=306. Carvers.= The word "carver" is rather extensive in its application, being applied alike to one who cuts stone, wood, or metal. Carvers of stone and metal we treat of elsewhere. The art of carving is quite ancient. There are five kinds of wood carving: house, ship, toy, furniture, and pattern making; to these we may add the cutting of wooden letters for ornamental signs. Pattern making is the reverse of architectural carving: the first being in bas relief; the other, alto. Architectural carving is mostly done in pine, occasionally in oak. Ship carvers cut figure heads for vessels; some of this carving is done in oak, some in pine. For some kinds of carving the design is drawn on paper and cut out; then it is placed on the block, which is prepared of a proper thickness, and the outline drawn with a pencil. The portions of wood outside the design are then cut off with carving implements. The plan of marking the wood is not practised by all carvers. It may be that it is used for beginners only. Ingenuity in planning and skilful drawing are desirable qualifications for a carver. The tools used by carvers are very simple, being merely a hammer, and gouges of different sizes. When the wood is carved, it is smoothed with sand paper, then gilded or painted and varnished. During an apprenticeship, the usual sum paid a boy is $2.50 a week the first year, and more afterward. A journeyman can usually earn $1.50 or $1.75 a day of ten hours. It requires three years to learn the trade. "In wood sculpture, all that belongs to its simple ornament might receive a special grace from the inspiration of women." We have seen architectural and ship carving done by women; and it is our belief that almost any and every kind of carving could be done by them, if the wood were properly prepared, and they were carefully instructed. Some kinds of carving require considerable muscular strength. An architectural carver writes: "Our employment is healthy. Part of our business is suitable for women, but there is not enough in our establishment to keep one constantly employed." A carver told me that furniture carving is sometimes done by women. Though it is done in harder wood than most other kinds, it does not involve the lifting of heavy blocks, like architectural carving. The widow of a ship carver carries on the business in New York. Her son told me that eight persons could do all the work necessary for that city. There are a few ship carvers in Boston and Philadelphia, but none in the South or West. (Would not New Orleans present a good opening?) A. told me, a boy in learning ship carving is apprenticed for five or six years. He receives $1.50 a week for the first year, then $2, and after that $2.50, but no more. A carver told me that he had an Englishman working for him, that showed him some work done by his daughter, which was superior. He knows the wives of some carvers who finish the work of their husbands by rubbing it with sand paper.