=293. Tortoise-Shell Workers.= Shell is made into clock cases, cigar cases, card cases, writing desks, and other such articles, but is most used for combs. In Brooklyn, a manufacturer of shell combs told me they had several times thought of employing women, Gutta percha and vulcanized india rubber have become, to some extent, a substitute for tortoise shell. On tortoise-shell combs the light carving might be done by women; the heavy cutting requires more strength. The sawing out of the figures is suitable for women. The finishing could also be done by them. To learn the finishing would not require a person of ordinary talent more than a week, and either of the other processes probably not more than six or eight weeks. Workers could earn from $6 to $7 a week, if they could have constant employment. The business is very dependent on fashion. P. & B. used to employ girls in rounding the teeth of shell side-combs, and paid each $4; but gutta-percha combs have done away with shell ones. A worker of shell combs told me he had employed girls, paying some by the piece and some by the week. They earned from $3 to $6 per week. It requires about six months to learn carving and sawing--polishing, not so long. Care, judgment, and a good idea of form and proportion, are necessary. The business is now very dull. The style of carving on combs is very different from that worn a few years back. It is now of a heavier kind, and the work not so suitable for women. GUM ELASTIC MANUFACTURE. =294. Gum Elastic Manufacture.= "In nearly all the manufacturing branches of this business, females are employed. After the articles are moulded, females join them; also paint the toys, pack the combs in boxes, &c. In most establishments they are employed the whole year, while some only retain a small proportion during the dull season, which is in the winter. All are paid by the piece, varying from $4 to $7 per week. They learn very quickly, and are paid for what they do as soon as they commence, although it takes six months or one year's practice to equal the best workers. The manufacturing is almost exclusively confined to the country, and, as a class, the women are in no way exceptionable, many of them being considerably cultivated. There are plenty found to learn the business, and it gives employment to several thousand." In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, 1,825 males and 1,058 females were employed, in the year ending June 1st, 1860, in making india rubber goods. I talked with one of the most extensive gum elastic manufacturers in the United States, for the purpose of gaining some idea of the number of female operatives in that department, their wages, if the occupation is unhealthy, &c. This manufacturer has realized millions from his business; and, after repeated efforts to learn how his women were paid, I succeeded in learning that those who work out of the house are paid by the piece, and