lady who makes artificial flowers of paper and coarse muslin. She arranges them in wreaths, and sells them to decorate small stores, particularly German book stores. She and her daughter make a comfortable living at it. It requires long practice in the artificial flower business to earn good wages, and very good wages are earned at only a small number of establishments. The trickery of mean people in every occupation, it is desirable to avoid. In this business much is said to be practised. One of the unprincipled acts referred to is this: Learners are told they must spend six months acquiring the trade, and during that time will receive nothing, but after that get fair wages. One branch is learned in a week or ten days, but the apprentices remain, according to agreement, six months doing the same kind of work, when they are dismissed on the plea there is no work to give them, and new apprentices are taken. Some will keep their apprentices at but one branch of work for a year or two, so reaping the benefit of their work, without giving the instruction they promise. Girls who have served several years at artificial flower making can seldom earn over $3.50 or $4 a week. G. & K., one of the oldest and most extensive firms in New York, prefer to take girls from thirteen to fifteen years of age. Older girls are not satisfied with such wages as learners receive. While learning, for the first month, they are paid $2; after that, by the week, according to what they can do. They teach their girls all the different parts, and they make the finest French flowers. They give their girls work all the year, and they earn from $1 to $6 a week. In summer, they work ten hours; in winter, nine and a half. In this, as in every business, the best hands are most sure to obtain employment. Mrs. P. thinks only little girls should learn it, as it takes a great while to acquire proficiency. She and her partner pay fifty cents a week for two months to a learner, then $1 a week for a time, and then increase according to what is done. They usually give employment all the year. They pay altogether by the week, wages running from $2 to $5. At another manufactory, I found the arrangements the same, the girls working nine and a half hours in winter, and ten hours in summer. At another place I was told that it was best for a learner to begin at ten years of age. By the time she is eighteen, she will be able to make $4 or $5 a week. In some of the first-class houses for the sale of fine French flowers, a few superior hands may earn $6 and $7 per week; but for common flowers, particularly in the cheap establishments, the prices paid are very low. It is said to be common among some manufacturers of flowers to mix in a few imported ones with their own, and sell them all as foreign flowers. At another place, I found the same arrangement, fifty cents a week for a learner; $4 a week is the price paid for a very good hand. At an