish rooms soon." =Seraphines.= A manufacturer writes: "I think women might be employed to advantage in some parts of the work, and in any part of it, if they could adopt a different style of dress, something like the Bloomer. The long dress with hoops, as now worn, must be an insurmountable barrier against their entering many employments. It is injurious to health, and prevents a proper development of form." =496. Musical String Makers.= The manufacture of strings for musical instruments is carried on as a separate branch. A German violin maker told me that women are employed in Germany in winding wire for guitar strings. I find they are also in a factory in Connecticut, and the manufacturer said they could earn as high as $9 a week. It is rather severe on the fingers, but that can be avoided to some extent by wearing a glove finger. In New York, it is mostly done by Germans and French, who have taken the trade from Americans. The preparing of catgut from the intestines of sheep and goats, and making it into strings, is carried on mostly in Germany, and some women are employed at that. Most metal strings are of steel, and covered with fine wire of other metals. Mrs. Z., whose husband, when living, manufactured covered strings for musical instruments, told me, she and her daughters had often assisted in covering guitar strings and the lighter piano strings. She thinks a person of good abilities could learn it in from two to four weeks, with an attentive instructor. She usually rested against a bench while employed. A good worker will earn from $3 to $5 per week. She has never heard of any but English and German women being engaged in it. In some of the up town shops the machinery is moved by steam, but it does not answer so well, because it is not so easily slackened or checked. Harp strings and the larger piano strings cannot be made by women, because of the strength and firmness required. =497. Netters.= Netting is now generally done by machinery. Seines are mostly made in that way. When by hand, it is done by old people, who receive a very inadequate compensation for their labor. The nets so much used for horses are mostly made in a large factory near the city of New York. In England, woollen netting is used by some gardeners for the protection of the bloom of fruit trees from frost. They are also used to prevent birds destroying currants, cherries, raspberries, and other small fruit. The making of purses of different kinds, and of hammocks, have employed a small number of people. Net and seine manufacturers in Gloucester write me: "We employ one hundred women who work at their homes, and are paid by the piece. It requires a year to learn. From October to June are the best seasons for our trade. A few that we employ to work by the week spend ten hours a day at it. The comfort of the occupation is good, but the pay poor. We think women better company than men. Health and strength are the best qualifications for our work." A net and twine company in Boston write: "We employ women for converting twine into netting. It is mostly job work, and they have cash for what they earn. The comparative prices of men and women are the same as those of factories in general. It requires about as long to learn as it takes a woman to learn to knit stockings. The business is good as long as the sea furnishes fish and mankind eat them. The employment of women in the work is a providential necessity. Nearly all ours are American. Women are quicker in their work--men stronger. Our women have the leisure that belongs to nearly all manual occupations." =498. Oakum Pickers.= Perhaps some one reading this book may not know what oakum is. It is old rope, pulled to pieces until it is soft and pliable, like the original material, and used for the purpose of corking vessels. Ten years ago, the picking was done by hand, and many women employed. Now, this work is mostly done by machinery in this country, and very few women are employed. In some factories, women are employed in teazing, that is, untwisting the pieces of rope that are not pulled to pieces by passing through the machinery the first time. They are paid so much per hundred pounds, and do not earn more than $2 a week. It is dirty, disagreeable work. A firm in Maine write: "We have seen females, both young and old, at work in oakum mills in the State of New Jersey. In England (we believe) all oakum is made in their almshouses, consequently a part by females. The business is healthy. We use many boys that do work which might be done by females; but we prefer the boys." =499. Paper Hangers.= An English lady, who has spent much time in various parts of Europe, told me she had known of women being engaged in paper hanging in small towns. I believe it is customary, when papering a room, to have one person put the paste on, and another put it up. We are confident women could do the first-mentioned part of the work. =500. Polishers.= Women are employed in France in polishing furniture. They are mostly the wives of cabinet makers. It requires art to do it that some can never learn. A person must be able to put the gum shellac on evenly. A woman in London earned a very good living by applying French polish to the furniture of cabinet makers. A French woman that polished furniture in Paris, told me that the work is hard on the fingers, and one could not learn it in less than a year. A piano manufacturer told me that women could be profitably employed in polishing pianos. It is better learned by women than men, he thought. It is tedious, however, and requires patience. I have been told that the finest polish is imparted to furniture by the naked hand, and the softer and finer the hand the better. For that reason, women are employed in France to polish piano cases with the palms of their hands, and, when not employed, wear kid gloves to keep their hands soft and smooth. =501. Pure Finders.= The finders of dog pure constitute a small class in this country; but Mr. Mayhew thinks in the city of London there are between two hundred and three hundred constantly employed. It is used for dressing leather and kid, and sold at from sixteen to twenty cents a bucketful. In our country, it is probably carried on with bone grubbing and rag gathering. =502. Rag Cutters.= I find nearly all rag cutters are Irish, and they are mostly old women or young girls. The girls usually earn about 75 cents or $1 a week. I called at a rag dealer's, and was told by a woman that one cent a pound is paid for cutting the seams off, taking the linings out, and removing the buttons. A woman can earn, she says, from $2 to $2.50 a week. It is not unhealthy. They grow fat on it. Theirs are mostly old women, and all are Irish. For assorting they are paid by the week, and receive $2.75. They work from seven to five in winter; in summer, ten hours. The keeper of the wareroom sells his rags for making paper, and sends many to Europe. The women work all the year. No other kind of work could be done by women in that business, as the only other is packing in bales, and that, of course, must be done by men. The warerooms close at six; so the women have the evenings for themselves. P., a rag dealer, says he buys and sells according to the quality of the rags. It is customary to pay by the week for sorting rags. Some get $2, and some $2.50. Cutting the seams off is paid for by the pound. The odor was extremely offensive (it was a damp day); but the man said it was not unhealthy, unless the rags are worked with in a close room; then the dust is apt to affect the eyes. Occasionally the small pox is taken from rags. I called at a rag dealer's, and was told by a filthy, squalid, barefooted girl at work, that for cutting up rags a penny a pound is paid. She was assorting. For that work, hands are paid twenty-five cents a day, and their board. It is very dirty work. The dust and sand must affect the eyes and lungs. Some men can cut as many as thirty-five pounds a day. Men are paid twice as much as women for assorting. I inquired why. I was told by a young junk dealer, standing by, that they could pick twice as much in the same time, the truth of which the reader can decide as well as I. Some men earn at it, he said, $6 a week. A woman, who seemed to have some interest in the place, remarked the girls have work all the year. Called at the door of a large wareroom, where I saw men assorting waste paper to be sold for the purpose of being made into new paper. =503. Rag Gatherers.= The chiffoniers or rag gatherers of Paris are said to number about 6,000; those of London about 800 or 1,000. The chiffonier in Paris can collect only from eight in the evening until early next morning, as the streets are all swept before six o'clock in the morning, as after that time until eight in the evening the citizens are passing. A few in Paris have realized fortunes; but we suspect the most, in all countries, barely gain a subsistence. They all lead a hard and gloomy life. In the United States, most of the rags collected are converted into paper. Some are sold at shoddy manufactories, and those unfit for either shoddy or paper are spread over corn land, or used as a fertilizer for hops. One of the most handsome buildings on Broadway is said to be owned by a man that commenced life in the petty business of a rag collector. So much for economy and industry! Most of the rag pickers in New York live in the Five Points, and near the Central Park. Scarcely any person that has seen the old women rag pickers of New York in rain and snow, cold and driving winds, partially clad, can ever deny that a woman is capable of very hard and degrading labor, when driven to it by want. Rag picking and rag assorting are distinct branches. Rag pickers make the most, and are chiefly Germans. The number of rag gatherers in New York is very great, and the majority of them are women. I never observe the face of an American or French woman. Rag gatherers have each their own province, and none of the rest dare intrude. The majority do not confine themselves to picking up rags only, but bones and bits of metal and glass. Some even carry a basket in which they gather waste vegetables or putrid meat, or the trimmings of uncooked meat, which they feed on themselves, or give to a pet pig, or trade with some neighbor better off that has a cow. When the rag collectors reach their homes, they assort the articles they have collected. They separate the rags into clean and dirty (the last they wash), into linen and woollen, and the paper into clean and dirty, white and colored. The life led by rag gatherers is very laborious, as they must spend all the hours of daylight on their feet, walking many miles. Their earnings are so scanty that they must be out in all kinds of weather. The enormous rent they pay for wretched accommodations is a disgrace to the landlords. Many of them sleep a dozen in a room, on the bare floor. By the most rigid economy and unremitting industry, a few are enabled to lay by a small sum for old age, or purchase a little cottage and a plot of ground, when they change their filthy occupation for a more healthy and agreeable one, that of raising vegetables for the market. If I had to make a living on the streets of New York, I would prefer carrying a wheel around to grind knives and scissors, or putting window-glass in, to collecting rags, for the work of neither is so filthy. The children of rag gatherers begin very early to follow the pursuit of their parents. I saw some children one day picking rags, that told me they received two cents a pound. They were at the dirt heaps where carts of dirt from town had been emptied. They sometimes gather forty pounds each a day. They cannot do so well in winter. I saw a rag collector who starts at five in the morning, and is gathering rags until eight in the evening. She eats nothing during the time. She was German. Her father and mother also gather rags. Her father sells them at two cents a pound. She did not know how many pounds she gathered, but said she got three large bags full every day in good weather. I saw other collectors, who told me they gather each from ten to thirty pounds a day. Some families succeed in gathering from fifty cents to $1.50 worth a day, in good weather and good seasons. "The prices paid for the staple articles of their trade, purchased exclusively by middlemen, are: bones, 36 cents per bushel; rags, whether linen or woollen, $1 per cwt.; paper, $1 per cwt.; and these sell them again to the down-town customers, the rags at $2.50 to $3.50; the paper at $1.25 to $1.50; with a proportionate advance on bones, and all the articles in the junk business." =504. Rope and Twine Makers.= Ropes are made of the fibres of various plants, and particular kinds of grasses, and the fibres of the cocoanut cover. Hair from the manes and tails of horses is also used. Hemp and flax are most common in the United States. The simplest mode of making rope is under long sheds. After the material is spun into yarn, it is doubled or trebled, and twisted. Ropes for the rigging of vessels employ a large number of men. The great variety and amount of cordage used make it an extensive trade. Ropes are now manufactured in some places by steam. A small number of women are employed in rope making. S. & M., Philadelphia, employ about fifty female hands. Some are engaged in spinning, and a dexterous woman will keep from forty to fifty spindles in constant motion, some at carding, some at balling. The last-named operation is the only one in which the women can sit while at work. They work ten hours, and earn from $1.50 (for young girls), to $5 a week (for the experienced frame spinners). The last mentioned are mostly English, Scotch, or Irish women, who have followed the trade from childhood. It requires long practice to command the highest wages. A good steady hand is much valued, and is not liable to be thrown out of work. Water power is used with the machinery. W., New York, employs them in his manufactory for spooling only. A manufacturer on Long Island writes: "I pay my hands $1 a week, for the first four weeks; then $1.50 a week, for the next four weeks; and for the four weeks following, $2 per week; and so increase their wages till I allow them $3.50 per week. I employ mostly boys and girls. I pay them the same, regardless of sex. They work from ten to twelve hours, and are employed all the year. Board, $1.25 to $1.50 per week. At eighteen, my boys learn a trade. I pay my hands well and use them well. I do not receive children under twelve years of age. I encourage them in going to school before and after they work in my factory." There are only two factories of this kind in New York city that employ women. The proprietor of the largest gave me the following items: "I employ thirteen girls and women (mostly Irish) in spooling, twisting, &c. Most are paid by the week. Women receive $3.50; girls, from $1.15 to $3.50. The time of learning is one, two, or three weeks, according to the kind of work, and the ability of the girl. The prospect is poor for more learners. My girls work ten hours a day, and have employment the year round. There are enough of hands in New York. Some of the minor parts could be performed by women, that are not, but not enough to give many employment. Cities are the best for selling the article, country the best for making. Men do not perform the same kind of work women do. Women are best suited to their branches. Boys could be got to do the work of the girls for as low wages. Indeed, most boys work for less in New York than girls." We think the last assertion a mistake on the part of H. The agent of the Royal River Yarn and Twine Company writes: "We consider our employment healthy. It proves so. Take, for instance, a certain number, at random, of different ages, employed in cotton mills, and compare with the same number, taken in the same way, from farm neighborhoods, and you will find more sickness and death among farmers' daughters." (This is rather a startling statement, but we are not prepared to disprove it.) He adds: "The regularity in exercise, taking meals, and resting, accounts, I think, for the steady employment in cotton mills, and the like, being so conducive to health. I have been engaged as a machinist, &c., about a cotton mill, for thirty-five years; and, according to my observation, more girls improve their health, taking ordinary care of themselves, than otherwise. Part of our hands are paid by the week, and part by the piece. They have from $2 to $4.50 per week, new hands having only $2. It takes from three months to two years to learn. Common sense and industrious habits are the only qualifications needed. Spring and summer are the best seasons, but work is furnished continuously the year round. Our girls go home now and then to spend a few weeks, visit, fix their clothing, &c. To shorten their time would be rather a disadvantage, as capital invested must pay, or no encouragement would be given to invest more. Demand for hands is steady; and if a surplus, it is on the neatest and lightest kind of work. Women are neater, steadier, and more active than men. Our girls make the best of housewives. Overseers, agents, and business men marry them, and we may look around and see, in some that have worked in mills, the brightest and best mothers of the land. The faculties of the mind are quickened by the busy hum and movement of machinery. Board, $1.50, respectable and comfortable. Parties not regarding that, would not have respectable help." =505. Sail and Awning Makers.= I think it would require considerable strength and long practice to make sails, but not more than some occupations in which women are engaged. L. sometimes employs women to run the binding on awnings, paying 2 and 2½ cents a yard. He thinks no women are employed in the United States in making sails. They worked at tents during the Mexican war, but now only men are employed. S. knows that, in France, women make the lightest kind of sails. In Russia, sails are made by women. A sail maker in a large maritime city writes: "Some women are employed in sail making in Massachusetts. It is a healthy trade, and men spend three years learning it. A sail maker needs a tough constitution and steady habits. Some parts of the work are suitable for women. The best locations are on the lakes or in seaport towns." An awning manufacturer told me he employs girls in summer, and pays from $4 to $5 a week, of ten hours a day. They work by hand, and bind and put on fringe. T. employs some girls for binding. They can earn from $3 to $4 a week when constantly employed. He usually pays by the week, and has it done in his shop. A sail maker in Connecticut writes: "Women are employed at sail making in France. A knowledge of arithmetic and draughting are essential. The work is done at all seasons. The occupation is filled. It is usual to spend four years as an apprentice. The best locations are in seaports or river towns. I think the occupation is too laborious for women." =506. Shoe-Peg Makers.= A shoe-peg manufacturing association, in New Hampshire, furnish me a report of the work they have done by women, as follows: "Women are employed only to feed the machine with prepared blocks, and sorting pegs after they are split. The work is light, and well adapted to the physical capacity of girls and women. They can do the work just as well as young men and boys, and perhaps a little quicker. Wages are perhaps two thirds as much as that of men in the same branches. Two hundred women would do all the work, in their several departments, in the business, for the whole of North and South America. We employ sixteen in our mill, at $3.50 per week, including board, which is called about $1.75. Men are not employed in the same branches. A part could be learned in one month--nearly half of it would require from six to twelve months. Girls are paid $3 a week, while learning. Nothing needed but ready and quick application. They work eleven hours. Each hour less would be more than a private loss. All are Americans." =507. Shroud Makers.= There is something repulsive in death--the shroud--the cap--the coffin--the sunken eyes--the still hands and ghastly face. Death is fearful, even in its mildest forms. And yet how we yearn for rest--how we long for quiet! How we pant for that glorious freedom from anxiety and care, that awaits the just in heaven! The change of the chrysalis to the butterfly, of the seed to the plant, of the earth beneath our feet, and the heavens above--the very consciousness within us, all proclaim unmistakably the truth that the spirit will not die--that it is immortal. There are duties connected with the house of mourning that afflicted friends and relatives have not the heart to perform. These, therefore, devolve upon persons interested in the dead, or hired attendants. Closing the eyes, washing the body, making the shroud and putting it on, are in some cases performed by the hired nurse, but generally making the shroud is done by the undertaker's wife. Some undertakers keep shrouds in their shops ready for sale. In large cities, an undertaker's wife is in many cases sent for by the nurse, to assist in laying out the dead, and receives, as a compensation, from $3 to $5. The wife of an undertaker told me that she lines the coffins for her husband. They buy their caps already made, of an old lady who brings them around. Mr. ----, an undertaker, is always willing to dress the remains of any but those who have died of small pox. He charges $3 to wash and dress a corpse, $5 with shaving. An undertaker told me he knew women could be employed in plaiting the folds of silk in coffins, and making coffin pillows. The wholesale trade send away large quantities of shrouds and caps, and so have many made up. A man in Newark, who devotes himself exclusively to making shrouds, employs several women. In England, some undertakers employ women to make up mourning suits. =508. Sign Painters.= Sign painting requires a long, steady, and regular apprenticeship. It requires also a correct eye and a steady hand. In large cities, sign and ornamental painting can be made a distinct branch of painting; but in a town or village it is combined with carriage or house painting, as one individual seldom has enough sign and ornamental painting to keep him constantly occupied. It is not more necessary for a painter to know how to mix the paints, and use judgment and taste in the selection of colors, than to form letters according to geometrical proportions. A painter must measure, more by the eye than a rule, the size and arrangement of letters in a given space. Good painters receive $3, $4, and $5 a day for their work, but generally are paid by the piece. When paid by the week, and they work regularly, they receive from $12 to $15 a week. Mrs. K., New York, says in Dublin there are many families that devote themselves to sign painting, but she knows of none in this country except her own. She employs a man to grind paints, put up signs, &c.,--also to paint out-of-door signs, that is, such as must be painted on the building. Her two daughters paint all the signs that are to be put up. Some of the large signs above stores in New York have been painted by them. They are paid as good prices as men. She thinks an individual should commence early to learn. Her daughters received their instruction and advice from their father. In that way they acquired maturity of judgment and nicety of hand. Judgment needs to be exercised in regard to size and space, and artistic taste in ornamenting. A sign painter told me that superior workers can earn from $3 to $15 a day, if they have sufficient employment. Many house and other painters, in cities, profess to paint signs, but in reality have it done. Germans do much of it in New York, because they do it cheaply, but many of them do not execute their work well. It is customary to have an apprentice three years, and pay the usual terms, $2.50 a week, the first year. A boy, during the first year, mostly grinds paints, goes errands, &c. Spring is the most busy season. Painting in oils is not neat work. A sign and carriage painter writes me: "The work is unhealthy on account of the poisonous vapors and dust. It requires two or three years to learn, and one must have a great deal of practice. A common education, natural taste, and a correct eye are the qualifications needed. Many parts of it are very easy and pleasant. Some parts might be done by women." The business pays best in large towns and cities. An ornamental painter writes me: "Women are employed in sign painting in England, France, Germany, and Belgium. The time required to learn would depend on the taste or genius of the individual. The qualifications requisite are those of an artist in a less degree." B., an emblematic sign painter, thinks the employment very suitable for females, but supposes there are better openings in other cities than New York. It requires two or three years to learn all the different branches well. During the first year a learner could not support herself, but after that could, if she had a taste for it, was industrious, and received enough orders to keep her busy. =509. Snuff Packers.= At a snuff factory, I saw two women putting up snuff. The women color the bladders for holding snuff, in tobacco water, pack, cap, label, varnish, and wrap them. They are weighed after being packed, and women are paid at the rate of one cent a pound. Women always stand in packing. They can earn from $5 to $6 a week, and have work all the year. The woman with whom we conversed was a sensible American, who told us her health had failed greatly during the nine years she had worked in snuff. While working in the snuff, women wear caps, but are so covered with it that they might be mistaken for bags of snuff. Of course, a great deal is inhaled. Both the women I saw complained of difficulty in breathing, particularly when they lie down at night. One said, when suffering great oppression she would vomit, and throw up snuff as fresh in taste and smell as before it was inhaled. For packing snuff in jars, they are paid by the week, $4.50, and, for putting it in bottles still less. Men are mostly employed in packing snuff. =510. Stencil Makers.= A stencil-plate maker told me that cutting the plates could be done by women, but it would require a strong, stout woman to hammer the plates after they are cool. In learning, a boy receives $2 a week. There are very few stencil cutters in the South and West. People send North for their plates, or get them cut by travelling peddlers, who are not allowed now in the South. The price of stencil plates has fallen very greatly. Such as would have sold for $5 a few years ago, can now be had for fifty cents. I saw a lady who cut stencil plates. She wanted an agent to sell her plates and ink. =511. Street Sweepers.= The girls seen in New York sweeping the crossings in winter, are not paid by the city, but receive, now and then, from a passer by, a penny for their labor. If enough of strong men were employed by the city, and properly paid, it would serve to diminish the $13,000,000 annually spent in New York for preventable sickness, where thirty-one die every day more than in Philadelphia, while its natural advantages are greater. In Paris, women are employed as street sweepers. =512. Tip Gilders.= Most hats and caps are made in New York city. There are six establishments in the city devoted to tip gilding, and morocco cutting and rolling, and four girls, on an average, in each. The girls put the sizing and gold leaf on, and, when the impression is made, brush the loose gold leaf off. A man in the business told me he sometimes finds it difficult to get a good hand, and always prefers to teach a girl. He pays from $2 to $6 a week. The men cut the morocco for linings, and girls roll down the edge by running it through a small machine. =513. Tobacco Strippers.= In tobacco factories, women are generally employed to strip the leaves from the stems. Smoking tobacco is cut in machines, and put in papers of different sizes. But little chewing tobacco is prepared in the Southern and Western States, though some factories have commenced it in the West during the last few years. Some leaf tobacco is put up in the South by slaves. In the West it is difficult to get hands, but in New York there is a surplus, though they are the very dregs of society. A. told me the women he employs are mostly Irish, and of low origin. They are generally old women, not fit for much else, and they are quite as poorly paid as in any other branch of labor. The part done by women is not unhealthy, though some of the parts done by men in close rooms are thought to be unhealthy. H. pays by the pound for stripping, and the girls earn from $2 to $4 a week. They sit while at work. In packing they stand, because they can do more. He employs his hands all the year. For packing tobacco in papers and boxes the girls are paid by the paper, and earn about the same as the strippers. The work is dirty, and the hands change their clothes when they come and go. It requires some time to acquire expertness. H. considers tobacco very healthy, if not taken inwardly to excess. He says tobacco workers never have fevers. (?) I went through G.'s factory. I never saw females engaged in such degrading work, and so uncomfortably situated, in all my life. It is far worse than rag picking. A tier of bunks (two on a side), in dark, narrow rooms, the centre filled with hogsheads of tobacco, a hatchway, and machinery made up the furniture of the place. The air was so close and strong, that I was almost stifled during the short time I spent there. The floor was covered with filth and waste tobacco. In the lower bunks, in one room, it was with difficulty I could discover the features of the old women and neglected children, at work. A forewoman had the superintendence, who assisted the workers in weighing the tobacco, and keeping an account of the amount given each. They were mostly Irish. It is very filthy, disagreeable work. Their tobacco strippers are paid fifty cents one hundred pounds. They strip from twenty to fifty pounds a day, earning from $1 to $3 a week. The majority have no homes, but hire lodgings at thirty-seven cents a week, and buy something to eat. They work from seven to half past five or six, having half an hour at noon. At C.'s, the rooms were not so dark, cramped, and uncomfortable as at G.'s. They employ seventy-five women and children. The forewoman told me that a smart hand, working in good leaf, and having constant employment, can earn from $3 to $5 a week. They are paid two cents for three pounds. The packers, if active and skilful, can earn more. At a place on Greenwich street, they pay thirty-five cents per hundred pounds for stripping, and a woman may earn from $1 to $4 a week at it. At packing they can earn from $3 to $6. At L.'s, they employ one hundred and twenty-five girls and women. At packing their girls can earn from $4.25 to $9 a week, working only in daylight. Strippers can earn from $1.50 to $3.50, and are mostly old widow women with children. The foreman thinks it most healthy for packers to stand, as they are thereby saved from stooping. He tries to get the best class of girls he can, but he finds it impossible to secure the services of American girls. I am glad American girls object to working in the filthy weed. The girls at L.'s have employment all the year. M. pays forty cents per hundred pounds for stripping. His strippers earn from thirty to forty cents a day. Some packers are able to earn $1 a day. They have work all the year. Tobacconists in Albany write: "We employ women in papering tobacco, and pay by the dozen, the hands earning from $3 to $5 per week. They work ten hours a day, the year through." A tobacconist in Hartford "pays his women by the week, $3.50, for stripping tobacco. They work ten hours a day. It requires but a few weeks to learn the work done by women." B----'s, of Boston, write: "We always have employment for women, in stripping and papering tobacco, and other light work. They are employed, also, in making cigars. By some physicians the work is considered healthy. We pay by the week, from $3 to $5, working ten hours a day. The men who make cigars are mostly foreigners, thoroughly acquainted with their business, a kind of work which requires a regular apprenticeship to learn. The women never give their time to learn, and we cannot afford to teach them, on account of the low price of goods made in Germany, shipped here by millions. Hence, the men, in their part of the business, earn from $6 to $15 per week. Learners receive their board. It would be much better if a tariff, excluding cheap cigars, were passed. The comfort and remuneration are as good as any branch of female industry. Board, $2 to $3." =514. Toy Makers.= The thousand and one inventions for amusing children have given exercise to a variety of talents. Any particular style of toy follows the fashion of the world--it passes away, and another takes its place. Pewter toys are made in New York, tin toys in Philadelphia and Connecticut. The reason more toys are not made in this country is the high price of labor and living. Children's drums are made both in the city and country. N. & Co., manufacturers of military and toy drums in Massachusetts, write: "We employ one woman only in our factory, who makes the straps for drums. She works by the piece, and earns $1 a day, boarding herself." A manufacturer of pewter toys, in New York, employs ten or twelve boys. He pays $1.75 per week, of ten hours a day. He could use girls just as well, but prefers boys. I called at a manufactory of tin ware. The proprietor makes tin toys, and employs some women to paint them. The work has to be done on the premises, as the articles have to be subjected to heat after they are painted. The girls work ten hours a day, and are paid $3 a week. H., New York, makes small boats and vessels. They range in price from 37 cents to $30. The highest priced are perfect in all their parts. He pays a woman $80 a year for stitching by machine the edges of the sails. B., manufacturer of mechanical toys, employs twenty girls in soldering and painting. The painting is done by stencils. It requires but a short time to learn. Good hands earn from $2.50 to $4 per week. There are two departments in the manufacture of dolls--making and painting. D. employs women out of the house to make bodies for dolls--muslin stuffed with wadding. G., New York, pays his girls about $4 per week for dressing dolls. At a large store in New York, I was told they employ a number of girls for dressing dolls, paying from $3 to $4 per week. They pay by the piece, according to the size, and style of dress. In busy seasons, the girls are allowed to take some dolls home and dress them in the evening. Doll dressing requires taste, expertness, ingenuity, and economy in cutting the materials. Their room is superintended by a lady. At a store for the sale of fancy goods, on inquiring about the canton-flannel rabbits, mice, &c., I was told they give them to a school girl in Brooklyn to make. She makes them out of school hours, and earns $1.50 per week. They are sewed by a machine, because it can be done faster. The treasurer of a firm manufacturing Yankee notions, in Providence, writes they have six women employed in labelling and packing light goods, who earn from $3 to $6 per week, of ten hours a day. It requires about four weeks to learn to do the work. There is no difference in seasons. What work women do at all they do as well as men. Some places are better than others for this style of manufacture. =515. Varnishers and Varnish Makers.= In France, women are employed as varnishers of furniture. At some varnish factories, women are employed to separate the good from the imperfect gum, and I think are paid the usual price of woman's work, 50 cents a day. Women might make spirit varnish. Copal varnish has to be boiled, and is liable to take fire. As it requires much strength to stir it, women could not very well make it. The varnishing of pianos could be done by women. A manufacturer of musical instruments told me a solution, one constituent of which is pulverized marble, has been made for varnishing, that is very substantial. A knife can be broken against it, after it has become hardened on furniture. It will probably be used very extensively. =516. Water Carriers.= "Everywhere on the banks of the Nile, the poorer sort of women may be seen bringing up water from the river, in pitchers, on their heads or shoulders." There are from one hundred to one hundred and fifty water carriers in London, but they are mostly or all men. EMPLOYMENTS FOR THE AFFLICTED. =517. Blind Women.= Many blind persons are employed as follows: Attendants in blind institutions, authors, basket makers, bead workers, broom makers, brush makers, carpet and rug weavers, chair seaters, flower and fruit venders, governesses, hair and moss pickers, hucksters, knitters, match sellers, mattress makers, milk sellers, music teachers, netters, newspaper and book agents, paper-box makers, seamstresses, stationers, straw braiders, teachers, umbrella sewers, washerwomen, willow workers. We think they usually engage in their work with pleasure and profit. Fortunately the tools employed in the occupations of the blind do not cost much. So if the blind have a thorough knowledge of some pursuit, and means to keep them until they are established and able to secure constant work, they may feel sure of a comfortable livelihood. Their occupations are of a kind to furnish them with most constant employment in a city. Though the compensation for each article is small, yet, when one's time is fully occupied, the aggregate is considerable. =518. Deaf Mutes.= Deaf mutes can engage in most branches of book making, fancy work, sewing, shoe making, teach drawing, and teach those afflicted like themselves. =519. The Lame.= The lame can braid straw, color photographs, copy, cut labels, edit papers, embroider, engrave, make mats, make pens, model, paint, sew--indeed, do almost anything. Lameness is no excuse for idleness. What do lame men do? None of them, that have any self-respect, beg or sit idle because they are lame. UNUSUAL EMPLOYMENTS. =520. United States.= Last summer, a lady ascended alone in a balloon, from Palace Garden, N. Y. She went up once in a balloon filled with hot air. She received part of the profits derived from the admittance fees, and the keeper of the garden the other portion, neither of which were very large. Several women have gone up with their husbands. We take the following items from the summary of the San Francisco _Alta California_, of December 5th: "At the recent election, two women were elected to fill office in Placer County--one as justice of the peace, and the other as constable. Each received one vote in the precinct, and there was no opposition." It is seldom that a lady's exertions are called forth as were those of Mrs. Patton, wife of the captain of the ship _Neptune's Car_. Yet, it goes to confirm what we have stated in some other place, that any valuable information acquired will always come in use. We will quote the extract as we saw it in a newspaper, copied from a San Francisco letter: "Fifty days ago, Captain Patton was attacked with the brain fever, and for the last twenty-five days has been blind. Previous to his illness, he had put the first mate off duty on account of his incompetency. After the captain's illness, the second mate took charge of the ship, but he did not understand navigation. The first mate wrote Mrs. Patton a letter, reminding her of the dangers of the coast, and of the great responsibility she had assumed, and offered to take charge of the ship; but she stood by the decision of her husband and declined the offer. She worked up the reckoning every day, and brought the ship safely into port. During all this time she acted as nurse to the captain. She studied medicine to learn how to treat his case, and shaved his head, and by competent care and watchfulness kept him alive. She said that for fifty nights she had not undressed herself. Few women could have done so much and done it so well. She was at once navigator, nurse, and physician, and protector of the property intrusted to her husband." The Geneva _Courier_ notices the appearance in that village "of a strong-armed, strong-backed, and, of course, strong-minded woman, in charge of a canal boat, of which she is owner and captain. She is of German origin, and manages her craft with great ability." In New York, I saw a woman driving a bread wagon, one rolling a wheelbarrow, and another drawing a similar wagon filled with ashes. A few women are employed in charcoal burning in New Jersey. =521. England.= In looking over the census of Great Britain, for 1850, we are surprised to find that in some of those occupations most suitable for women, as physicians, music composers, teachers of mathematics, macaroni packers, mask makers, honey dealers, lecturers, reporters, and spice merchants, not one female is reported; while, in occupations altogether unsuitable, many women are employed--in some, even hundreds. No doubt many of these women, perhaps a majority, and in some occupations it may be all, are the widows of men who have been engaged in the business, and who employ others to do the work. In some of the other occupations, the women probably do only the lighter work, under the direction of the masters or competent foremen. Circumstances, as regards occupation, certainly do much to influence the fate of every one. But in no respect is there a greater need of reform, than in the proper appreciation of employments by the sexes. Men have, in bygone times, seized upon the lightest and most lucrative occupations, and by custom still retain them. The most laborious and disagreeable work is left for women, and what is still worse, they are paid only from one third to one half as much as men, doing the same kind of work. Of the occupations that strike us as odd for women, in the census of Great Britain, are makers of agricultural implements, anchor smiths, barge women, barge boat builders, bell hangers, bedstead makers, bill stickers, blacksmiths, brass manufacturers, brick makers, bristle manufacturers, builders, carpenters, case (packing) makers, chimney sweepers, coke burners, commercial travellers, engine and machinery makers, ferriers, goldbeaters, grindstone cutters, gun makers, hawkers, hemp manufacturers, hinge makers, nail manufacturers, oil refiners, paper hangers, parasol and umbrella stick manufacturers, peat cutters, plasterers, potato merchants, railway-station attendants, razor makers, ring-chain makers, rivet makers, rope makers, saddle-tree makers, sail makers, scale makers, sawyers, scavengers, sextons, ship agents, ship builders, small steel-ware manufacturers, snuff and tobacco manufacturers, spade makers, spar cutters, spirit and wine merchants, stone breakers, stone quarriers, stove, grate, and range makers, sugar refiners, surgical-instrument makers, timber merchants, timber choppers and benders, tin manufacturers, trunk makers, turners, turpentine manufacturers, undertakers, vermin destroyers, well sinkers, wheelwrights, white-metal manufacturers, wine manufacturers, wood dealers, and zinc manufacturers. In the furniture trade of Great Britain, 5,763 women are employed, while 7,479 are engaged in conveyance. I would also add, that in Great Britain, women have been, and still are, to some extent, employed in coal, copper, iron, lead, manganese, salt, tin, and other mineral mines. Of those for men extremely inappropriate, are reported three hundred and sixty-six dress makers, and sixty-one embroiderers. "In the reign of George II. (says Mrs. Childs), the minister of Clerkenwell was chosen by a majority of women. The office of champion has frequently been held by a woman, and was so at the coronation of George I. The office of grand chamberlain, in 1822, was filled by two women; and that of clerk of the crown, in the court of king's bench, has been granted to a female. The celebrated Anne, Countess of Pembroke, held the hereditary office of sheriff of Westmoreland, and exercised it in person, sitting on the bench of the judges. In ancient councils, mention is made of deaconesses; and in an edition of the New Testament printed in 1574, a woman is spoken of as minister of a church." Miss Betsy Miller has for years commanded the Scotch brig, Cleotus. Her father commanded a vessel plying between England and France. After his wife died, the daughter frequently accompanied him. On his death, being without a home on land, she took command of the vessel, and remained in the capacity of captain several years. An English correspondent of an American paper writes: "Walking, lately, near some white-lead works, about the hour of closing, we observed the sudden egress of about a hundred women from the establishment, all Irish, and all decently clad and well conducted. On inquiry, we found that they are employed continuously in the works, piling the lead for oxidation, and in various other processes, not by any means coming under the denomination of light labor." A few years ago, a singular death occurred in England. It was that of a woman, who, owing to harsh treatment from her parents when a child, left her home at the age of eight, dressed in boy's clothes, got work as a boy, learned the trade of a mason, and worked at it until about middle age, when the business was changed for that of a beer house, in which occupation the individual continued until her death, at the age of sixty. She always dressed as a man. When quite young, she was very industrious and hard-working. Many of the large houses and tall chimneys in Manchester and Salford were built by her. "The 7,000 women returned in the census under the head of miners, are, no doubt, for the most part, the dressers of the ores in the Cornish and Welsh mines. The work is dirty, but not too laborious; less laborious than the work which may perhaps be included under the same head--the supplying porcelain clay from the same regions of country. Travellers in Devonshire and Cornwall are familiar with the ugly scenery of hillsides where turf is taken up, and the series of clay pits is overflowing, and the plastered women are stirring the mess, or sifting and straining, or drying or moulding the refined clay. The mineral interest is, however, one of the smallest in the schedule of female industry; and it is likely to contract, rather than expand--except the labor of sorting the ores." In Great Britain, some women work in alabaster, and some in alum mines. In what is called the Black country, some women are employed on the pit banks, and some about the furnace yards. A London paper says: "Melton and its neighborhood can boast of three public characters, which, perhaps, no other can; namely, two independent ladies, who have taken out game certificates, and who enter the field, and can bring down the game equal to any sportsman, as well as those indulging in fishing, hunting over the country with hounds, &c. The third is a female blacksmith, a daughter of Mr. William Hinman, who is such an adept at shoeing a horse or working at the anvil, as to cause universal excitement. It was but the other day that she took off the old shoes of a horse, pared the feet, and fitted the shoes at the fire, and affixed them in the most scientific manner possible, and in considerably less time than her father could, who is called one of the quickest shoers in Melton." Some women are employed as kelp burners in Great Britain; and some, as bathers, manage the bathing machines used on the coast. In the census of Great Britain are reported some women as hack proprietors. =522. France.= A Paris correspondent of the New York _Times_ writes: "My washerwoman is a man. He lives in the Rue Blanc, and any one may see him up to his elbows in soap suds, or ironing frills on bosoms. His wife is a wood sawyer." It is not unusual, in the public gardens of Germany, and on the broad sidewalks of the Boulevards in Paris, for men and women to hire a chair for a sou to a passer by who wishes to rest. In France, some women are engaged in cutting and drying seaweeds, and some in making wooden shoes. "In the department of Somme, France, women alone have the right to go into the fields and gather stones to repair the roads. In the cantons where peat is dug, the privilege of loading and unloading the boats which carry it is given them. At Cistal, in Provence, women alone have been authorized to sell the water which was brought from a fountain some distance from the city. No man could be a carrier of water. In other parts, to women is given the transport of trunks, valises, clothes bags, and effects for the use of travellers on packets. These resources are momentary. Accorded by one mayor, they can be withdrawn by another." "In Paris, women cry the rate of exchange, after Bourse hours." They also "undertake the moving of furniture, agree with you as to price, and you find them quite as responsible as men." The author of "Parisian Sights and French Principles" mentions a number of female employments rather novel to Americans: "I will say nothing of their laboring in the field, their driving huge carts through the streets of Paris, and other rude labors which soon rub out of them all feminine softness; but confine myself to the more agreeable duties which they have here usurped from men. Indeed, a man is but a secondary being in the scale of French civilization. The 'dames à comptoir' are as essential to the success of a Parisian _café_ as the cook himself. More hats are donned at their shrines than before the most brilliant belles of the metropolis. My boot maker, or the head of the establishment, is a woman; my porter is of the same sex, older in years and worse in looks; my butcher, milkman, and the old-clothes man, newsboy, and rag gatherer beneath my window, ditto. They are waiters at the baths, doorkeepers at the theatres, ticket sellers, fiddlers, chair letters of the churches; they figure in every revolution, and have a tongue and arms in every fight; in short, they are at the bottom and top of everything in France." In the Hotel des Invalides, at Paris, is Lieutenant Madame Brulow, who entered in 1799, and has been there ever since. Her father, brothers, and husband were soldiers, and were all killed in battle; at the age of twenty she was a widow and a mother. She joined the French army at Corsica, where she behaved very bravely; but was disabled for service by the bursting of a bomb while in the discharge of her duties as sergeant. She is a woman of chaste manners and correct principles. She dresses in the uniform of the Invalides. Louis XVIII. conferred on her the rank of second lieutenant, and by the present Napoleon she was made a member of the society of the Legion of Honor. A female soldier, whose history is similar to Madame Brulow's, died near Paris, a short time since, at the age of eighty-seven. She was a dragoon, and served in Italy, Germany, and Spain, in all the campaigns of the French, from 1793 to 1812. When Bonaparte was first consul, he expressed a wish to see her, and she was kindly received by him at St. Cloud. She received many wounds in battle, and had four horses killed under her. We find the following article, taken from Galignani's _Messenger_: "In consequence of the success obtained by Madame Isabella in breaking horses for the Russian army, the French Minister of War authorized her to proceed, officially, before a commission of generals and superior officers of cavalry, to a practical demonstration of the method, on a certain number of young cavalry horses. After twenty days' training, the horses were so perfectly broken in, that the Minister no longer hesitated to enter into an arrangement with Madame Isabella to introduce her system into all the imperial schools of cavalry, beginning with that of Saumur." =523. Other Countries.= Professor Ingraham, in his "Pillar of Fire," describing the Hebrews at work in Egypt, says: "The men that carried brick to the smoothly swept ground where they were to be dried, delivered them to women, who, many hundreds in number, placed them side by side on the earth in rows--a lighter task than that of the men. The borders of this busy plain, where it touched the fields of stubble wheat, were thronged with women and children gathering straw for the men who mixed the clay." "The Egyptian ladies," says the same writer, "employed much of their time with the needle, and either with their own hands, or by the agency of their maidens, they embroidered, wove, spun, and did needlework." Herodotus says: "It was expected of the virgins consecrated to the service of the Egyptian temples to gather flowers for the altars, to feed the sacred birds, and daily to fill the vases with pure, fresh water from the Nile." During the middle ages, "women preached in public, supported controversies, published and defended theses, filled the chairs of philosophy and law, harangued the popes in Latin, wrote Greek, and read Hebrew. Nuns wrote poetry, women of rank became divines, and young girls publicly exhorted Christian princes to take up arms for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre." "In the Greek island of Hinnin, the inhabitants gain a livelihood by obtaining sponges for the Turkish baths; and no girl is allowed to marry till she has proved her dexterity by bringing up from the sea a certain quantity of this marketable article." The wife of the Burmese governor was observed, by some Englishmen, to superintend the building of her husband's ship. "In many of the South Sea islands, women assist in the construction of the buildings appropriated to common use. Sometimes a woman of distinction may be seen carrying a heavy stone for the foundation of a building, while a stout attendant carries the light feathered staff to denote her rank." "In Genoa there are marriage brokers, who have pocketbooks filled with the names of marriageable girls of different classes, with an account of their fortunes, personal attractions, &c. When they succeed in arranging connections, they have two or three per cent. commission on the portion. The contract is often drawn up before the parties have seen each other. If a man dislikes the appearance or manners of his future partner, he may break off the match, on condition of paying the brokerage and other expenses." In the "Art Student in Munich," we find this passage: "You know, in Germany, your neighbor's dresses by meeting the laundresses bearing them home through the streets upon tall poles, like gay pennons." "In Munich, a servant girl will be sent around with a number of advertisements and a paste pot, and pastes up the advertisements at the corners of the streets throughout the city." "At Homburg, Germany, four, six, or eight girls, according to the season, dip the water from the spring, by taking three tumblers by the handles in each hand, and filling them without stopping, and supplying those in waiting, so fast that there is no crowd and no jostling and impatience." Mrs. Nicolson says: "Many a poor widow have I seen in Ireland, with some little son or daughter, spreading manure, by moonlight, over her scanty patch of ground; or, before the rising of the sun, going out, with her wisp about her forehead and basket to her back, to gather her turf or potatoes." "In the elevated, cold, dry regions of Thibet, the goats are furnished with a fine down or hair-like wool under the coarse, common outer wool. The long hairs are picked out, the remainder washed out in nice water, and then handspun by women." "In some African tribes, it is common for the women to unite with the men in hunting the lion and the leopard." During the reign of Anne of Austria, the French women often appeared at the head of political factions, wearing scarfs that designated the party to which they belonged. Swords and harps, violins and cuirasses, were seen together in the same saloon. There was a regiment created under the name of mademoiselle. "During the late war, Polish women assisted the men in erecting fortifications, and one of the outworks was called the 'lunette of the women,' because it was built entirely by their hands. The Countess Plater raised and equipped a regiment of five or six hundred Lithuanians at her own expense; and she was uniformly at their head, encouraging them by her brave example in every battle. The women proposed to form three companies of their own sex, to share the fatigues and perils of the army; but their countrymen, wishing to employ their energies in a manner less dangerous, distributed them among the hospitals to attend the wounded." "In the army of the King of Siam, one corps particularly attracts the attention of strangers, which is a battalion of the king's guard, composed of women. This battalion consists of four hundred women, chosen from among the handsomest and most robust girls in the country. They receive excellent pay, and their discipline is perfect. They are admitted to serve at the age of thirteen, and are placed in the army of reserve at twenty-five. From that period they no longer serve about the king's person, but are employed to guard the royal palaces and crown lands." MINOR EMPLOYMENTS. =524. United States.= A little boy told me he used to catch butterflies, and sell them in New York at a penny apiece for canary birds. Sometimes he would get one hundred a day; and at other times, not as many a week. Some women are seen on the streets of our large cities, selling baskets, brushes, sponges, and wash leather--and many with baskets containing tape, cord, pins, &c. Some women buy waste paper to sell to grocers, butchers, fishmongers, and such others as would use it for wrapping. A few resort to levees and warehouses to seek the scraps of waste cotton that are lost by the removal of bales. Some collect ashes, separate the cinders, wash and sell them; while some collect wood scattered about lumber yards, and catch that drifting in rivers. =525. England.= Some children on the streets of London are employed in the sale of fly-papers. Some sell paper cuttings to ornament ceilings. Sand is sold on the streets for scouring and for birds--also gravel for birds. Some women, in London, go around and buy the skins of rabbits and hares to sell again, and some keep little shops where they buy kitchen stuff, grease, and dripping. In England, women are hired to pick currants and gooseberries, put up fruit, weed gardens, bind grain, pick hops, and sometimes even to cut hay and dig potatoes. On the streets of London, some women sell conundrums and playbills, which are pinned to a large screen, and a number sell stationery. In old countries nothing is lost. Use is found for every article, even when no longer of value for its original purpose. For instance, old tin kettles and coal scuttles, we learn from Mr. Babbage, are cut up for the bottoms and bands of trunks, and by manufacturing chemists in preparing a black dye used by calico printers. In some cities of the old countries, every variety of second-hand miscellaneous articles are sold in shops, from a Jew's harp to a bedstead. In London, Mayhew says: "Among the mudlarks may be seen many old women, and it is indeed pitiable to behold them, especially during the winter, bent nearly double with age and infirmity, paddling and groping among the wet mud for small pieces of coal, chips of wood, copper nails that drop out of the sheathing of vessels, or any sort of refuse washed up by the tide. These women always have with them an old basket, or an old tin kettle, in which they put whatever they may chance to find. It usually takes them the whole tide to fill the receptacle, but, when filled, it is as much as the feeble old creatures are able to carry home." Little girls, too, eagerly press into the mud as the tide recedes, to secure what trifles they can, by which to gain bread. =526. France.= In France, many women are employed in vineyards to pick grapes, tie up the vines, &c. L. told me he had seen women in France employed in preparing a kind of fuel made of clay mixed in water, cast in moulds, and dried. Females are employed by some of the merchants in Paris to carry goods home for purchasers. One of the most flourishing of the minor street trades of Paris is that in fried potatoes, invented some twenty-five years ago by a man that made his fortune at the business. A few years back might have been seen in the grounds of the Tuileries an old woman with a long stick, drawing off the surface of the water the feathers that loosened and fell from the swans that floated on the ponds. That old woman sold the feathers to buy bread. =527. Occupations in which no Women are employed.= I have received information from persons saying women are never engaged in their branches of business, which are the following: Architectural Ornamentation, Bonedust, Buckets, Carriage painting, Copperas ("hard and unsuitable"), Currying, Drug Mills ("only fit for able-bodied men"), Edge Tools ("not adapted to the sex"), Emery Paper, Flour Mills, Glazier's Diamonds, Gunpowder ("dangerous"), India Rubber Belting, Magnesia, Melodeons, Mercantile Agencies, Metallic Furniture, Oil, Oil Cloth, Organ building, Paint Mills, Pattern making (of wood), Pearlash ("unsuitable"), Philosophical Instruments (except Globes), Pine Furniture, Pork packing, Reed making, Rivets, Roll covering, Seed crushing ("requires able bodied men"), Sellers of License, Ship Crackers, Shot and Lead ("dangerous and unhealthy"), Shovels, Slate, Spools, Starch ("too hard"), Steel-letter cutting, Stone quarrying, Street-lamp lighting, Sulphur ("unhealthy"), Superphosphate of Lime ("requires too much muscular strength"), Surveyors' and Engineers' Instruments, Tanning, Tinfoil, Trowels, Vinegar, Wholesale Fruit dealing, Wire drawing, Wool combing, and Zinc manufacture. =528. None in the United States.= There are no women employed in any capacity in connection with mining and shipping coal in our country. Neither could any branch of the business be well placed under their supervision, for very nearly all the labor is performed by foreigners of the most low and illiterate class. None are employed in Baggage transportation, Bleaching, Brokers' Offices, Chemical Works, Cutlery, Furniture moving, Glue drying, Gun making, Iron Works, Landscape gardening, Lead Pencils, Sail making, Savings Banks, Silvering Mirrors, Tending Sheep, and Wood carving. =529. Very few employed.= Attending in offices of ladies' physicians, Charcoal burning, China painting, Chiropody, Clock Work, Lacquering, Marble Work, Mirror Frames, Sign painting, Stencil cutting, and Stone Ware. "As a curious incident of the growing availability of female labor, Vermont returns four females engaged in ship building, and Virginia reports two so employed." Mrs. Swisshelm is an inspector of lumber, receiving a salary of $500 per annum. Mrs. N. Smith was recently elected mayoress in Oskaloosa, Iowa, the first time that office was ever filled by a lady. We have been told of a Miss D., who furnishes houses, receiving a stipulated sum for the exercise of her taste and judgment, and the time and trouble of making purchases. In the Southern States, a few colored women are employed about sugar mills, and many in gathering cotton. I suppose that in some countries women may be, and probably are employed in the preparation of isinglass and gelatine; also, in collecting cochineal, and gathering rice and coffee. =530. The South.= There will be openings in the South for business in the following branches: Artificial Eyes, Limbs, and Teeth. Artificial Flowers. Bags (Cotton and Paper). Baskets. Belts (Ladies'). Bonnets. Bonnet Ruches. Bonnet Frames. Books. Braces and Trusses. Brushes. Buttons. Candles (from the tallow tree of South Carolina and Georgia). Candy. Canes. Caps. Card Printing and Stencilling. Carpets. Carriage Trimmings. Car and Carriage Ornamenting. China. Cigars. Cloaks and Mantillas. Clocks. Clothing. Cord. Cordage and Twine. Cutlery. Daguerreotype Apparatus, &c. Designs. Drawings (Architectural, &c.). Dress Caps. Dress Trimmings. Embroideries. Envelopes. Factory Work. Fancy Stores. Feather Dressing. Fishing Tackle. Furniture. Gilding. Gold Chains. Gold Pens. Gold and Silver Leaf. Grape Growing. Gum-Elastic Goods. Hair Dressing and Manufacturing. Hardware. Hats. Hoop Skirts. Horse Coverings. Ink. Jewelry. Labels. Lamps. Lapidaries' Work. Laundries. Lead. Leather. Life Preservers. Lithographing. Maps. Matches. Military Goods. Needle and Thread Stores. Oils. Paper Boxes. Patterns (Ladies' and Children's). Plated Ware. Paints. Painting and Staining of Glass. Perfumery. Photography. Practising Medicine. Picture Restoring. Pipes. Places of Summer Resort. Porcelain. Potash. Pottery. Printing. Rag Collecting. Sealed Provisions. Sewing-Machine Labor. Shoes. Shot. Soda and Saleratus. Spectacles. Stair Rods. Steel Engraving. Straw Working. Surgical Instruments. Suspenders. Tailors' Work. Tape. Tobacco Stripping and Packing. Toys. Types. Umbrellas and Parasols. Under Wear. Wall Paper. Watches. Willow Growing. Window Shades. Wood Engraving. There will be openings in St. Louis and Chicago for fur sewers. There has been a demand for mill girls in Rhode Island. There is a surplus now of workers in cotton mills, but not of operatives in woollen mills. A gentleman in Middletown, Conn., wrote me a boarding house for work girls is wanted there. Makers of ladies' dress caps and ironers of new shirts have been scarce in New York city. =531. Prices of Board for Workwomen, and Remarks of Employers.= Aside from the prices of board for workwomen as mentioned in different parts of this work, I have intelligence from employers in one hundred and fifteen towns and cities of the Eastern States, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. These places number: Maine 4, New Hampshire 13, Vermont 4, Massachusetts 34, Rhode Island 5, Connecticut 29, New York 19, Pennsylvania 5, and New Jersey 2. Of the places in Maine, prices of board for women run from $1.33 ¹/3 to $1.50 a week. In New Hampshire, they make the same range. In Vermont, the price is given, of all places, at $1.50. In Rhode Island, from $1.50 to $3. In Connecticut, from $1.42. to $3. Massachusetts, from $1.25 to $4. New York, $1.50 to $3.50. Pennsylvania, $1.50 to $5. New Jersey, $1.25 to $1.75. The difference in board is something between a small town and a city in any State. The largest number of employers in cities give, as the most common prices, from $1.50 to $3 per week. Lights and washing are sometimes included in these prices, but washing very seldom--fuel in the rooms of the boarders, never. Employers write the boarding houses of their workmen are comfortable and respectable. We hope they are so, and wish that as much could be said of all. But we must acknowledge that we feel disposed to question the comfort of the majority of those for which such prices are paid in cities as mentioned by the employers. In villages and towns, board could be had at such rates. But we are confident it would be impossible to furnish sufficient wholesome food and clean, well ventilated lodging rooms, at the rates mostly specified in cities, where rent and provisions are high, with any profit to the keepers of the houses. Some employers assert that women can live cheaper than men. They cannot, in most places, to have as good accommodations; and when they can, the difference is slight. So a just proportion in wages is not observed, even with such a plea. Most men in industrial avocations receive $1.50 a day (many $2); women, from 50 cents to $1--most generally the former price. In France, a workman usually receives 60 cents a day; a woman, over 30 cents. So women do not receive even as good wages, in proportion to men, in the United States, as in France. In Lyons, France, women have always been paid for work performed in the same proportion as men. Most hand seamstresses receive starvation prices in both countries. In most industrial employments in Dublin, Ireland, women receive six English shillings a week, for their work of ten hours a day. Yet on the dusty and disagreeable labor of sorting and picking rags, some are enabled to earn eight shillings a week, but they are paid by the piece. School children in Dublin, as well as the working classes, usually take Monday for a holiday. Nor is it confined to Dublin. In France and England, Monday is made a day of freedom from work, and of reckless dissipation, with a large portion of the working people. In most occupations open to women, the times for work are usually not more than six months in the year, while men's extend the year round. Some employers write their women have more time than inclination for mental improvement--that all their time is at their disposal, except those hours employed in the factory, workshop, or store, which run from ten to seventeen hours. A woman's wardrobe requires some hours' attention; and the more limited her means, the more time is needed to keep it in repair. We think employers could do much good by learning the condition of their work people--what their habits and home comforts are; and would recommend to those disposed to learn something of the results, to read a work called "The Successful Merchant." I have heard there is a great laxity of morals in some of the establishments of New York, where men and women are employed. Proprietors and foremen of correct principles could do much to prevent this. Much, too, might be avoided by a careful selection of work people. I learn from one employer that one of his workwomen reads aloud to the others while at work. It is an admirable plan, but, where machinery is employed, could not be adopted, because of the noise. The best policy for any government is a protection of home produce and manufactures--a policy that it is desirable to see carried out more fully in our country. It will be observed that the farther we go south, as a general thing, the better are the prices paid for labor. Living, however, is somewhat higher. So what is gained in one way is lost in another. A majority of workwomen in this country are foreigners. In New York, I have heard the opinion expressed that there are in that city fifteen foreign workwomen where there is one American. One source of trouble among workwomen is the indifferent way in which they execute their work, arising from the want of proper instruction, the want of application, or a careless habit they acquire. Another failing is stopping often when at work. A misfortune with many workwomen is that they have not the physical strength to do much work, to do it constantly, or to do it fast. =532. Number of Work Hours.= In France, the number of work hours is 12; in England, 10; and in most of the United States, 10. In some of the United States there are no laws regulating the number of work hours; and in some States, where such laws do exist, they are evaded. =533. Extracts from the Census Report for 1860.= In advance of publication, Mr. Kennedy, Superintendent of the United States Census Report, writes: "The whole number, approximately, of females employed in the various branches of manufacture, is 285,000. The following are approximations to the average wages paid in New York and New England. Monthly wages of females employed in making "Boots and shoes, $11 25 Clothing, 12 00 Cotton goods, 13 30 Woollen, 16 00 Paper boxes, 14 30 Umbrellas, &c. 13 38 Book folding, 15 38 Printing, 13 65 Millinery, 17 47 Ladies' mantillas, &c. 16 00 Hoop skirts, 14 00" APPENDIX. INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS OF PARIS, IN 1848. -------------------+------------------------------------------------------ OCCUPATIONS. |Number of Men. | |Number of Women. | | |Minimum of Men's Wages per Day. | | | |Maximum of Men's Wages per Day. | | | | |Minimum of Women's | | | | | Wages per Day. | | | | | |Maximum of Women's | | | | | | Wages per Day. | | | | | | |Months when Work | | | | | | | is slack. -------------------+-------+-------+----+------+----+-----+---------------- | | | ct | $ ct | ct |cents| -------------------+-------+-------+----+------+----+-----+---------------- Makers of | 217 | 51 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 35 |Jan. Feb. Aug. Accordions | | | | | | | Sculptors in | 51 | 14 | 40 | 1 20 | 30 | 45 |Jan. Feb. Mar. Alabaster Night | | | | | | | Lamps, and Wicks | | | | | | | Makers of Matches | 184 | 357 | 25 | 1 00 | 12 | 60 |May. Jun. Jul. | | | | | | | Aug. Manufacturers of | 83 | 4 | 45 | 0 80 | 30 | .. |Jun. Jul. Aug. Starch and | | | | | | | Spongers of | | | | | | | Cloths | | | | | | | Dressers of | 491 | 325 | 25 | 1 00 | 20 | 50 |Jun. Jul. Jan. Woven Goods, | | | | | | | Silver and Copper| | | | | | | Dressers and | 31 | 3 | 50 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Drawers of Gold | | | | | | | Gunsmiths | 492 | 8 | 30 | 1 10 | .. | 35 |Jun. Jul. May. | | | | | | | Mar. Makers of Scales | 205 | 2 | 60 | 1 10 | .. | .. |Jan. Feb. Aug. and Weights | | | | | | | Whalebone Splitters| 96 | 42 | 20 | 1 00 | ave. 29 |Dec. Jan. Feb. Bandage and Truss | 278 | 404 | 50 | 0 83 | 60 |2 00 |Jan. Feb. and Makers | | | | | | | part of Dec. Beaters of Gold | 195 | 377 | 50 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. and Silver | | | | | | | Polishers of | 1,091 | 784 | 30 | 2 00 | 15 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Mar. Steel Jewelry | | | | | | | Mourning Jewelry | 170 | 54 | 40 | 1 20 | 20 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul. False Jewelry | 1,507 | 456 | 25 | 1 60 | 16 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Mar. Fine Jewelry | 2,942 | 637 | 20 | 2 40 | .. | 48 |Jul. Aug. Jan. | | | | | | | Feb. Garnishers of | 83 | 4 | 50 | 1 10 | 20 | 40 |Jan. Feb. and Jewels | | | | | | | part of Jul. Manufacturers of | 216 | 9 | 40 | 2 00 | 30 | 60 |Jul. Aug. Jan. Implements for | | | | | | | Billiards | | | | | | | Toy Manufacturers | 641 | 1,345 | 25 | 1 20 | 10 | 80 |Jan. Feb. Mar. | | | | | | | Apr. Bleachers of Woven | 65 | 275 | 50 | 1 00 | 10 | 55 |Jun. Jul. Aug. Goods | | | | | | | part of Sep. Washerwomen | 36 | 7,491 | 40 | 0 70 | 20 | 60 |Aug. Jul. Jan. | | | | | | | Feb. Wood Workers | 43 | 20 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 60 |Jul. Aug. Jan. | | | | | | | Feb. Cap Makers | 1,068 | 1,565 | 18 | 1 00 | 8 | 50 |Jan. Feb. Jul. | | | | | | | part of Aug. Makers of Hooks | 127 | 75 | 60 | 1 00 | 20 | 35 |Jan. and part and Eyes, and | | | | | | | of Feb. Buckles | | | | | | | Makers of Wax and | 186 | 113 | 40 | 1 00 | 15 | 60 |Jun. Jul. Aug. Tallow Candles | | | | | | | Bakers | 1,996 | 643 | 25 | 0 60 | 30 and a loaf of bread | | | | | | | every day. | | | | | | | Jun. Jul. | | | | | | | Aug. Sep. Embroiderers of | 7 | 876 | 60 | 0 80 | 15 | 60 |Jan. Feb. Jul. Bags and Purses | | | | | | | and Aug. Button Makers, | 405 | 185 | 40 | 1 20 | 18 | 40 |Dec. to Feb., Horn, Pearl, &c. | | | | | | | being most | | | | | | | of 3 months. Button Makers, | 716 | 522 | 30 | 1 20 | 10 | 60 |Jan. Feb. and Cloth and Metal | | | | | | | part of Jul. | | | | | | | and Aug. Bricks, Tiles, | 497 | 27 | 40 | 2 80 | 25 | 60 |Commence in Nov. and Pipes for | | | | | | | and end in Mar. Chimneys | | | | | | | Book Stitchers | 183 | 678 | 20 | 1 00 | 20 | 65 | Tapestry | 14 | 969 | 70 | 1 20 | 15 | 70 |Jun. Jul. Aug. Embroiderers | | | | | | | Embroiderers | 43 | 3,746 | 60 | 3 00 | 10 |1 00 |Jul. Aug., part | | | | | | | of Jan. Feb. Manufacturers of | 2,515 | 27 | 45 | 2 00 | 25 | 70 |Most active in Bronze | | | | | | | Oct. Nov. Dec. Bronze Carvers | 752 | 6 | 30 | 1 25 | 30 | .. | " " " Bronze Gilders | 343 | 24 | 50 | 1 20 | 30 | 55 |Oct. Nov. Dec. Bronze Founders | 1,178 | 1 | 40 |