=350. Sewers.= Mrs. K. employs about seventy-five girls for bleaching and sewing braid and straw bonnets. She pays some $3, some $3.50, and some $4 a week. They work ten hours. All live at home, but bring their dinners. She bleaches by the old-fashioned process with sulphur, and has men to do the pressing. N. & Co. employ about one hundred and twenty-five on an average six months, and about twenty-five all the year. The bonnet business has increased very much during the last few years. At B.'s, I was told the wholesale work for the South begins in November; but the city work, the last of March, and continues to July. It is light work, and does not require close application of the eyes. Machinery can never be used for sewing straw, because long stitches answer, and straw is too brittle. Persons of a nervous temperament are often the most intellectual. Such females make good straw sewers. It requires a peculiar adaptability, as every other occupation does. Everybody cannot learn to sing or to paint--just so some cannot make good straw sewers. He thinks most young workpeople in New York do not live at home, and considers obedience to parents and observance of the Sabbath the foundation of success in life. B--s, of Connecticut, write: "Women are employed in this country, and in Italy, France, and England, in sewing straw. Our girls (150) are mostly paid by the piece, and earn from $3 to $7 per week. They also trim straw hats. They spend four weeks as learners, and are paid $2 a week while learning. To be a fast sewer is the most important requisite. The prospect of a continuance of this work is good. The busy season is from September to June. The best locations are near New York and Boston." "About 200 persons are employed in the straw factory at Nantucket. Some of the operatives are daughters of the leading men of the town, and make $5 a week at the business." A firm at Middleboro', Mass., write: "We employ 850 women, and have them in preference to men, because they are more dexterous with the needle. They receive from 30 cents to $1.62 per day, and are paid mostly by the piece. Women are paid five eighths what the men receive, but could not perform their labor even at the same price. Learners make enough to pay their board the first three weeks. Good mechanical talent is needed in a learner. They have work about nine months in the year--generally stop July, August, and November. Nine tenths are Americans; seven eighths live at home. A large number of them are not dependent upon labor for a living. Board, $2 to $2.25." From a factory in Wrentham, Mass., we have the following report: "We employ during the winter season, in the factory, from seventy-five to one hundred females, and in families who work at home about six hundred, whose pay is not so good by about one third. Some of our workers are paid by the piece--some by the hour. Most of them can earn $1 a day, twelve hours being a day for females. Men are paid 15 cents an hour; good help extra, and poor, less. They work ten hours. For the part done by women, we pay the same price from the first, but their work is not received until it is well done. A person is employed to give them instruction; five or six weeks' practice mostly makes a good sewer of one who can learn at all. During this time most girls earn half wages. To good help we usually give work nine months in the year. Busy seasons from December 1st till June 1st, and from July 15th to October 1st. The rest of the year, work is given out at reduced prices--sufficient to earn about half wages. All American women. It is desirable for manufacturers to be near New York city, so as to keep posted on styles. Many ladies choose this business after teaching school for years. Most of our hands come from Maine, and board in houses provided for them, paying $2 a week." Another straw manufacturer informs me "the girls in straw shops earn more than in most other kinds of business, they being, as a general thing, smarter girls, and such as would not work in cotton and other large mills. Their work varies much, as the styles and materials change." A firm employing about eighty American girls write: "They are paid according to their skill and smartness, from $2.50 to $10 per week. Two thirds work by the piece--half will earn $5 to $6.50--average about $4.50 per week. Male labor will average double. It cannot be done by females--they are not strong enough. The reason of women's being paid low wages is the surplus of female labor. They cannot be hired to do housework--it is too confining. It requires one month, more or less, according to taste and genius, to learn the work. Good references as to character are required, and some skill with the needle, and an idea of form.