=168. Factory Operatives.= The larger number of operatives in our manufactures are females. They are of all ages. They do not remain so permanently in our factories as in those of older countries. They make skilful and active workers. The factory operatives of this country are more favorably situated than those of most countries. Most of them have wholesome food and comfortable homes, or boarding houses. They are not confined in factories from early childhood until they lie down to take their last, long sleep; consequently, they are not stunted and deformed, and prematurely old. The activity and variety attending life in the city are likely to produce great restlessness, and insatiable thirst for excitement. This must be checked, or its results may be ruinous. Vent of the feelings is harmless; wholesome amusements, recreation so far as is possible in the quiet of the country, reading good books, and social intercourse with the virtuous and worthy, will form a good substitute for this artificial excitement. So greatly is the manufacture of materials into cloth, and cloth into goods, facilitated by machinery, that wool taken from the sheep's back to-day, can be worn as clothing to-morrow. The number of factories has greatly increased since the introduction of machinery; nor is it strange, for goods have become cheaper and the demand is greater. The materials for manufacturing are abundant in this country; but the want of workmen acquainted with this business, and the want of capital, have prevented some branches of American manufacture from equalling those of older countries. The improvements in machinery for removing dust and floating cotton in the work rooms, no doubt renders it more healthy than it was. "In proof of his assertion that factory labor shortens life, Dr. Jarrold deposed, that having examined, in the schools, all the children whose fathers had ever worked, or were still working in factories, he found that from one third to one fourth were fatherless." "Out of about two thousand children and young persons taken promiscuously, who were carefully examined in 1832, two hundred were deformed. These were factory operatives." These statements refer to operatives in England. Some women are employed in the manufactories of Birmingham, England, as overseers in the departments where women work, but the number is small, and in our country it is still more uncommon. Cotton and woollen goods are extensively manufactured in the New England States, New York, and Pennsylvania. A gentleman told me that a little more than a year ago, as he came from Vermont, he saw a young man in the cars with about twenty girls, that he was bringing down from Canada to a cotton factory in Massachusetts. The manufacturers had offered a bonus of $5 apiece for girls, and to pay their travelling expenses, and this young man was making a business of it. He says, in busy seasons there is a scarcity of hands in the New England factories. We believe that when men and women