FEMALE EMPLOYMENT. ONE of the most urgent needs of the time is the discovery of fitting employment for females of the middle classes. Needlework in all its branches, from embroidery to shirt-making, is full to overflowing. Watch-making, which once promised so well, through the benevolent exertions of a well-known horologist, seems to have failed in providing the right kind of labour. Printing and law-writing, under the active superintendence of Miss Emily Faithful and her coadjutors, can hardly be said to have proved a great success; and as to the employment of young women behind the counters of drapers, glovers, and pastryooks, it is unfortunately the fact that in the increasing army of workers, young ladies do not seem to take kindly to these employments. Every new field opened for the urgencies of respectable females is therefore to be gladly welcomed and warmly commended. Our fair readers will be glad to know, through the medium of our columns, that a new field has been found, and that profitable and lady like employment is open to their neglected but industrious sisterhood. How often do we hear that terribly suggestive remark that such-and-such a girl is too pretty to starve, and too well brought up to take to common sewing or domestic service! The new employment to which we wish to direct attention is one by which any young lady of ordinary capacity and energy may earn a comfortable livelihood. During a visit we lately made to the great glass and chandelier warehouse of the well-known Messrs. Defries and Sons, in Houndsditch, we were delighted to make the discovery of the kind of employment alluded to. Passing through the various show-rooms in this well-conducted establishment, we were gratified to observe numerous well-dressed young women actively and happily busy. In the chandelier department we saw young ladies pinning the drops, making and fitting the chains, and polishing the prisms and other parts of the chandeliers. This kind of employment for females is quite new; and the Messrs. Defries deserve the highest praise for bringing the fact before the public. In this branch of their business alone they employ between forty and fifty young women, besides very many others in various parts of their extensive premises. For instance, in the show-rooms, where are kept large numbers of chandeliers, lustres, candelabræ, &c., in glass and metal of handsome design, and undeniably good workmanship, we found some dozen neatly dressed girls occupied in polishing, fitting, and arranging the glittering goods. Messrs. Defries have fitted up the chandeliers for the Royal Italian Opera House, Covent Garden, and the principal theatres and musichalls, and to them is due the credit of having brought glass chandeliers literally within the means of the million. Till very lately, glass decoration, which is always new and always beautiful, was wholly beyond the scope of any but the wealthy. The luxury of a glass chandelier may now be enjoyed alike by the prince, the nobleman, the merchant, the tradesman, and the artisan. In the glass-cutting and engravingrooms, again, we observed a large number of youths busy in the midst of the artistic workmen. The new patterns for the drops of chandeliers employ many lads and lasses in their process of manufacture; for after the men have cut and polished them, there is still a large quantity of work to be done in finally fitting and cleansing them ready for hanging. All who have visited the International Exhibition (and who has not ?) will have seen and admired the gigantic temples of crystal exhibited by this enterprising firm. Nothing, indeed, can exceed the beauty and brilliancy of their crystal prismatic mirror, manufactured for the Sultan of Turkey; their monster chandelier, and their great thirty-light candelabra, lately erected. Again, in the cotton-weaving department and in the shops we found numbers of young women employed, their happy looks fully testifying to the pleasant and remunerative nature of their employment. We have great pleasure, therefore, in bringing these facts before our readers, confident that publicity only is required to largely increase the sphere of this highly useful and profitable branch of woman's work. The great social problem-how shall we find employment for those of our female population whose condition places them above menial service?—has been long and successfully solved in France. It is considered there that when a lady goes to purchase a dress or a pair of gloves, a trinket for herself or a toy for her children, she will prefer being served by one of her own sex rather than by a broad-shouldered specimen of the other. So long as the soil demands cultivators, the country soldiers and mechanics, merchants and artisans, CHESS. WE resume in this first number of the new volume our articles on chess. The fol lowing game is one of a series played between Mr. W. Hannah and Mr. Jansen. in which the former gentleman was the GAME I. WHITE-MR. JANSEN. 1 P to K 4 3 P takes P 7 B takes P such as only the brain and strength of man- This recognition of female usefulness, and respect accorded to its exercise, is attended by other important results to the welfare and arrangements of society. No well-conducted young woman is condemned to the cheerlessness of old-maidish life. A young female, trained to the idea that she has a position of activity to fill, and work to do, is regarded by the other sex, who have marriage in prospect, not in the light of an expensive encumbrance, but as a help and a gain; and it will depend on herself alone if, at a comparatively early age, she does not obtain the opportunity of being a happy wife. 8 Q to Kt 3 BLACK-MR. HANNAH 6 P takes P 7 B to K B 4(a) 8 Castles 9 B to K 5 (b) 19 B to Q 3 After a few moves White resigned. NOTES ON GAME I. (a) Players not conversant with the openings would consider this move a bad one, because it enables White to commence an attack by playing Q to Q .Kt 3, with apparent advantage. This, however, is not the case. White, it is true, gains a pawn, but abandons, to a considerable extent, the advantage of position. The game is a good illustration of this variation, and is conducted with ability. (6) The correct reply, Black now ob taining a good game. (c) Had White played P to Q 5, Black would have replied with Kt takes Q P & (d) Much better than to have taken Kt with B, because, had that move been made, White would eventually have posted the KR to Kt sq with a commanding position. by B R 7 ch; we believe, however, that (e) Ingenious; threatening to win Q Kt to Q 4 would have been still more effective, e. g.: 1 A MUSICAL PRODIGY.-EASY MODE OF ACQUIRING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE. 79 A MUSICAL PRODIGY. A LETTER from Venice says that a professional musician of that place has discovered a prodigy for which there is probably no precedent a singer, that is to say, who is at once a bass, a baritone, and a tenor. The professor was on his way to Rovigo, when he paused to rest in a country inn. Suddenly, in an adjacent room, he heard a splendid bass voice sing Silva's aria out of Ernani," That over, a sonorous baritone struck up the well-known "Lo vedremo veglio audace." The listener was still lost in admiration of the beauty of these two voices, EASY MODE OF ACQUIRING A THE great importance of the conversational element in the teaching of living languages will not be denied by any person in the slightest degree conversant with such matters. It is a well-known fact that young men and women without any special philological talent, if placed at Paris or Berlin, in circumstances where they are daily forced to hear the native languages of these capitals spoken, and to attempt speaking in return, will, in the course of four months, have acquired, by mere conversation, a mastery over these tongues which they could not have acquired at home in twelve months. Nay, if to the daily practice of hearing and speaking a systematic course of grammatical study and classical reading be added, the experience of hundreds has proved that, in the short space of four months, as much knowledge of any foreign language can be acquired as can be done at home in as many years. Now, on what principle does this depend? Plainly on this, that in the land where a language is spoken, the ear, the great natural organ of linguistic training, is so foreign language, that it becomes not only constantly besieged with the sounds of the easy to learn, but almost impossible not to learn. TOUCHING STANZA.-The following, signed "A Scything One," is copied from a young lady's THE EDITOR TO HIS FRIENDS. LET us welcome in the New Year! Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-two has passed into the history; and Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-three, like a young heir, has come into his possessions. Last December was a gloomy month, a season of clouds and drizzle, and pale, sickly, occasional sunshine-the actual weather seeming to take colour from the gloom that hung over the nation in consequence of the unexampled distress in the manufacturing districts. But, then, how nobly and bravely the entire people came to the rescue of the workers, till glorious Christmas chased away the inhospitable fog, and a good dinner almost made the poor operatives believe in the advent of renewed prosperity. And we believe we are not exaggerating when we say we think that the worst has passed. Let us, at least, trust that it is so. Turn from the dreary picture presented in the northern counties to the more cheerful aspect of the seasons. December is, physically, the gloomiest month of our year. The sun has attained the lowest declension in the heavens, and the white mantle of snow is spread over the earth, saddening our spirits somewhat. But look within doors-all is gaiety and festivity, and good cheer gladdens the heart; and is it not pleasant to believe that December, which, with the well-to-do, inaugurates the season of mirth and joy, awakens also vigilant Christian charity? Each season of the year has its moral and spiritual significance, and each acts upon our faculties in a special manner, to complete the cycle of their influence, and develop the soul. In the mythology of the ancient Egyptian, December was the period when the destroying giant Typhon exercised his full power; but with us it is better to believe that, while it destroys, it renovates; and that the thoughts suggested by the analogies of nature, embodied in old-world allegories, turn to Christian lessons of lasting profit, never-failing instruction, moral admonition, innocency and purity-a regeneration of the soul, typified by the dying out of the old year and the advent of the new! And now, dear friends and readers, will you allow me to speak in my own person, and wish you all a Happy New Year? The Family Friend, I trust, will be to you a friend indeed; and, during the coming months, may the cheerfulness that is born of Christmas associations never be absent from our firesides and our hearts! No effort of mine shall be spared to render this magazine altogether worthy your patronage and cordial acceptance; and I trust that, as I strive to add to your enjoyments, you, too, will strive to aid me in my pleasant labours, and render our little work more and still more interesting and instructive. Without your kind and hearty assistance, my efforts will be vain indeed. Accord me, therefore, your kindly sympathies, and lend me your willing hands; and so shall our united endeavours be crowned with a double measure of success. Just a sentence or two more. The present is a capital opportunity for inducing new subscribers to join our ranks, this Number being the first of the new Volume. It may not be amiss for those who work with me in enlarging the circulation of the Family Friend, and, therefore, widening] the area of its usefulness, possess their minds of some of the traits by which the magazine is distinguished. We know (but, perhaps, all do not know) that the Friend aims to be a strictly moral and useful publication; that its pages contain a vast number of original papers, largely contributed by actual subscribers, who write con amore; that each volume is complete in itself, and has specialties belonging to no other serial extant, combining the requisites of a Mutual Improvement Society with a freshness and novelty not always discoverable in works of greater pretensions and higher price; that, in fact, it is a magazine equally adapted for personal study and family reading. "If any thought of mine, or sung or told, Has ever given delight or consolation, Ye have repaid me back a thousand fold, By every friendly sign and salutation. Thanks for the sympathies that ye have shown! Thanks for each kindly word and silent token, That teaches me, when seeming most alone, Friends are around us, though no word be spoken. Perhaps, on earth I never shall behold, With eye of sense, your outward form and semblance: Therefore, to me ye never will grow old, But live for ever young in my remembrance. To have my place reserved among the rest, Enough. Is it too much to ask you, my dear friends and fellow-labourers, to place this sort of argument before your friends when you invite them to join our family party? Yours faithfully, FAMILY COUNCIL. EDITOR. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL,-It is very pleasant at the opening of the New Year to address you all as dear and valued friends. The exertions you have made during 1862 will, doubtless, be continued throughout the twelve months of 1863. We do not wish to flatter you; but we cannot refrain from saying that the evident signs of improvement in the majority of your contributions are very gratifying. It was intended to have awarded the Prizes this month, but that task must be postponed ti February, in consequence of the Councillors not having all of them forwarded their addresses (in confidence as requested. Perhaps the preparations for Christmas festivities kept their hands too full for writing. Let us beg of the defaulters to write immediately, so that this pleasant duty may be no longer delayed. Very many congratulatory letters have been received in reference to the Christmas Number, and the general management of the "Friend." To one and all these writers we present a cordial and kindly greeting. That the New Year may abound in blessings, and overflow with love in every household; and that disinterested friendship may continue to prevail among us all, is our sincere and hearty prayer. With this New Year's Number we re-commence our Definitions, which were omitted last month, in order that the Volume might, in every respect, be complete. Our Puzzles, Charades, &c., will also be found in their accustomed pages. The regular features of the "Friend" will in nowise be altered in the present volume, except in so far as improvements may from time to time suggest themselves. It will be seen that in the present Number we have largely availed ourselves of the assistance of the Councillors. Let us, Ladies and Gentlemen, continue, from month to month, to interchange these friendly courtesies: so may we go on in the path of mutual improvement and regard. The plan of the Prizes for 1863 will be much the same as that adopted last year. To Members of the Family Council we offer Annual Gifts, to be awarded in December next. These will, as heretofore, be divided by the President into three classes. First, a handsomely-bound Photographic Album, VOL. IIL-NEW SERIES. G |