Whatever housekeepers may please to say or believe on the subject, there can be no doubt that one-half, at least, of the cost of clothing, in America, goes in the washing - the rubbing poor stuff on hard boards. Any good modification of this absurd system we are ready to patronize. It is rather singular that we should first hear of the following improvement from an English Mechanics' Magazine: -

This machine, which attracted a good deal of deserved attention at the Paris Exhibition, where very many of its counterparts were purchased by the English, is now being manufactured to a great extent in this country, and a depot has been opened, Moore's, 133, in High Holborn, for the purpose of informing the public as to the nature of its operations. We have closely inspected this machine, and seen it at work. A number of wooden balls - more or less, according to the trough in which the clothes are to be washed - are set in motion by a handle worked by a lever, and which agitates an apparatus on which the linen is placed. This movement causes the balls to rub against each other, but only with sufficient percussion to pound the material to be cleansed, and by their eccentric action, imitate to a nicety all the routine of a washerwoman's duties. In this way, clothes are washed far cleaner than by the ordinary method, and with singular rapidity. The threefold operations of pounding, rubbing, and squeezing, are done at the same time; and, as the floating balls offer only a limited resistance to each other, the finest fabrics are free from that injury which is consequent upon the ordinary course of proceeding.

The wear is, moreover, much less; and not even a button has, it is said, been known to be torn off by the thousands of the machines now in use throughout Europe, and America.

The consumption of soap is smaller, and no necessity for boiling is necessary, excepting in the case of extreme foulness. The hands of the operator, which may be a child, are never immersed in the water, and, consequently, there is no fear of that blistering, chapping, and bleeding of the fingers attendant upon the poor washerwoman's pursuits. It seems to us an excellent labor-saving machine, and one the permanent character of which is alone to be estimated by the wear of the wood with which it is made." - Mechanics' Magazine.