A few years ago Hood’s “Song of the Shirt” was quoted as frequently in America as it once was in England, but nowadays only the stupidest of women, or those caught most suddenly in embarrassments and without any preparation for the battle of life, give themselves to the needle. Men do that sort of work now. Reduced gentlewomen who support themselves by sewing still exist, but they are not easy to find. Instead of making shirts or other cheap clothing at starvation wages, the woman out of employment nowadays turns herself to some specialty of needlework if she knows no other tool or method, and there are “exchanges” at which her work may be displayed and at which orders are given according to the samples shown and at prices which would astonish the old-time slaves of the needle. Women are in all the telegraph offices. They are clerks in thousands of business houses. They are mechanics, artisans and artists all over the country. It has become so much the fashion for women to work that nowadays there are signs in London, Paris and New York of common business enterprises presided over by women with titles. The Princess de Sagan, one of the brilliant lights of the court of the last Napoleon, manages a dress-making establishment in Paris and New York. Other ladies, equally illustrious, are well known in trade circles in London and on the Continent. All this looks strongly like the emancipation of women, but it does not at first sight convey its full meaning to the observer or reader. The most important result of it all is that woman is thus made independent of man. A woman of brains no longer needs to marry in order to have a home. It would be difficult to suggest the proportion of unhappy marriages which have been due to the fact that admirable women have been utterly unable to care for themselves in the world, and consequently have attached themselves for prudential reasons, although by a revered form and sacrament, to some man. But no longer is this necessary. There are all kinds of women as well as all kinds of men in business, but it is far safer in society to attempt a romantic flirtation with a woman than to make similar attempts in any business circles where women are employed. There are a great many handsome and spirited women in the departments at Washington, but no sentimental young man is fool enough to lounge about these places with the hope of getting up a flirtation. The woman who knows how to support herself is not going to be in haste to marry. When she marries she is going to have a husband, in fact as well as in name, as well as a home. She can afford to wait. She has entire control of her own destiny and she cannot be taken at a disadvantage. Instead of marrying for a home, the tables have been so turned that nowadays a large number of men are on the lookout for women who can give them a home. Plenty of men can be found who are desirous of marrying in order to be supported, instead of marrying for the purpose