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The question of employment for the blind abroad presents many of the same difficulties with which we are so familiar at home, and we were glad to observe the increasing attention which is being devoted abroad to this all-important question.

The principal employments followed by the workers in the institutions we visited were obviously those that have been described in the foregoing account of technical training. One of the features of the employment noticed right through our tour was the amount of brush making done by the women, and chair caning done by the men. Basket making and brush making were undoubtedly the two trades in which the workers were most largely employed, the former being done almost exclusively by men, whilst the departments of brush making -- which in this country are almost exclusively confined to men -- were largely shared by women. This was particularly noticeable at Berlin, where many women were employed in setting, with pitch, brooms both of hair and bass. At the institution in this city we saw thirty-six blind persons engaged at "pan work," twenty of whom were females; and we were informed that in this work the women proved themselves more adept than the men, one girl being able to set 1,200 knots a day. At the Kiel institution there is a branch of women's work which we venture to think is quite unique. This institution bores and pre-pares all its own brush stocks, and much of this work is actually done by the blind. We saw some of the boring of the stocks being done, and were told that one of the blind women could bore 5,000 holes a day, whilst one of the blind men could bore as many as 8,000 a day. But what caused us no little astonishment was to see a blind woman using a circular saw for shaping the stocks!

Brush making is a large industry for the blind of Berlin, and the workshops in that city supply to the municipality no less than 60,000 brooms annually for street use alone, thus finding much constant and profitable employment for many male and female workers. No boring of the brushwood is done by the institution, not only the brush boards, but the whole of the broom stocks, being purchased ready bored.

We may here notice one point in brush making which we found in general practice on the Continent. In "drawing," both with wire and string, and also in "setting" with pitch, the method is the very opposite of that in practice in England. In the Continental method of "drawing," the wire is fixed instead of the brush, and the material is forced into the stock by drawing the brush away from the wire. In the Continental method of "setting," a ball of string or thrum is used instead of lengths ready cut beforehand, the thrum is fixed to an upright spindle or peg fastened to the bench, and thus held tight while being wound round the knot, and when the knot is made the string is cut off from the ball. Both these methods seemed very rapid, and the work appeared to proceed more quickly than by our own methods; but whether the system could be adopted with advantage for the blind in England is a question for consideration and practical demonstration. It may be added that these methods appear to be invariably adopted, not only in blind institutions, but also in sighted manufactories on the Continent. At Hamburg we learned that the police regulations require all bristles to be boiled before use, for the purpose of disinfection.

In our remarks upon employment we have said very little about the great industry of basket making, but this is simply because -- except in the large amount of work made on the Continent in white willow -- the conditions of the trade are very much on the lines with which we are familiar at home.

Cane seating is also an extensive occupation abroad, and at Berlin we learned that the number of chairs reseated at the city institution was no less than 12,000 per annum, the number actually resealed in the month prior to our visit being 1,500. Blind men of all ages find much employment in this work.

Rope making is an important branch of employment, and we found extensive departments for this work at Kiel, Copenhagen, and Steglitz. The support given to the institutions in this industry by the various naval and military authorities does much to insure its success.

Shoemaking and mending by the blind, with special tools invented for their use, seems to be confined chiefly to Copenhagen, and is mainly followed by the workers in their own homes.

Pianoforte tuning finds some employment, though we fear not to any large extent, and we were glad to hear of blind tuners being in several instances engaged in piano factories.

Stockholm was the only city in which we found massage being practiced by the blind, and we were informed that there are four males and two females in that city, all making a good living by the exercise of that profession, one of them, with a high-class connection, realizing as much as 400 pounds per annum.

Typewriting as a means of employment was 'only found at Berlin, where four typists are employed in city offices at earnings ranging from 15s. to 1 pound per week, and one in a fire insurance office earning 25S. a week.