work, I can point to copies of the ENGLISH WOMAN'S JOURNAL, a monthly periodical now printed at the Victoria Press, and also to a volume printed for this Association, both of which can be obtained in the reception room, and which will, I think, be allowed to be sufficient proof of the fact that printing can be successfully undertaken by women.

EMILY FAIthfull.

XIX.-FACTS AND SCRAPS.

THE SEWING-MACHINE IN AMERICA.

THE following particulars regarding the employment of the sewingmachine in the United States, and the effect it produces on domestic life there, have been communicated to us by an American lady. It appears to be much more largely used in families on the other side of the Atlantic than is yet the case among us :

Machinery as a substitute for hand labor, you are aware, for obvious reasons, always meets with opposition, more or less violent, when first introduced. This was the case in the United States with the sewing-machine. The opposition was more moderate, however, with us than it would probably be with you, where the avenues to employment are so crowded.

"Our country, you know, is the great field for enterprise and experiment; novelties are welcomed, and always meet with a fair trial. The restlessness peculiar to a new country, where people are not accustomed to move in long-established grooves, rendering it easy to turn from one mode of employment to another. The objection usually made, that these machines doing a week's work in a few hours, would throw many deserving women out of employment, it is my impression has not been confirmed. A few, no doubt, have suffered among the elderly, the infirm, or unenterprising, who could not, or would not, change their habits. Since the introduction of this invention, large establishments have grown up at the principal agencies in our great cities, where, in commodious apartments, the purchasers of machines are instructed in their use. intelligent woman is at the head of such an establishment, and under her supervision the whole business goes on. In other apartments, numbers of women and girls are employed, some sewing upon the machines, others preparing the work, which is sent here by private families, by those who deal in ready-made linen, and by tailors, for whose work it is peculiarly adapted. It should be remembered by those who oppose the sewing machine, that women must be employed in their use. A great proportion of the work in every garment must be done by the hand, beside the necessary fitting and preparation.

An

"My own opinion is, that these machines are a Providential invention in behalf of our sex. Any one who has reflected upon the subject, any one, indeed, who has read Hood's Song of the Shirt,'-must be thankful that there is growing up in the world a remedy for that terrible waste of labor, health, and eyesight, which the use of the needle has caused in woman.

"Another argument in their favor is, that they remove the burden of labor from the woman, whose proper employment is the training of children, the charge of the aged, and the care of the household, to the man. In the increased demand for machinery, and in the employment thus afforded to men, the income formerly supplied by the wife, mother, or sister, can be derived from the legitimate source, giving each their proper sphere, and sparing woman that expenditure of physical energy which Providence has not fitted her to endure.

I have under

"There are in the United States a dozen or twenty different patented machines, some of them very cheap, the most approved are the most expensive, and have the readiest sale. stood that at least a hundred thousand are sold in America in a year. When you reflect that the best sort cost from seventy-five dollars to one hundred and twenty, you may imagine the amount of capital invested in this manufacture.

"One of the modes by which women in the United States obtain a livelihood, is by going out to sew by the day in families. If they possess a good machine, they can find constant employment. The work is fitted and prepared for them previously, and in a day the work which it has required a good manager many days to prepare, can be passed through the machine.

"Families who own a machine, and wish to employ a person occasionally to work it, obtain a woman from the agency; her wages are a dollar and three-quarters a day. The wages of a woman who brings her own machine, are two dollars a day, with the cost of transporting it added. In both cases they are provided with their meals by their employers.

"Of course the woman who labors all day over a sewing-machine, works as hard as one who does it with the needle, but she will receive nearly as much in one day as she could make by her needle in a week, with this advantage, that her mind is not depressed by the weary consciousness that her labor is only advancing by the slow progress of inches.

"One of the results of the introduction of the sewing-machine with us is, the increased comfort and ease of persons in moderate circumstances. For a small sum a greater number of garments can be provided for a family; the mother has her press full of linen, which heretofore she has not had time to make, and could not afford to have made; the children are stocked with a plentiful supply of clothing at a small cost; the mother no longer feels bound to mend old clothes; she has increased rest, and the poor

profit by the cast off garments. Greater comfort is diffused through the family, greater cleanliness, and, consequently, increased means of health. The families of country clergymen with small salaries profit much by the use of these machines, which are always sold to them at a reduced price. I will venture to say that the consumption of our domestic manufactures has been increased by the use of this invention very much, and I doubt whether our people would willingly go back to the days of hard sewing, any more than they would endure to live in the costly twilight of lamps and candles after enjoying the brilliant blaze of gas."

ANTIOCH COLLEGE, OHIO.

WE find in the Home Journal a pleasant account of a visit to Antioch College, by N. P. Willis, one of its editors.

"It is interesting to see the spacious buildings and towering cupola of the great College of the West where no sex is recognised in the intellect-men and women educated together and equally free to take degrees as 'Bachelors of Arts.' As we left the cars, at Yellow Springs, I looked on the tall structure of 'Antioch College,' near by, with no little curiosity. Yet it is perhaps the best tribute that I could pay to the success of the system-the finding that I have so little to record which would differ materially from a report of other institutions of learning. The largely published accounts of the recent commencement have probably so freshened the principles and progress of the College in the minds of our readers, that they need not here be referred to.

"Our first day in the neighborhood being a Sunday, we attended service in the College chapel, and thus had an opportunity of seeing the students together. The sermon turned out to be a most earnest and large-thoughted exhortation to the duties of Christian friendship and charity; and pronounced as it was by a man of most Apostolic character of face-the very type of humility and wisdom,it was to such an audience most suggestive. I learned, afterwards, that Dr. Hill had first delivered this beautiful discourse as one of the 'Lowell Lectures' at Cambridge; he resided then at Waltham, Massachusetts, whence he was called to his present very arduous and critically responsible office, at the death of Horace Mann. The friends of the College, I found, are rejoicing very much in having thus secured to its service one of the fittest men for the moulding and influencing of personal character as well as one of the leading intellects of New England; and it certainly seemed to me no slight advantage, for such an institution, that its president was one in whose mere countenance there was so winning and elevating a lesson of the presence and look of goodness.

"Our visit being to friends residing in the neighborhood, conversation turned naturally upon the social habits and standards of the College, and we learned much in favor of the educational

amalgam. The influence of each sex upon the manners and habits of the other is found to be refining, as well as stimulative of the higher ambitions; though, naturally, the effect is stronger upon the older than upon the younger students. No restraint, beyond that of absolute propriety, is put upon their intercourse. The recitations and lectures are of course in common; but so also are the meals,the refectory being arranged with small tables, at which they form their own parties of four or six, eating and conversing together with the freedom of acquaintances at a restaurant. Out of study hours they associate as they please, often forming picnics and finding amusement in the beautiful scenery of the neighborhood and mingling much with the society around. Preferences and attachments are inevitable, of course; but these, honorably pursued, are not discouraged or interfered with; and, though undergraduate marriages are not common (particularly while the lady is a 'Freshman'), one instance, I understood, had occurred of husband and wife taking their degrees as 'Bachelors of Arts' at the same commencement. One couple of 'best scholars,' who had become attached while 'Seniors,' and married after graduating, returned to the College to become each a professor. It should be mentioned, perhaps, that the gentle sex has one especial officer-a 'matron,' who regulates personal habits by presiding over the dormitory,' or separate college building where the female students lodge,—and that the present incumbent of this office, Mrs. Paine, a New England matron, is exercising a marked influence on the College by her singular efficiency and good judgment. The great purpose,-to give the mothers of the West a liberal education,-is thus prevented from having the possible drawback of scholarly slovenliness.'

"The well-known fact that this is the cheapest place of education in the world suggests its advantages, as within reach, to a class humbler in life, but with its share of noble natures; and, among these last mentioned, I should certainly number one young woman who is at present successfully pursuing her studies at the College, but who came there without means, and soon found a way to support herself by hiring as cook to a family in the neighborhood. There is a Spartan quality in this, which tells well as an incident at the 'Alma Mater' of a new country! I heard, however, of one rather droll instance of pioneer adaptability-a clergyman out West' having written to the Faculty to say that he had quite a family of boys and girls whom he should like to have educated, and wishing to know whether he couldn't get a job of preaching round there to pay their expenses.'

6

A PROFESSIONAL SILVER WEDDING. DR. HARRIOT K. HUNT, of Boston, on the 27th of June, celebrated her professional "silver wedding," that is, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the date when she commenced the practice of medicine. Her

house was ornamented with flowers, evergreens, pictures, and statues, with appropriate mottoes, on every spot. Her bedchamber-furnished with the same old chairs, couch, bed, even to the sheets and pillowcases, as at the period of her birth- -was adorned with appropriate emblems and mottoes. One small room was sacred to her friends in the spirit land-and portraits, wreaths, or vases of flowers, pressed leaves of grasses, and mottoes with affectionate sentiments, told the story of loving remembrance. A ring of gold was presented from the managers of the Hospital for Women and Children. In the evening there was tea, dancing, and reading of correspondence. Miss Harriet Hosmer, the sculptor, was present.

AN INDIAN ENVOY TO ENGLAND.

WE read in the New York Courier for the month of May-“ A few days since, a lone daughter of the forest, Nah-nee-bahwe-qua, which in English means an upright woman, highly gifted by nature and improved by a liberal education, arrived here on her way to England, on a mission to the Queen of Great Britain, to appear in person before Her Majesty, and state the sufferings of her people. Her people are the Ojibwas, residing within the boundaries of the province of Upper Canada; they number about one thousand souls, and оссиру three little villages. Their home is at Owen's Sound, on the northern shore of Lake Huron. These people have embraced Christianity, have become civilized, have devoted their lives to labor, have good farms well cultivated, good houses and pleasant homes. These pleasant homes are about being taken from them by the ruthless hand of power, and these poor Ojibwas are to be driven into the wilderness, upon a barren waste, to suffer, to starve, to die. Nahnee-bahwe-qua, on Sabbath last, attended Friends' meeting, and there offered up a fervent prayer, after which she addressed the meeting, and the recital of the sufferings of her people brought tears in the eyes of Friends. She is a member of the Methodist Church, and has with her the credentials of her membership and good standing, together with a letter of authority, signed by the chiefs of her nation, to appear as their representative to the Queen. It is to be hoped that the Society of Friends in England will interest themselves with the Queen in behalf of the suffering Ojibwas."

We quote from The Friend, a Quaker newspaper, the following particulars:-"That she is the wife of William Sutton, of Owen Sound, Upper Canada, an Englishman; that she is herself a full-blood Indian, of the Ojibway tribe, who inhabit the shores of Lake Huron, the niece and adopted daughter of the late Peter Jones, the converted Indian chief, who was so eminently useful as a missionary, and who visited this country about twenty years since. Bearing with her 'the vellum of her pedigree, a tawny skin,' of pleasing aspect, and most gentle manners, refined by Christianity, and gifted with the simple eloquence of nature, she was chosen at a general Indian council,