1876.1 
AMERICAN ACIKICUETURIST. 
385 
which, though all very simple, must be exceed¬ 
ingly neat and accurate, forms a large business of 
itself ; the articles are put up in boxes for use in 
the family, and are accompanied by directions for 
the parent; they are also supplied to kindergarten¬ 
ers—as the teachers are called. Where there is no 
established Kindergarten, the same method is of 
the greatest help to the mother, and special sets are 
made for family use. To give some idea of these 
various occupations, we present some engravings 
which illustrate them. Figure 1 shows Froebel’s 
eighth gift: sticks for Stick-laying. A box, with 
compartments, contains 500 round sticks,.like those 
used for parlor matches, and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 inches 
long. The child amuses itself by laying these upon 
a table to form various figures, either following its 
own fancy, or the numerous plates of designs that 
accompany them. An advanced child, can readily 
make the letters of the alphabet with these sticks. 
Another occupation is Perforating or Pricking; the 
gift consists of a number of sheets of paper ruled 
in squares, a cushion of felt, perforating needles 
with handles, and numerous designs. This serves 
to educate the hand and the eye, and the child pro¬ 
gresses from pricking simple lines and squares to 
more irregular and difficult designs, such as that 
shown in figure 2. When some skill is acquired, 
Fig. 3.— PAPER-WEAVING. 
thicker paper may be used and the perforated pic¬ 
tures mounted for preservation or to use as screens, 
or parts of fancy boxes. The occupation of “ Paper 
Weaving” is provided with 
P P strips and “ mats” of glazed 
paper of different bright 
colors. The mat is a sheet 
of paper cut regularly, but 
O not quite to the edges, mak¬ 
ing a warp into which the 
Fig. 4. PEAS & WIRES. stri P s are worked by means 
of a weaving needle which 
catches the end of the strip and allows it to be pulled 
through, under and over the strips of the mat. 
Figure 3 shows a specimen of the weaving, which 
is capable of great variety, and allows of original 
designs. One of the most curious of the gifts con¬ 
sists of pieces of wire of various lengths, pointed 
at the ends, and a lot of peas. The peas are soft¬ 
ened by soaking several hours in water, and by 
means of these and the wires a great variety of 
skeleton forms, like that in figure 4, may be built 
up. Little cubes of cork are sometimes used in¬ 
stead of peas, as shown in the engraving, and the 
sticks, used for stick-laying, may have their ends 
pointed and replace the wires. These are but four 
out of- the 20 different occupations and gifts, but 
are sufficient to show how admirably play may be 
made to develope the child’s faculties, and form a 
most valuable foundation for its future education. 
Mangles old and new. 
A mangle as a household convenience is so little 
used in this country that the majority of persons 
have only an indefinite notion that it is something 
for smoothing linen, but what it looks like or how 
it works they have no idea. In hotels, hospitals, 
laundries that do steamboat washing, and such 
places, the smoothing of sheets, table cloths, tow¬ 
els, and the like, by the use of the ordinary fiat or 
sad-iron would be very slow work, and in such 
places the smoothing is expeditiously and suffici¬ 
ently well done by the use of a mangle. In its 
original form the mangle was a most cumbrous and 
unsightly affair, and was probably derived, with its 
name, from Holland, mangelen, being the Dutch 
name signifying to smooth with pressure, as well 
as to cut up promiscuously and mutilate. The ma¬ 
chine consists of a smooth wooden table, upon 
which are two smooth rollers ; upon these rests a 
large wooden box, which is so arranged with gear¬ 
ing, that by turning a crank the box is pushed back 
and forth. The linen being placed upon the table, 
the rollers, as the box is moved back and forth, 
pass over it and smooth it; in order to give the 
necessary pressure the box is filled with stones, and 
the weight brings the rollers down upon the cloth 
with great force. The machine takes up nearly as 
much room as a farm wagon, and to operate it re¬ 
quires a strong arm. When we have seen one of 
these unwieldy mangles in operation, and seen how 
useful it was in spite ot its ungainly looks-, we have 
wondered why some one did not invent a machine 
which would do the work with less labor, and not 
take up more than a third of the room, and have 
long been convinced that whoever would provide a 
compact and efficient mangle for use in the family, 
would not only confer a blessing upon housekeep¬ 
ers, but reap a satisfactory reward. This much- 
wished for end the “Standard Laundry Machinery 
Company” of Boston and New York claim to have 
accomplished. This Company makes washers, 
wringers, mangles, and whatever may be needed to 
fit up a complete laundry, and present a fine array 
of'testimony from those who have used them, as 
to the efficiency of their machines. The mangles 
are made of different sizes and styles, to be operat¬ 
ed by power or by hand ; an engraving of one of 
Fig. 2.— IMPROVED MANGLE. 
the hand machines is given in figure 1; the damp 
linen being properly folded passes, when the crank 
is turned, between heavy rolls of polished metal, 
which are so arranged that the pressure may be 
regulated according to the material. In figure 2 is 
shown an improved form of the mangle, which may 
be fastened to a table. The smoothing being done 
entirely by pressure, it is claimed that linen and 
cotton goods last much longer when mangled, 
than when frequently smoothed by hot irons—an 
item of no little importance. 
Potatoes in Kentucky Style. 
Our potatoes turned out a small crop oi small 
potatoes; more than that, they were treacherous, 
and though they came to the table looking fair 
without, they were often dark within, and not to 
be eaten. One day a new dish appeared in place ot 
the usual plain boiled or mashed potatoes. Every¬ 
body pronounced it good by being helped at least 
twice. Upon inquiry of the presiding genius of the 
kitchen, we found that she learned the way of some 
Kentucky people, and the way is this : The pota¬ 
toes are sliced thiD, as for frying, and allowed to 
remain in cold water for half an hour. The slices 
are then put in a pudding dish, with salt, pepper, 
and some milk—about balf-a-pint to an ordinary 
pudding dish. They are then put into the oven 
and baked for an hour. When taken out, a lump 
of butter, half the size of a hen’s egg, is cut into 
small bits and scattered over the top. Those who 
have never eaten potatoes cooked thus, do not 
know all the capabilities of that excellent escu¬ 
lent tuber. The slicing allows the interior of each 
potato to be examined, lienee its value where pota¬ 
toes are doubtful, though poor ones are not of 
necessity required. The soaking in cold water 
hardens the slices, so that they will hold their shape. 
The milk serves to cook them through, and to make 
a nice brown on the top ; the quantity can only be 
learned by experience; if just a little is left as a 
rich gravy, moistening all the slices, then it is right. 
In this year of small and poor potatoes, this method 
of serving them will be very welcome to many a 
housekeeper. The only trouble about it is, that 
every one will eat twice as many as when the pota¬ 
toes are cooked in the ordinary way. 
HOTS <k Mm ® 9 
Tiae I&octor’s Cora-esposadlcMce. 
Well, here is quite a menagerie 1 The animals, it is 
true, are small, but i! we judge them by the,damage they 
do, they are quite as important as larger ones, and their 
ways of living and getting along in the world, are 
more wonderful than those of the others. You have 
guessed that I refer to insects. My advice to study the 
ways of insects has been followed by some youngsters, 
and even some of the parents of the young people have 
sent their inquiries to “ The Doctor.” All right, the 
more the better, only if the older people send their 
questions to me, they must expect to find them answered 
just as if they came from the boys and girls.Here is 
master “ H. W.,” who writes from Mt. Sterling, Ill., that 
“ some things” are injuring the leaves of his “ Centen¬ 
nial Elm,” and he wishes to know what they are. He 
sent them in his letter, and all that I find are some very 
unpleasant looking, shapeless spots, and I can not make 
out any form whatever. I am very sorry, as “W. II.” 
calls them “curious things,” and I should like to know 
what they are myself. If the “ things ” had been sent in 
a little box of tin or wood, they would have come all 
right. I must tell you 
HOW TO SEND INSECTS, 
and other small things that would be crushed in a letter. 
A little box is the handiest; it should be quite strong, 
which paste board boxes seldom are, and only tin or 
wood are sure. But boys who live on a farm, do not al¬ 
ways have such boxes handy, while they are too far from 
shops to get them, and they will be glad to know of a 
way, by which they can do quite as well without. Take 
a piece of pine or other light wood, and with an augur 
or bit bore a hole not quite through it; then you can cut 
away the wood around the hole, so that it will not be 
too heavy, and not so much that it will be too weak. 
Put your insect, or other little thing into this, put in a 
cork, and you will have a box, which, if not so neat as 
some, will answer perfectly.There came the other 
day a lot of twigs of the Larch tree, to which were hang¬ 
ing a number of curious objects, like that shown on 
the next page in figure 1. I do not wonder that the one 
who found them was puzzled, but had he cut open a 
bag, he would have found inside of it a very active, 
blackish looking caterpillar. The insect is known as 
THE BAG OR BASKET-WORM, 
and also Drop-worm, though it is not a worm, except to 
those who give that name to all caterpillars. When the 
little caterpillars hatch out from the egg, they begin 
to spin a bag ; when very young, they arc found upon 
leaves, walking upon their forward feet, with their tails 
stuck up in the air, around them is the bag, to which 
they fasten little bits of leaf. As they grow, they add 
to the bag, and after a while this gets so heavy that in¬ 
stead of holding it up into the air, they let it hang down. 
The bag is brownish, and they fasten to it little bits of 
twigs, probably all the better to deceive the birds, and by 
the time the caterpillar is full grown, its bag is of the size 
and shape shown in the engraving. In Mexico there is 
a horribly thorny shrub, upon which a related Bag- 
worm lives, and it covers its bag with thorns, put on 
with the points outwards, in such a manner that no bird 
would think of touching it. These caterpillars move 
along on the twigs of a tree, hitch their case fast until 
