Locomotive, Volume 44, Number 1, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 February 1858 — Page 1

S "J ",2 " 2 " "' 'Z . K ELDER & HARKNE3S, "The Chariots shall rage in the Btreeta, they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings." A'a7ium,ti, 4. Print eis and Publishers. VOL. XLIV. INDIANAPOLTS, IND. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1858. NO. 1.

T II K LO V O BOT1VK IS PRINTED AND PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY ELDER & HARKNESS, At their Book and Job Printing Office, on Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Ind.. opposite the Post Office. , TERMS Olio Dollar a your. Twenty-five Cents for lliree months. Kix copies In one address tor one your, Five Dollars; thirteen copies one veur for Ten Dollars, irm advance in all casks J IT No paper will he sent until puid for, and no paper wi'l 1 be continued after the time paid for expires, unless '"Lookout for th ('boss. All mall and county subscribers can know their lime is out hen they see a Inreu cross marked on their paper, mid that is always Hie last paper sent until the subscription is renewod. Trans or. iMiitiitu: Onesquuro, (Slines.or less, S.iOms,) for I week 0..r0 i " for each subsequent insertion ..025 ' for three mouths 3-(lu w it for six months it i for one year, ivlthout alteration ...... 8. 00 ii it for one year, with frequent changes 12.00 A small reduction made on Inriror advertisements. Cuts and Special Notices double the above rates. Ternin Cash, VTpJidncrtisemenl must bt handed in by Thursday of lack Keek, or then will be deferred until the nezt time. Improved Periscopic Glasses. finHKSE LENSES are ground In the concavo convex Mirror B form, which is in accordance wilh the Philosophy or Na"tV r r. Their perfect surfaces, purity and transparency of Material, and exact spherical figure, form the most perfect spectacle lens in use. Tlicy are soft and pleasant to the eye. They stTciiKlii-,i si nd improve tlic Sight. - Adjusted to vision with care and Judgment by '' ' I., w. mnsr.s, Practical Optician, No. 8, West Washington street, novl4-ly - Indianapolis, Indiana.

rfAKES pleasuro In returning his thanks to the Ladles and i Gentlemen of this place and vicinity lor their very libera! patronage, and still hopes to meet the same confidence he has engaged since he commenced the practice of his profession ill Indianapolis. , Artilcial Teeth, from one to a full set, Inserted on Plutina, Gold, or Silver. Particular attention given to regulating, cleaning, and extracting Teeth. Ether given when required. All work warranted, and charges reasonable. Office 2d story Fletcher ffc Woolley's block. No. 8 East Washington street. Oct. 24-tf ; ' - J. P. HILL. ' a. GOLDSMITH. J.B. HIIL Fruit and Ornamental Nursery. '" THE undersigned have established themselves in the Nursery business on the well known Nursery grounds formerly occupied by Aaron Aldrorige, a few rods east of the corporation line, Indianapolis. We have on hand a general assortment of fruit trees, of such variotiesas are best adapted to our soil and climate. Tho trees are of the very best quality'. Also a very fine stock of Ornamental Shr"bbery. JTj" We are now ready to All all orders promptly. , Address, . HILL, GOLDSMITH if CO., nov7-V7-tf . , : Indianapolis, Ind. . WOO LEN Y A RNS OF Till: BEST OJ'AMTY, Manufactured at Kiclimond, Indiana, FOR SALE, WHOLESALE AND RETAIL, AT WILLAK D'S. October 24, lr'57. ( Important to Young Men ! ! ! i TF YOU WISH TO ACQUIRE A COMPLETE RNOWLX EDGE or Konk Keepings in all its branches, attend HAYDKiX'S illEltCANTIL.E COLLEGE, At Indianapolis, where each student is drilled at the desk, step by step, until he has mastered the entire routine of an accountant's duties, and is fully qualified for taking charge of any set of books. TTP The Evening Session has commenced. If you wish to 3 comnl )te a course this winter, vou should enter soon. Foi a circular containing full particulars, address tiie Prin cipal, octl"-Iy J..C. HAYDEN, Indianapolis, Ind. JOSIAH LOCKE ERIK LOCKE. LOCKR & BKOTUElt, INSURANCE, AGENTS,.' N. W.Cor. Washington and Meridian st's,overDunlop'B Store, ISDI.t.U'OLIS, IN DIANA, HARTFORD INSURANCE CO., of Hartford Conn., Nett Assets, $542,829 74 Houie Insurance Co.. of New York, Nett Assets, 872,823 00 Phccnix Insurance Co., of Hartford, Comw, Nett Assets, 309,149 94 Farmer's Union Insurance Co., of Athens Penn., Nett Assets, 237,138 82 City Fire Insurance Co., of Hartford, Conn., Nett Assets, 201,685 49 New England Lire Insurance Co., of Boston Mass., Nett Assets, 1,074,820 95 Charter Oak Life Insurance Co., of Hartford, Conn., July 4, '57 1-y Nett Assets, 4fl5,"02 23 W. A. KEYS. JAS. H. BEYBOI.D. C K IV X It E III A It II I, K WOBKS1 KEYS & SKVI! OLE), ' Wholesale and Retail Dealers in ITALIAN AND AMERICAN MARBLE! Meridian St, Opposite the Post Office, Indianapolis, Ind. OUR stock of Marble isselectod with great care,. r and is sunerior to most of stocks anv where. V-fli. vited to visit our works. Orders to anv extent. V,K i none w no wish 10 purcuuse cnoice Kinus are in- ffiK.r' i-u. ....!. . . vx& mmm and for any kind required, will bo f rnishod on anon nonce, .mi worn exccuteq in me Dost ot V'tff workmaushsp, and OF the most approved order and stvln. tl mi n m c it I u . iimv. ....... . -f-.r id stylo. Monuments, ;ru.ve Stones, ffj; ouutcrs, Table-Tops. Itlantlcs, &c, ;M instantly on hand, or furnished to order CO N. B. Persons wantiusr anything in our linn, will nnH ;t in their interest to give us a call before purchasing elsewhere. - nciiii-iiiucr opposite r. v. - inayzj ly E. J. (MLDWL tc CO., I E W E L E R S.' o. t Hates House. mHANKFUL FOR PAST FAVORS, would respectfully bee 4 leave to inform the public that they are still on hand with their usual full assortment of every thing in the way of Watches, Jewelry, Silver Ware, Sec. We wish it distinctly understood that we do not keen the lowpriced, bogus Watches and Jewelry, gotten up for auction sales; but will guarantee to sell good, honest articles as low as can possibly be hail elsewhere in the West. OurSilvcr H'areii warranted equal to Coin; our Watches bound to go and keen time, and all our goods just what we represent them to be. For further proof call and examine for yourselves We have the best Watc hmaker in. tlie country' in our employ; so bring on your Watches. fel2-tf ll KENSWAKE. lKECTImportjitinn per Ships '-Northland" and"Musongus," 9U Crates in Store, assorted in White Iron Stone D Tea inning ware, new styles; do do Toilet Dishes; do do Bakors, &c auglfitf JACOB LINDLK., . Hi, West Washington street. House, Sign and Ornamental Painting arrunled satisfactorv. mar28-?)ffiCe' R"m N-ltl"ke'' B''lisccon'd'floor.

9 h,;.,h J! 1 1 ""''"""'tracts for Painting in all its sured of It he?i '"I"", w,ho.,e"lr"s' rk to me mav be assure I of it being satisfactorily done. I would re-nectfullv solicit of those who intend to have Painting done tn their premises, to please favor me with their patronaee I uledee myse f , do the best work at the cheapest f, 1 g woiimen anJ !f,'aireainti,'K ,,r0mi,tl5 '"'" -I . best won, men, anu in all cases wurrimi...! o,.t;.r

A SCENE IN A JURY ROOM. I once had the extreme felicity of leaving my business to serve npon " the Jury." I plead in all manner of ways for release, but to no effect. I could not swear that I was deaf, nor blind, nor yet non compas, but did tell them that I had already formed an opinion. They asked me if my opinion would prevent me from receiving the testimony in good faith, and rendering a verdict according to it, I replied that of course I should weigh the evidence carefully, and be governed by it. I was then informed that I " would do." The case to be tried was one of arson then a capital offence and the prisoner at the bar was a young man, named Charles Ambold, whom I had known from boyhood, and who was naturally one of the finest youths of the town where he resided.' lie had a widowed mother who depended upon him for support ; and his circle of friends was large and choice. I was morally certain that he did not commit tho crime, and hence I am sure, those who were friendly to him got me on the panel, and had me retained. The trial commenced and we twelve men took our seals in the jury box. I had a very respectable set witli me only there was one man whom I didn't like to see there. This man was Moulton Warren. He was a dark-faced sinister-looking fellow at least to me. I knew that young Ambold had one fault He had recently been addicted to drink, and had been known to visit disreputable houses. It was one ot those houses that had been burned, for setting fire to which he had been apprehended. Now I had often tried to persuade Charier Ambold from the course lie was pursuing. He had repeatedly Iiromised me that he would reform, and as repeatedly tad he broken away. I had often talked to him of his poor mother, until he had wept like a child; but the effect was not lasting. There was a power of temptation more effective than any influence I could wield. He would fall away into this evil companionship, and for a while his manhood was gone. One or two abandoned women had gained great power over him, and upon thom he wasted much of his substance. And I knew that this very man who was now upon the jury this Moulton Warren was the one who had done more than all others to lead the poor youth away. It was Warren who had drank with him, and who had led him away to those more abominable haunts of sin and pollution. Why was ho upon the jury ? I could only account for it upon the ground that Charley still supposed him to be his friend. The poor scorched insect was still ignorant of the flame that scorched him. He really believed that Moulton Warren was his friend. The trial commenced. The indictment set forth that Charles Ambold had, ' with malice aforethought,' and with all sorts of wicked and felonious intents, set fire to a certain dwelling house, thereby endangering human life. This dwelling, as I have already intimated, was a low sink of iniquity, where the abandoned of both sexes were wont to congregate ; and were the youthful prisoner had spent much of his time. The evidence for the prosecution came on, and I was startled : One after another gave in their testimnoy, some of them very reluctantly, and I was frightened when I saw how plainly it had pointed to the prisoner as the guilty party. Several credible witnesses swore that they had heard him threaten to bum the house down ; and others had heard him say repeatedly that he wished it was burned down 1 Then came several witnesas (three of the prominent citizens) who saw him lurking about the premises on the night of the fire. With regard to the provocation on the prisoner's part for such a deed, it was proved, upon his own ad

mission, that he had been ill treated there, and that he had sworn to have revenge ; and, furthermore, it was proved that he had been heard to say that his salvation of soul and body depended upon the destruction of that house. Next came more testimony stronger still. The fire had been set in a back basement room, where shavings and other stuff for kindling were kept. Entrance had been gained through a back window, which had been partly placed open with a slout knife. This basement wall was of brick, and beneath the sash was found the blade of a knife which had been broken off trying to raise the sash. The blade was recognized as belonging to the prisoner's knife. A maker of cutlery had made a knife to order for Ambold only a month previous, and he knew the blade at once, and swore to it. But this was not all. The fire had been evidently set first to the shavings which lay upon the stone floor, but piled up against a wooden partition. This floor was damp, and some of the outer shaving even were not wholly burned up. But just at the edge, where the fire commenced, lay a piece of paper, rolled up and about half burned, and from the manner in which it lay, it was very evident that the fire had been set with it. This piece of rolled paper had been ignited by a match, a number ot which were scattered around, and as soon as it was on fire it had been laid upon the floor, with the burninr end iust in the shavings. Of course these shavings were in a blaze instantly ; but the paper torch, being upon the damp stones, had not burned wholly up. This paper was found to be a part of a letter belonging to tho prisoner ! A letter which he had received from a friend of his (and a friend of mine) only a week before 1 That friend had to come forward and swear that piece of charred paper was a part ot a letter he had written to the prisoner ! This friend's name was Stephen Grant. He was a young merchant, and the letter had been written for the purpose of inducing Ambold to reform. Stephen tried hard to avoid testifying, for he knew, as did others, that the fire must have been set with that identical paper ; but he was summoned, and he could not deny his own chirography. The case looked dark. Many witnesses were willing to testify to the prisoner's good qualities, but no one could swear that he was not dissipated and degraded. That house had been to him, indeed, a region infernal. Its destruction cried out for his bodily life, and its existence had long been eating away his soul. I had before been sure of his innocence ; but now I could only shake my head and pity him 1 Finally he was allowed to speak for himself. He said he was innocent of the crime imputed to bun. He said that he had threatened to burn that house down that he had said about all that had been sworn to. And, furthermore, he was around the house on the t night of the fire. He was not ten rods off when the flames burst forth, and he was one of the first to give 1 the alarm. He had uttered one cry of fire when he noticed where the flames must have originated, and the thought came to him if he was found there he might be suspected of having set the fire ; so be run away. He also said that three nights before the conflagration he had been robbed in that house. His pockets had been emptied of every thing in them, and bis pocket book, containing forty dollai's in money and some valuable papers, had been taken. He had gone there on the night of the fire to try and persuade them to give him back his money and papers or at least to get back ' what he could. AVhen he got there he saw a man go j in whom he did not wish to sec, so he had hung around waiting for him to depart. He was around by the back of the building once and that was the hour before the fire broke out- He knew nothing nothing. He clasped his hands, and with his tearless eyes raised towards heaven, he called on God to witness that he was innocent 1 i I have told you that I knew him well. I knew him : so well, that from that moment I knew him to be inno- , cent I I knew his very soul ; I knew how free and open it was ; ah, how sinfully so ! I knew there was no falsehood in the story lie told us. i ' My boy is innocent ! My boy is innocent !'

I heard the cry, and I saw an old woman sink back into the arms of a male companion. It was his poor mother. Her heart was well nigh broken. Yet 1 saw that all this had but little effect Uon the mass of spectators. The prisoner's course of dissipation, his manv

threats against the house ; and the very tact of his having been robbed and abused there were heavy against him. The counsel for tho prisoner made his speech, which was labored and hard. lie was foolish enough to intimate that if liis client was around at the back part of the house more than once, he must have been intoxicated. In short his plea had better been left out The evidence he could not shako, and lie did all he could to suppose evidence, some of it most absurd and ridiculous. I afterwards learned that Moulton AVarren engaged that lawyer for the youthful prisoner 1 The government attorney made his plea. It was plain, straight forward, and very conclusive. Tho judge finally gave his charge. Ho was fair and candid. Ho reviewed tho evidence carefully, and pointed out such as bore heavily upon the case, lie told us if there was a lingering doubt in our minds we must give the prisoner the benefit of it. But I could plainly see that there was no doubt in his mind. We (the jury) were conducted to our room by an officer, and there locked up. A silence of some minutes ensued. Moulton Warren was tho first to speak: ' Well' he said, ' I suppose there is no need of our being here a great while. Of course we all know that the prisoner must havo set the firo to the house ?' . There was something in the manner of that man as he said this which excited my curiosity; I will not say it was suspicion then; only curiosity. He spoke with a forced effort at calmness, which I at once perceived. The more I looked at him tho more I became strongly nervous and uneasy, wondered why he should be so anxious to be rid of the case and have Ambold convicted. I knew that he had f retmcntnd that evil house, and that he had done much towards tempting Charley to dissipation. I knew he was in that house on the night on which the prisoner was robbed, for Charley had told me so when I had visited him in his cell. I had then asked tho unfortunate youth if he was sure Warren was his friend. O, he was sure of it. He should have hunted him up on the night of his robbery, only they told him Warren had gone. By the by, tho foreman proposed that we should each take up a pieeo of paper and write down our opinion, and then compare notes. I went to my hat, which I had placed upon a table with a number of others, and took out a sheet of paper. I had got half way back to the table when I found Iliad made a mistake. I had got part of a letter from another man's hat. I was about to turn back when the name of tho writer of the letter arrested my attention. I looked more closely,and read: 'Stephen Grant.' Nextlcaught this sentence 'And now, dear Charles, if not for your own, yet for your mothers sake, let me hope you will do better. I started as though a shot had struck me. I held in my hand the other half of the sheet which had been used to fire the burned house! I went to the table and found I had taken it from Warren's hat! I looked to see if I had been observed, and I had not. I put the paper back, and then took a piece from my own hat, which was of the same pattern as the other, and by its side. ' I returned to the table and sat down. Warren was by my side. " His" had written his opinion, and took a knife from his pocket to cut it from the large sheet. iLet me take your knife for a moment, if you please,' I said to him. ' Without hesitation he did so. I took it it was Charles Ambold's knife! The large blade was gone! With all the power I possessed I re strained my deep emotion, and having cut my paper I handed back the knife. Why should he have that knife about him. I afterwards learned. He had not worn those pantaloons before since the night of the fire; and now he used the knife probably without the least remembrance of the loss it had sustained during a very peculiar piece of work, to the execution ot which it was made subservient. We talked for some ten minutes, and I found that eleven of the jury were bound on rendering a verdict of guilty; though most of them were in favor of recom mending the prisoner to mercy. Moulton Warren decided. Me had no mercy at all. Presently I started up and pretended to be faint I said I must bo out a few moments: I kicked at the door and the deputy sheriff came. He heard my plea and let me out. As soon as we had gained a safe distance I told him all. lie was astonished. He went away, and when he came back he brought the district attorney, and the district judge and the sheriff. I told again what I had seen; I assured them that I knew what I had seen; that it was no mere suspicion. I ex plained, too, Warrens manner in the jury room, and his former connection with the prisoner, and his known character. The officers went awav, and at the end of ten min utes they returned with a constable added to their number, and this constable had a f reslily written in strument in his hand. The sheriff had me to point out the hat to them as soon as we entered the room. The door of the room was opened, and I pointed them to the hat. The sheriff took it, and asked whose it was. Warren leaped to his feet and seized it, but he was held back. Word was instantly sent to the judge that the jury could not agree. They were discharged, and then Moulton Warren was searched. The knife was found upon him, and his behavior at once exposed his guilt. The presence of that letter was accounted for by liim m a dozen diherent ways within an hour. , A new jury was impannelled, and Charles Ambold was acquitted. Shortly afterward, Warren was tried, and it was plainly proved that he had set fire to the house, and that the woman who kept it was to have been burned up in it, as he had contrived to lock her into her room shortly after setting the fire. She had incurred his displeasure in various ways, and this was his revenge. Not only she, but two of her girls had suspected him from the first, but they dared not complain, for fear he would not be convicted, and would then be sure to murder them. The hardead villain confessed his guilt after he had been condemned, and then it was that he told how he happened to be so careless in regard to the paper and knife. It was he who had robbed Ambold, and when he took the old letter from his hat to use for a torch in setting the fire, he did not notice what it was. and even when that partly burned half had been ex hibited in court he had entirely forgotten that he had torn off the other half and put it back in his hat, as he must have done. J. ho letter had been found m Am bold's pocket book, and he had kept it because in it the youth was warned ajrainst his influence, lie con fessed that he held a slight idea of calling the writer to an account when it should become convenientWith regard to the knife, it was as I before stated He took that also from Ambolds pocket, and put it iu his own; and on the night of the fire he used it to pry up the sash, and when ne had broken it he put it back in his pocket and lorgot it. Thus was Charley saved; and saved from more than an iimominious death, too. He was saved to be a no ble, virtuous man; and his mother once more took am ple delight and joy in the love and tender care of her only child. AVhen Charles Ambold knew that Moulton Warren had expiated his crime upon the gallows he sat down and pondered ujxm his past life. The thought of his old companion being hanged sent a strange thrill

through his frame. But he was able to trace out, clearly and logically, this terrible result from the I course of life the ill-fated man had pursued He shuddered as he remembered how far lie had gone in the i.:...ir. . t, .... i.i ..!,.

i.ii 1 1 1. v v i i ,-v, in.... -in , ii ii i. ii v noo nuiu iaj h-u vujj safe path for any youth. TIIE WORLD OF CRINOLINE. ETYMOLOGY OF THE TERM. - Crinoline, though a term only proiierlv applied to cloth made of crin hair1 and lin thread, and hence to expansive skirts made of that material, is now bycommon usage the name given to all expansive skirts worn bv women ; and among all classes the desired degree of expansiveness is now obtained by hoops, and no matter how much they are railed, we think that all who read the facts and figures of the business of making hooped skirts, will be ready to acknowledge that an attempt to drive them out with a gray goose-quill, or a stell-pen, however sharp its neb, would be akin to an attempt to drive the flies in August out of a butcher's shop with the same weapon. First, then, we proclaim that there are thousands of miles of hoops ! ' ' AVhat think you, you who pretend to assert that the fashion of wearing hoops is an ephemeral one, that you can put down, ot this one tact to begin with t There is now in operation in the City of Aew-lork one manufactory of hooped skirts, that will use in the year 1858 over two thousand two hundred miles of hoops, If you intend to save tho world from being over whelmed, encirclod, girt about with steel bands, or if you intend to save all the women from being encased in unapproachable steel armor, you must " up and at 'em again," or it will soon be too late, for the business of manufacturing crinoline is as expansive as the thing manutactured. THE BEGINNING OF MAKING HOOPED SKIRTS. Listen 1 There is a good lesson in our. story of the energy and perseverance of American character, that brings about great results. Some eight or ten years ago, we remember a couple of young dry goods clerks in one of the great bazaars of Catharine street, and in Canal street, where they might have been plodding yet, but for the fact that nature never designed them for such unintellcctual business. One of them was born an inventive genius, with a love of machinery, and it was a great mistake of his parents or guardians, or whoever it was that set him to' measuring calico. He should have been educated a machinist. But bred to dry goods, we found the two young men, about half a dozen years ago, in a little store of their own, established upon what they had saved, while their fellow clerks were spending as fast as they earned. Tho profits and plodding of business in this store were too slow. It required no machinery. So they looked about for something to manufacture, and they found a suggestion in the growing aemana ior crinoline, x ne real jc rencn article was too expensive ; ten, twenty, and even fifty dollars for a single hair skirt was too much for a woman of small means, and all sorts of substitutes were contrived soma tolerable and some intolerable so intolerable that there are now stowed away in lofts of this city wagon loads of those great, unwieldy, corded, bagwoven cotton petticoats, all entirely unsalable. At first our incipient heroes of the hoops employed a few sewing women to work corded cotton and grass cloth into wearable forms, and timidly exposed their skirts tor sale in their own store, greatly to the danger of offending some of their customers. Finally, they ventured upon one sewing machine. Then they set a loom at work weaving hair-cloth, using cotton in place of linen or silk for warp, so as to make their crinoline cheaper than it could be imported. This plan succeeded, and more sewing girls, and other machines and looms, were started, and thev" beran to sell skirts bv the dozen. It was a new and expanding trade, btill there was a want The article was too dear for the great mass of wearers, and where great expansion was desired, still required too great a weight of cloth. And so we come to - ; , . THE FIRST SKELETON. To fill this want, the mechanical nartner contrived the skeleton skirt believed to be the first symmetri cally formed one, expanded bv a series of hoops, ever made in this city, and that not six years ago. The first one hung up m the store excited laughter, ridicule, adger, and declarations ot customers that they would cease calling if " that thing" was not taken down. But it was all of no use. The hoop, once started, kept roll ing. All sorts ot materials have been used, and all sorts of contrivances to produce the expansion, until the demand has finally become fixed upon steel hoops not one, but many held in place by strips ot tape. forming the skeleton skirt, or inserted in light muslin. scientifically cut and fashioned into the true shape to give that peculiarly symmetrical form, so much admirea Dy lauies anu uieir attmirers. a smau quantity or real crinoline is still used, and some other expensive cloths, but the majority of women are beginning to appreciate the skeleton or cheap muslin skirt to sustain the hoops, putting the costlier materials over them. The idea of a single wooden hoop, near the hem of the skirt, such as we used to see in the early days of hoopdom, or read of in the days of Addison, is exploded. MATERIALS OF HOOPS. Ratan, when made strong enotitrh for the larp-e hoops is stiff and unmanageable, and liable after short use to snap off under hard pressure. It has been greatly im proved lately by impregnating it with a gummy substance. Whalebone makes excellent, elastic, yielding hoops, bearing all sorts of hard usage in warm weather, but snaps short in AVinter. Gutta percha has been tried in various forms, but does not prove successful. An excellent hoop has been made ot coded brass wire over a cord, but it is entirely too expensive. Round wire of any metal has proved worthless. J; lat bands of brass have been used to a considerable extent, but as brass cannot be tempered, except by cold rolling, it soon loses its elasticity and plagues the wearer. Steel was looked upon at first with the greatest degree of tavor ot any substance, dui men it was expensive. Yankee ingenuity had not yet been applied to making it cheap. The first flat steel hoops were made by flattening round steel wire. They were unevenly tem pered, and when made Unlit, were liable to break. If strong, they were heavy and expensive. STEEL HOOPS HOW MADE. Somethinsr must be done. Here was a new want and who ever heard of a demand for any manufactured article that could not be filled by Yankee ingenuity and cheapened by applying Yankee machinery li,nglish sheet steel, that comes four and a half to eight feet L-ir-inr in Va-f!a olv-int oirrlif in-flinQ wirl rt nn ViniKrlit anil ""87 " v. .. cut into ribbons by steam-driven shears. It left the edges rough, but these were worn off by passing the ribbons through dies. . The strips were, however, still rough, and it was too expensive to file them off. AVe shall see directly how cheaply all this smoothing and polishing is done. But first, the steel must be tempered. This is a very important part of the manufacture, and requires the utmost cxpertness and care. Ihe ribbons are taken from the dies, coiled into tight small coils, carefully heated to an even heat, cherry red, and then taken and plunged in oil, with the loss ot but moment of time between the fire and bath. They are now of such a high temper that falling upon the floor they would fly like glass. " They are as brittle," said a workman, " as thin ice." This temper is drawn by dipping in lead, varying according to the thickness of the steel, trom S30deg.to buoaeg. ianrenneic. iNext comes the straightening process, which is accomplished by passing the ribbons between rollers that give a re versed pressure.

HOW THE HOOPS ARE POLISHED. See how smooth your hoops are. Look how they are made o, and how cheaply. The riblxjns are put in a long cylinder, say hall full, and with them, perhaps, a bushel of broken glass the fragments of your window which you esteemed as worthless when it was broken and the cylinder set revolving, generally at night when there is no other work for thu water wheel to do, and when opened it is found that the glass is all ground into small smooth cubes, and the rough edges of the steel rounded and made smooth. One more process, and the ribbons are ready for the skirt manufacturers. They are passed between largo heavy rollers which set the temper and leave them straight, so that they will always return to their place when bent. . These ribbons are now ready to form into hoops for the plain muslin or cloth skirts. For the skeleton pattern, they undergo another process. They are taken to another manufactory and covered with cotton thread braided over the steel, something similar to bonnet wire. This establishment is fixed in this city ; the steel works are in Connecticut, where also are manufactured sundry clasps, hooks and slides, all smoothly polished by the tumbling operation. The eyelets are made in France, because they require a great deal of hand . lalxir, wliich this country cannot furnish so cheaply. All else is of American manufacture. THE GREAT SKIRT MANUFACTORY. Now let us look into the manufactory that it is a great one we sliall soon seeof hooped skirts. Our two young clerks and small shopkeepers have risen to a position in wliich tltey can benefit themselves and delight all womankind, while they are giving employment to a small ai-my of sewing girls and at least a corporal's guard of men and boys. Indeed, they now cmploy THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY HANDS, nearly the whole of them bright, intelligent American girls and widows, who receive every Monday about $1,500 for the previous week's work. The girls mostly work by the piece, commencing at 8 o'clock and working nine hours, with half an hour at dinner, which they take on the premises, and they make from $4 to 87 a week. ' , In these rooms we listen to the continual buzz of 180 sewing machines, which, with the hand sewing, use up

every month 2,000 dozen spools of cotton thread. " These machines, and this army of sewing women, are now manufacturing an average of 8,000 skirts a day, varying from 50 cents to $6 apiece, and comprising more than fifty patterns ; the latest improved style -being " the beauty" a skeleton made of thirteen and a half yards of inch-wide tape and three yards of narrow tape and some strips of muslin, and three and a half yards of corset lacing, with 51 metal clasps, slides, tubes, eyelets and hooks, and seven steel hoops, measuring 54 feet in length, covered with braid ; with three bustle hoops ot whalebone, eight and a half feet long, ,. cloth covered the steel hoops being made to expand by slides, to suit the most expansive ideas; and yet the whole fabric weighs but 12 ounces; and although it will keep its place, it can be folded up small enough to put in a carpet-bag or band-box without injury. As this requires much hand labor, it will be probably sold at retail at about $8. The low price comparatively of this and of all their work is owing to the perfection of the management and machinery, for beside the 180 sewing machines, many of which have very ingenious attachments to facilitate particular branches of work, 85 other labor-saving machines are employed for every purpose to which ingenuity can apply machine power. Not to take the bread out of the operatives' mouths, but the very reverse, for it enables men to give them employment, because, by ingenious contrivances to facilitate labor, the cost of the manufactured articles is reduced so low that the manufacturers can give employment to a host of persons and pay liberal wages, and yet sell so low that all the world can buy. Do tbey ? Let us see ? THE QUANTITY OF SKIRTS MADE. They make 3,000 skirts a day 75,000 a month 960,000 a year. The panic stopped the business, but now it is going again. AVe saw upon the books yesterday one order for 3,450 dozen 41,400 hoops skirts at one sale. , TIIE MATERIALS tlSED. Now let us look at the materials used up every month. In the first place, there is the plain muslin. One Rhode Island cotton factory supplies, of one particular kind of cloth, 2,000 pieces per month say 80,000 yards. Of all other kinds, about 70,000 yards are used. Half a million yards of tape are also used up every month; 225,000 yards of twenty-strand jute cord ; 10,000 yards of hair-cloth ; 2,000 dozen spools of cotton ; 2,800,000 eyelets, slides, clasps, tubes, hooks, &C. " MILES OF HOOPS. AVe stated that this single manufactory would use up in the course of a year, at the rate ot the present con- , i. cxnn M 1 T i a1sumption, z,zvv macs ui nuops a year, lei us see me consumption of feet in a month. It is 700,000 feet of steel ribbon, 200,000 feet of round ratan, 100,000 feet of round, oil-boiled whalebone a million of feet. There are 5,280 feet in a mile, by which divide the million of feet, and we have 188 miles and 736 feet for the length of hoops used up every month in this great manufactory of hooped skirts, which will give tor the year within a fraction of 2,257 miles of hoops. In tour years, at the present rate ot demand, all the civilized portion of its surface bids fair to have all its female inhabitants inclosed in steel ; and then what will be the magnetic effect upon earth and its male inhabitants ? But this is speculation, while we have not yet done with facts. PERSONS EMPLOYED. Beside the 850 hands employed in tho principal shops, there are about forty hands at the weaving and braiding factor)-, where the hair-cloth is made and the steel ribbons covered, for which an average of $600 a week is paid out. At the steels works in Connecticut, it is estimated that sixty hands find employment. The steel, the eyelets, the ratan, the horse-hair, are imported. The other materials are domestic, end the success of the manufacture is crowding the imported article out of market. EFFECT OF HOOPS UPON RAW MATERIAL. Notwithstanding the increased and increasing use of steel for the principal hoops might be supposed by the casual observer to put the use of ratan out of the ques- . tion, it has the direct contrary effect, because that material is not only still used to a large extent in cheap skirts for all the hoops, but it forms a part of the material of nearly all of the steel-hooped skirts ; and such is the increase of the manufacture that in tho Malaysian Islands, whence ratan is largely imported, that article has risen in value five or six times the amount it was formerly sold for. Indeed, the manufacturers of whom we have been speaking, anticipating increased value, have purchased and stored away a ship-load of ratan, to be worked up into other thousands of miles of hoops. BENEFITS OF THIS NEW INDUSTRIAL BRANCH. It is an indisputable fact that heavy skirts, worn for the sole purpose of giving form, have ruined the health of thousands of women, while with those new ones of six to sixteen ounces weight they can procure the same result that many a woman has carried ten pounds to attain. Such an immense weight as women have often carried in warm weather to give themselves a fashionable expansion, would break down a strong man. For this ever-weighting there is now no reasonable excuse. These numerous steel springs make no display of themselves, being almost as pliable as crinoline, and compared with the old quilted skirts, they are feather-light. Nothing but cotton and flannel should be worn with them, and now that steel is offered so cheap, there is no excuse for any one to use the heavy, health-destroy-