stage to the thrilling notes of more than a hundred and fifty musical instruments. The dancers are fancifully attired; and they all seem beautiful, where art supplies the bloom and complexion which nature may have denied.

The vocal music is executed in the true opera style, with long protracted notes, seemingly lengthened out by means of expiring from the lungs the last particle of breath, which the performer can yield to sustain the prolonged tones; at the closing cadence of which a sudden crash of sounds from all the musical instruments sometimes startles and almost deafens and confounds the unscientific with its reverberations.

As there is allowed to be no dispute about taste at the banquet, so probably none will be allowed in regard to the charms of Opera music-of "Trilling notes and tripping feet." At all events, the taste or appetite for opera singing is in many persons acquired from habit, as few listen at first with pleasure to these artificial tones and high tremulous notes. The same is said to be also the case in acquiring a taste for the narcotic flavors of tobacco, or the harsh burning lava-like current of ardent spirits, when like molten lead it first trickles in its fiery current down the throat of the incipient toper.

Every eye is fixed in attentive gaze, and every tongue is silent, when the graceful actresses, loosely attired in transparent dresses, begin to move gently over the stage, which they scarcely touch with the points of their toes. Upborne like gossamer, they seem almost to float in the thin air, as if aided by invisible wings. A hundred dancers at one time join with their voices in the songs and duets, and at another mingle together in circling orbits. There are none of the old fashioned set figures of cotillons, or contra-dances, observable here; but ev ery one dances as it were, independently, on individual

OPERA DANCERS.

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account, performing various eccentric movements back and forth, and from one side of the stage to the other, inclining their heads languishingly as they throw aloft their arms in various alluring attitudes. Then again suddenly reanimated, they commence pirouettes, spinning around like tops, upon one toe, (or finger of the foot, according to the more refined French phraseology,) whilst the other foot is raised nearly as high as the chin, and the knee is extended as straight and stiff as a pump-handle pointing upwards in the arc of its vibration. In this wonder exciting attitude, the female opera dancers commence twirling around on a single "light fantastic toe" with such surprising velocity, that the optical delusion is soon produced of a sort of misty leg projecting horizontally on either side. These flourishing movements of the feet beneath the light fluttering drapery, that like a highland kilt reaches barely below the knee of the female opera dancer, for a moment shock the inexperienced spectator with strange emotions of surprise, until the tight flesh-colored pantaloons become revealed beneath the deranged curtain of their nether garment. Their gyrations are viewed with such vast satisfaction, that the spectators by reiterated plaudits frequently set the favorite actress to spinning around again.

At the termination of the dance, the performer leans forward with one foot extended behind, and arms gracefully uplifted; as if her buoyant spirits spurned the dull earth, and she were about to mount in the air, and to soar aloft in ecstacy. Matters, however, terminate less magnificently, for the dancer retreats sidelong, curtseying most lowly, and apparently overwhelmed with modesty and meekness.

This great agility is not the result of magic, but of con tinued exercise, until the strained sinews acquire a tension and size equal to the task required of them. On beholding the swoln muscles of the lower limbs of the dan

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VIEW OF THE STATE OF THE USEFUL ARTS.

cer, the mystery is solved, and no one would imagine, however light her apparent movements, that the hare-bell would

"Rise elastic from her tread."

VIEW OF SOME OF THE USEFUL ARTS.

We called at a manufactory of copper cylinders for calico printing. It is difficult in this branch of business to cast the copper cylinder or roller free from air bubbles or small flaws, which receive the dyes into the crevices, and blemish by unsightly stains the cloth printed from their engraved surfaces. To obviate this difficulty, the copper rollers are cast solid, and are bored out afterwards, like a cannon, to receive the spindle or shaft that serves for an axis. The whole exterior surface of the copper roller, or shell, as it is in this state called, is subjected to a long process of hammering by machinery moved by steam power, to close up every pore or flaw, and to render the surface when turned off and polished perfectly regular, and prepared for the chisel of the engraver. These copper shells weigh from 120 to 150 pounds each, and are sold at about half a crown per pound. The engravers charge from three hundred to five hundred francs, according to the work of the patterns or designs, for each cylinder which they cut for printing cotton cloth.

Near this manufactory we visited some gas works, by which a few shops and houses of the city are supplied with

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gas lights. None of the public streets in Paris are yet lighted by gas.

FRENCH PRINT-WORKS.

At St. Denis, about six miles from Paris, there is one of the most extensive cotton-printing establishments in France. Having a letter to one of the proprietors, we were admitted by him with much politeness, and conducted over the works. A capital of about 1,200,000 francs is employed here in printing cotton, and about 150 laborers and mechanics. To our surprise, we were informed that the bleaching of the cotton cloth is mostly performed in France in the ancient method upon the grass of extensive meadows, and not by the speedy chemical process, with chlorine, as practised in England and in the United States.

The acknowledged superiority of the colors of the common French prints over those of English manufacture is not the result of mere skill, according to the statement of the superintendant, but arises from the employment of better, and more costly dyeing materials. He stated that the English, with their great knowledge of chemical colors, are enabled to produce the fugitive dyes which rival, when freshly imprinted, the best colors of the French dyes; but which soon lose their lustre and fade, when exposed to the sun and air. It seemed to be here rather a subject of complaint, that foreigners with this advantage in their favor were able to undersell the French printers of cottons. The indiscriminating mass of purchasers of this article are generally found to pay more attention to the style and appearance of the fabrics, than to their intrinsic value.

The processes of dyeing and printing cotton cloths appear to be conducted with great care, and no expense in the application of the best dye-stuffs is spared for pro

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HOURS OF LABOR.-STEAM POWER.

ducing desirable tints on the beautiful fabrics produced here. The cotton cloth passes, like a continuous sheet of pure white paper, beneath this printing roller, and comes out covered with the impression of the colors, which being in a liquid state and liable to be blotted by contact with any foreign body, the cloth is immediately drawn by the machinery into the lofts, where it is soon dried by stoves. There appear to be about sixty tables for block printing at this place.

The hours of labor in summer in the print-works are from 5 o'clock, A. M. to 9 o'clock, from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock, and from 3 to 7, P. M. in all about twelve hours. Common workmen earn, by printing calico, about four francs per day, (as stated to us,) and the most skilful five or six francs.

The moving power is derived from two steam engines, each of eight-horse power, on the Watt and Boulton plan. One of these engines complete, made in Paris, costs about 20,000 francs, (3700 dollars.) The coal used for fuel is obtained from the mines of Mons, near Brussels. It appears by the estimates made here, that the cost of fuel for an eight horse power engine is about five dollars and a half per day, the price of mineral coal being nearly fortytwo cents for one hundred pounds, or eight dollars and forty cents per ton of two thousand pounds. The difference between the price of coal here and in Manchester, is about six dollars and forty cents per ton; and judging from the best estimate in my power to make, it costs here merely for the fuel of an eight horse power engine about twelve hundred dollars per annum more than it does for an engine of the same power in Manchester; or the expense of steam power is about three fold more than it is in that great manufacturing metropolis of England. This is truly a heavy charge in favor of the manufacturers of that island in their competition with their French neighbors.