house-maid who was told that Barkis was willing, did not better understand the import of the message.

.

The large spinning-wheel was more laborious. It consisted of a bench or horse' considerably larger than that of the little flaxwheel. In it was inserted a standard on which to suspend the wheel, while at the front was another standard in which the spindle was fixed upon a little wheel. A band passing around both, communicated from the larger orb the force required to propel rapidly the smaller, and so twist properly the yarn. Instead of sitting as when at work with the little flax-wheel, the spinster walked forward and backward as she plied her task. As the spindle became so loaded as to preclude working easily, the 'reel' was produced, as in the other instances, and the thread or yarn was taken off, and apportioned into skeins. A 'run,' involving a walk of several miles, was considered a good day's work.

A very few of these monuments of the Past are still in existence; but the art of spinning, except by machinery propelled by steam or water power, is well nigh lost.

The art of weaving, intricate and ingenious as it is, possesses, nevertheless, an antiquity defying research. Captain James Riley, the African navigator, suggests that men first caught the idea from the bark of the cocoa-tree, which, indeed, greatly resembles cloth; but this is only an hypothesis, not capable of demonstration. It was ever considered, since history existed, as the avocation of the house-wife.* Among the Bedouins, the loom is a very primitive structure, consisting of two rows of pegs stationed at a given distance from each other, to which the twist or warp' was attached. The threads are separated from each other by a wooden stick, each alternately being placed above or below; the weft or woof is either passed through by hand or by the aid of a rude shuttle, and then is beaten to the inner row of pegs by the stick. The repetition of this process till the whole warp is thus filled with woof-thread, results in producing cloth.

6

The shuttle and the loom were used in a remote antiquity in every country of any claim to civilization, and their general form in Egypt and Hindostan was not dissimilar to those employed in modern Europe and America. The ancients attributed to Athenè their introduction into this world; and Horace assures us that she wove her own vestments and the robes of Juno, queen of the gods. Every Roman matron deemed her skill at the loom as her noblest accomplishment, and ancient story attributes the passion of the Tarquin for Lucretia to an inspiration given when she was surprised in this employment by the young Romans on the occasion of their night visit.

In the weaving process, the long threads are called warp, or twist; the cross-threads weft, woof, or filling. The warp is always attached to the loom, while the woof is contained in the shuttle.

THE term wife comes from the same root with web, weft, weave, woof, and the German weben, weber, etc., and came to be applied to the married woman, because she did the weaving for the family.

The first operation consists in laying the requisite number of threads. together to form the width of the cloth. This is termed warping. Supposing there are to be one thousand threads in the width of a piece of cloth, the yarn as it is wound on the spools or bobbins, must be so unwound and laid out as to form one thousand lengths, which when placed parallel, constitute the warp of the intended

cloth. In India and China the old method is still pursued, of drawing out the warp from the bobbins in an open field; but the occidental weavers employ a warping-frame, in which the threads are arranged by means of a frame revolving upon a vertical axis. When the warp is arranged around this machine, the warper takes it off, and winds it into a ball, preparatory to the process of beaming, or winding it on the beam or large roller of the loom. The threads, in this latter process, are wound evenly on the beam; a ravel, comb, or separator being used to lay them parallel, and

to spread them out to about the intended width of the cloth. The threads of warp are then drawn, or attached individually to a stick, which is afterward fastened to another revolving beam of the loom. In this process, each thread is passed through a 'harness' fixed to two frames called headles, in such a manner, that all the alternate threads can be drawn up or down by one headle and the remainder by the other.

There is a seat for the weaver at the extreme end of the loom. The weaver being seated, places one foot upon a treadle, by which she depresses one of the headles above, thereby forming an opening in the warp, sufficient to admit the passage of the shuttle. This is hurled with force sufficient to carry it across the whole web, giving out a thread, which thus extends across, above and below, alternately, each thread of the web.

and the companion and the little ones would group around, performing their usual tasks, or at some childish pastime, till, as the evening waned away, one after another would drop away, till the 'old folks at home' were left to finish the scene by themselves. The loom in the corner was always regarded as a Lar of the household, and its dislodgment would have been considered equivalent to the dismemberment of the family.

But this ancient period has passed forever away; the loom and its family associations have fled before modern inventions. The inexorable Progress, creating social revolution, has wrested them all away, nor minded what men thought of its innovations.

Formerly the mother and daughters wrought the clothing for the family. Where ease and wealth gave opportunity, the business of sewing was carried to great perfection. Embroidery was the employment of ladies of gentle blood; and the Bayeux tapestry will long remind posterity of the skill of Queen Adeliza. But in humbler circles, simple needle-work was all that was cultivated. The manufacture of fabrics and the demands of fashion increasing, the tailor and milliner- so called because she wrought Milan goods were introduced to aid the house-wife; and for years they were wont to whip the cat,' that is, go from house to house, to render their sewing where required. The cities, and eventually the villages, were exceptions to this rule; and shops were there early established for these branches of industry. Sewing thus became the avocation of a large class of operatives, most of them females. It is easier and cheaper to obtain female labor, and necessity teaches woman to endure privations and impositions at which

the other sex would revolt. It is seldom that a woman's wages more than supplies the commonest necessities of life often not that. The 'Song of the Shirt,' which immortalized its author, is accordant strictly with fact. A certain class of dealers engaged in the clothing and millinery business, and perfectly unscrupulous, have contributed largely to increase the labor and to reduce the wages of sewing - women. Other dealers must sell as low as they, and of course

employ the same oppressive policy. The waste of health, of life, of happiness, of every thing precious to woman, is a sad picture to contemplate. It would require a Jeremiad scroll of indefinite length to depict properly and fully the painful diseases, the abridged life, ruined hopes, blasted prospects, and, worse than

all, the virtue sacrificed to enable poor sufferers to eke out their miserable existence. A laboring woman starves on virtue; a woman of pleasure grows rich and luxuriates in vice. We sometimes think of retribution, of an adjustment of the social scale, and tremble to think what may be impending. If women have the power to combine and improve their social condition, we have no obstacles to interpose; we only bid them GOD-speed.

In reference to needle-work, a revolution has indeed already been inaugurated by the introduction of the sewing-machine. We are able to state definite achievements in this respect, and, to give point to our remarks, refer to the deservedly popular machine of Wheeler and Wilson, which we some time since characterized as 'an American Institution.

It combines all the essential qualities of a good instrument, namely, elegance of model and finish; simplicity and thoroughness of construction, and consequent durability and freedom from derangement, and need of repairs; ease, quietness, and rapidity of operation; beauty of stitch alike upon both sides of the fabric. sewed; strength and firmness of seam that will not rip nor ravel, and made with economy of thread; and applicability to a variety of purposes and materials.

The stitch made by this machine is illustrated by the following diagram:

It is formed with two threads, one above the fabric, and the other below it, interlocked in the centre. It presents the same appearance upon each side of the seam-a single line of thread extending from stitch to stitch. The machine is mounted upon a small work-table, and driven

by sandal pedals, pulley, and band. The operator seats herself before it; with a gentle pressure of the feet upon the pedals, the machine is touched into motion, the work being placed upon the cloth-plate and beneath the needle. The pretty array of silvered arms and wheels perform their regular music, interweaving the threads smoothly with the surface into a beautiful seam, which glides through the fingers at the rate of a yard a minute, as if the operator had conjured

some magical influence to aid in the delightful occupation. The fabric is moved forward by the machine, and the length of the