=228. Spectacles.= S. says there are women in England and France who make spectacle frames for them. He employs a woman to grind the glasses of spectacles. She can earn $15 a week, and has earned $23 a week by taking work home with her to do at night. On Nassau street, I saw a French lady who grinds glasses for spectacles on a lathe. She works from nine to five o'clock, and earns about $9 a week. There is not the danger some might apprehend of glass flying into the eyes while at work. Yet it requires great care and skill. I called at a manufactory of silver-plated spectacles and saw the whole process. Several parts are done by women. One was shaping the frames for the eyes, another setting them up, another preparing them to solder, another soldering, and three others were scouring. The soldering must be uncomfortable in warm weather. The employment, I suppose, is not more unhealthy than any other of a mechanical nature. One girl told me she earned seventy-five cents per day. They are paid by the quantity. She said the rest could earn as much, if they were industrious. One considerably older, at another branch, said she could earn $4 a week. It would not require more than a few weeks, I think, to learn any branch pursued by women--to learn all the parts performed by women, would require six months or more, even for an apt and skilful pupil. A spectacle maker, J., said a smart person could learn to make silver spectacles in a year, but it would require something longer to learn to make gold ones, as gold is a more difficult metal to melt and work than silver. An apprentice is not paid the first year, because of the metal he wastes. To learn it, one should at first look on and see how the work is done. A manufacturer of spectacles writes: "Women might make and repair spectacles. The heavier parts of the business require foot lathes to be worked, where skirts would be out of place, but the most could be done by hand in making spectacles." (We have seen several women at foot lathes, polishing watch cases--so the use of foot lathes need not be an objection with women.) A spectacle importer writes: "We use a great many spectacle glasses, and in their manufacture in England females are generally employed. In France and Germany the women do the same kind of work." P., in Meriden, Conn., writes: "We employ women in making spectacles. The work is not more unhealthy than any other labor in shops. Most are paid by the piece--those who work by the week usually receive $4, and work ten hours a day. They receive about three fourths the price of male labor, because they perform the lighter work. They earn their board in one week--get good wages in eight. They usually do about the same amount of work through the year. We employ about fifty, because they are more active on light work, and can be had for less wages. Most are Americans. Girls prefer this to housework, and make better wages. The nearer New York,