"When any one has a slight knowledge of drawing, or even the faculty of selecting and simply tracing patterns, it is an easy matter to adorn a house cheaply and tastefully, or to make many objects which will meet with a ready sale. For many years I have made a study of adapting to the use of the decorative arts objects which have been generally wasted, and I am now almost convinced that there is hardly any thing which is not to be turned to account. Nature, strangely enough, always gives two useful qualities to every thing. The ox is not only a yielder of flesh, but his skin provides leather. The sheep gives mutton and wool; the tree, fruit and wood. And, following up this thought, we may find that there are minor and secondary uses in almost all that man rejects. In Roman days the seaweed was called by Terence vilis alga, the 'worthless;' but now it has a double value, - as manure and for iodine. And, to come to a practical illustration, let me show what can be done with the tin cans which are to be found on every lot around every town, and, indeed, wherever man has been.

"Most people know that leather of any kind, if soaked for some time in warm water, becomes very soft indeed. In this state it may be worked almost like putty or paste. When it dries, it becomes hard again, retaining any marks which have been impressed on it. If soaked in alum-water, it becomes still harder. Now, if we take a sheet of leather, soaked and soft, and draw upon it a pattern, and then indent the background of this pattern with a stamp or punch, the pattern will, of course, be in relief; while the background is de-

Fig. 107. - Can with Wooden or Leather Handle and Base.

pressed a little, and, if the stamp be rough, it will be corru gated. That is to say, it will bear a close resemblance to any ordinary panel-carving in wood, the ground of which is generally indented so as to make a dark relief to the shining and elevated pattern.