1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
THE HOUSI 
IgP (For other Household Items, see “Basket ” pages). 
A Speaking-Tube Call. 
Most modern houses are furnished with speak¬ 
ing-tubes, by means of which communication is had 
between different stories. In a large house they 
are of great use, as they save many steps, and in 
shops and manufactories of much size they are 
generally adopted, the cost being as nothing com¬ 
pared with their convenience. The mouth-piece is 
usually arranged with a whistle, to call attention ; 
the person called turns the whistle out of the way, 
and puts his or her ear to the tube to listen to the 
message, and when the tube is left, the whistle 
springs back to its place. A tube of this kind runs 
from the ground floor of our office to the printers’ 
room in the 6th story, and being in very frequent 
use, there has been much annoyance caused by the 
whistling mouth-pieces, which would get so out of 
order that they needed frequent renewal or repair. 
One of our associates, being out of patience with 
the complicated contrivance of springs and handles, 
substituted for it a very simple one, which is shown 
in the engraving. It is only a large cork with a 
SPEAKING-TUBE WHISTLE. 
hole through it, and at the larger end a toy tin- 
whistle is cemented ; this is made fast by a string, 
so that it may not get misplaced. When the whistle 
gives a call, the one who answers takes out the 
cork, hears and replies, and then replaces it. The 
whole affair cost 2 cents, and has already been in 
use longer than one or two of the dollar ones would 
have lasted. 
Uses for Old Fruit Cans. 
Canned fruits and vegetables are now put up on 
the large scale at such cheap rates, that many 
families prefer to purchase such articles to putting 
Fig. 1. 
Fig. 2. 
Fig. 4. 
Fig. 5. 
no advice. A friend, who is ingenious in such 
matters, has given us sketches of various articles, 
which may be made from the cans without the use 
of the soldering iron, which are here presented. A 
can, after it is emptied, (fig. 1,) should be washed 
at once, and dried, otherwise it will be difficult to 
clean. If the tin be wanted, set the can upon the 
stove until the solder melts, strike off the top and 
Fig. 8. 
them up themselves, and there are but few who do 
not have more or less cans during the year. The 
old cans seem to be too good to throw away, and as 
_ there is no 
sale for them 
they accu¬ 
mulate, a s 
’ but few are 
found useful 
in the kitch¬ 
en or work¬ 
shop. Those 
who are handy in the use of the soldering iron 
—and every farmer should learn how to tinker 
—will find various uses for the old cans, and need 
Fig. 6. Fig. 7. 
bottom, and flatten out the piece which formed the 
sides. The tin is very thin, but sufficiently strong 
for many uses. It may be cut with ordinary shears, 
and be punched with an awl, or a nail 
filed to a point, if no regular punch is at 
hand. Strips of tin are useful to cover 
mouse and rat-holes, and various other 
purposes. By the exercise of a little 
care, it is easy to unsolder the top or 
bottom of a can, and leave the rest en¬ 
tire. Take off the top of the can, punch 
holes on opposite sides near the rim, put 
in a wire bail, and you have a little bucket 
as in fig. 2, which may serve for a paint pot, to 
keep nails in, or for numerous other uses. Take 
off the top, cut the proper shape, and fasten on a 
handle by means of a screw through a hole in the 
bottom, and a useful scoop (fig. 3) may 
be made. A number of these will be 
welcome to every housekeeper. A sauce¬ 
pan for small messes may be made by 
cutting down a can, leaving a strip to be 
bent at right angles, as in fig. 4. If the 
strip for the handle be left wide enough 
to bend around a stick, it will be much 
stronger. A can from which the cover 
is removed, has two or three large teeth 
cut in its margin, and then fastened to 
the end of a staff (fig. 5); it thus forms 
a fruit-picker, to reach out of the 
way specimens, and is quite as service- * 'S' 
able as more complicated ones. A coarse grater 
for crackers, dry bread, horseradish, and the like, 
may be made with a piece of the tin tacked to a 
bit of board, as in fig. 6; the holes in the grater arc 
best if made with a triangular punch, which may 
be filed up from a nail, or made of an old three- 
cornered file. Muffin and cake-rings (fig. 7) are 
readily formed from strips of the tin bent into the 
desired shape, and held by a rivet, or bending the 
ends so as to interlock. Our friend suggests that 
by cutting out a piece from the side of a can and 
putting in a bit of stove mica, as in fig. 8, a lantern 
may be made, but this is a little more complicated 
than the rest of his suggestions. There are several 
horticultural uses of these cans, which have been 
in former volumes mentioned in their proper de¬ 
partment, but that they may be used in the absence 
of flower-pots, (fig. 9,) will readily suggest itself. 
The principal objection to their use is the fact that 
they arc not porous, aud there is danger of injuring 
the plants by keeping their roots too wet. If one 
puts in plenty of broken crocks, oyster-shells, or 
cinders, and over this a little moss before putting 
in the earth, and then watches the plant, as every 
lover of flowers should, there need be no danger 
on this score—but in growing plants in glazed pots, 
cans, or any non-porous thing, beware of too much 
water. The cans may be painted, and no doubt 
some ingenious persons will contrive a way to orna¬ 
ment them. A plant should be so well grown that 
no one will dare to notice what kind of a pot it is in. 
Home Topics. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Judging Parents by their Children. 
We “ live and learn ” ; and one thing that teach¬ 
able people learn by experience, is to be charitable 
in their judgment of others. Before any of our 
children are a dozen years old, we begin to speak 
mildly of other persons’ failures in bringing up 
their children ; for we discover that our influence 
for good over our children is counteracted in a 
large degree, by the influence of other people, and 
that our own example before our children, is far 
from being as good as we wish. Children’s man¬ 
ners are not formed wholly upon the parental 
model, unless they are restricted almost entirely to 
parental society—a thing nearly impossible, as a 
general thing, and hardly to be desired. 
If there are no neighbors and playmates, there 
are probably grandparents, and uncles and aunts, 
all helping to educate the little ones by their 
example, right or wrong. A year and a half ago 
one of our children was two years old. She had 
then a very pretty habit of saying “hank oo,” or 
“hank oo ma’am,” for every gift or favor, even 
for the pin she asked for dolly’s toilet, or for play¬ 
things picked up when dropped. She did this 
without prompting, and without special instruction 
at any time. Even when she waked in the night 
and asked for water, she was not too sleepy to 
murmer her thanks. After a few months of daily 
association with children who lived near us, she 
had lost this habit, and gained some other modes 
of speech not quite so lovely. About that time I 
heard her speaking of one of her parents—in lov¬ 
ing tones to be sure—as “ an old fool.” 
I like to have the children play out of doors a 
great deal, and play hard, running and shouting 
as much as they please, if they do not disturb 
reasonable people. Some persons are so unreason¬ 
able, or so selfish, that they would never allow 
children to be as noisy and as active in their play, 
as their healthful development demands. But I 
see, again and again, that half a day’s free associa¬ 
tion with the boys of his own age, very perceptibly 
affects the manners of my little boy. He comes in 
so saturated with the impudence and domineering 
ways that prevail among his playmates, that before 
he thinks what lie is about, he is acting the same 
manners at home. Worse than that, his manners, 
brought in from the playground, are copied more 
or less by the younger ones. IIow powerless a 
mother sometimes feels against these influences, 
that come pressing into the home circle from the 
outside, as she sits perhaps with a teething babe at 
her breast, and with other little ones crying about 
their cut or burnt fingers, or begging for some help 
in their plays. 
I do not suppose that all the evil influences, 
against which we have to contend, come from out¬ 
side the family, for I see how imperfect in culture 
most of us parents are. But society outside the 
home circle—in the school, on the play-ground, 
along the street, at church, at Sunday-school— 
modifies more or less the education of our children. 
Over-Soclcs. 
There is nothing more convenient to pull on 
hastily over the feet and ankles, when going out 
into the cold, than knitted over-socks. It takes 
more time to arrange leg- 
gins and arctic over-shoes 
properly, and many times 
they are left off because 
one is in too much haste 
to put them on, when 
some such protection is 
really needed. I have here 
a pair of strong home- 
knit socks for a child of 
five or six years. They 
are knit of coarse grey 
yarn, striped in three 
places on the leg with 
scarlet — three rows of 
scarlet at each stripe, each 
row made by knitting 
three times around, with 
two “times around” of 
grey between the red rows. 
They are seamed all of the way, and shaped to tho 
foot, which is knit first. Cast on one hundred and 
twenty six single stitches, or forty two on each 
needle. Knit around, seaming one stitch and 
knitting two plain, until you have knit from an 
inch and a half to two inches. If you wish to 
have the socks sew together under the sole, knit 
