me man or woman who is engaged in the business, and who
knows something of the character of the institution she proposes to
enter.

FEATHER CURLING.

Fashion has, of late years, made feather curling a good trade for
women, and fashion, at almost any moment, may make it a very poor
business. For the last thirty years feathers have been used every
year, but, until within a very short time, their use has been confined
to the fall and winter season. During the past four or five years they
have been in great demand during the spring and early summer, taking
the place of flowers for ornamental purposes. As a consequence, the
occupation of feather curling has offered unusual good opportunities
for girls and women to earn a living,--that is to say, as female
workers are paid in the trades.

There are several processes used in preparing the feathers before
they are ready for sale. Some of this work is done by men, but the
larger part of it is done by girls and women. When the feathers arrive
from abroad, they are of a dull brown color, and the first process
consists in washing them thoroughly with a peculiar kind of chemical
soap. Then they are wrung through an ordinary clothes-wringer, and
tied on to lines and hung out in the hot sun to dry, or put in a
drying room if the weather is not favorable. The work of washing and
wringing is done by men; the tying on to the lines by little girls.
After this men put them in big vats where they are dyed, black, blue,
red, yellow, or any other color that may be desired, and again dried.
Then comes the work of the women, who first scrape the rib of the
feather to make it soft and pliant. This is done with a piece of
glass. Then they are curled with a blunt knife. After this they are
packed in boxes and are ready to go from the wholesaler to the jobber,
from the jobber to the retailer, and from the retailer pass to the
purchasers whose hats they are meant to adorn.

Except in rare cases, the people employed at this business are paid by
the piece, and all ages are represented in the different branches of
the industry. There are girls as young as fourteen, and women as old
as forty. The little girls tie the feathers on to the lines, and make
from $2 to $5 a week. The work of preparing and curling the feathers
pays the best, and women who devote themselves to this branch make
from $10 to $40 a week. This last sum is large pay; but it must be
stated that those who make it do so in t