HELPS FOR HOUSEWIVES

Use lemon juice and salt to remove iron rust, ink, and mildew on white goods.

After blood stains have been well saturated with kerosene, wash in cold water.

For a burn, apply dry flour, and then bind it up in raw cotton saturated with sweet oil.

No receptacle for soiled clothing, even if handsomely deco- rated, should be kept in a sleeping apartment.

Soak glass globes in hot soda water, then wash hard in lukewarm ammonia water, and rinse in cold water.

When an eider-down comfortable has got hard and lost all its elasticity, hang it in the cool, balmy sun for a few hours, and all the life will come back to it.

Handsome parlor vases are usually filled with some such ingredient as sand to weight them and prevent the light por- celain from being brushed off the mantel-piece.

Whiten yellow linen by boiling half an hour in one pound of fine soap melted in one gallon of milk. Then wash in suds, then in two cold waters with a little bluing.

The best way to remove mildew stains from leather-covered chairs is to rub the leather well with a clean, soft and very dry cloth. Then apply a rag moistened with pyroligneous acid.

If you want your pie crust to come out flaky and nice, and not take up the juice of the fruit or other filling, brush the under crust with the partly-beaten white of an egg before putting the filling in.

Don't let the baby suck its thumbs. Interesting as this habit is, it is the cause of broad, flat thumbs in after life.

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The German custom of making infants' sleeves an eighth of a yard longer than the arms is an excellent preventive.

This is said to be a certain cure for a felon, if you apply in time : Take equal parts of gum camphor, gum opium, castile soap and brown sugar. Wet to the consistence of paste with spirits of turpentine and bind on the felon with a soft linen cloth.

A delicious toilet powder for the body is made by mixing two packages of violet rice powder, four grains of powdered musk, five drops of oil of sandalwood and two ounces of pow- dered orris. After mixing spread in the sun for several days to dry out.

In cleansing hairbrushes use cold water and soda. Dissolve the soda in the cold water and then shake the brush around in it, rinsing off as soon as the bristles look clean. Stand the brush up on the end of the handle to dry, and don't put it in the sun or near a hot stove.

The best of all rules for successful housekeeping, and mak- ing both ends meet, is to " pay as you go." Beyond all countries in the world, ours is the one in which the credit system is the most abused and most used. Passbooks are the bane and pest of domestic economy, a perpetual plague, vexa- tion and swindle.

To clean the railing of banisters, wash off all the dirt with soap and water, and when dry rub with two parts of linseed oil and one of turpentine. If the odor of turpentine is ob- jectionable, use two parts of sweet or cotton-seed oil and one part of alcohol, but the mixture of linseed oil and turpentine is more desirable.

Mothers are nearly always to blame if the baby's ears stick out. Never tie anything behind a child's ears like bonnet strings or hat elastic. Always lay the baby flat on its ear when sleeping. In extreme cases, a skeleton cap should be worn, but a silk handkerchief drawn over the top of the head,

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down over the ears and tied securely under the chin, answers the same purpose.

By putting lace handkerchiefs in warm water in which are a few drops of ammonia, and using castile soap, they are easily washed and made a beautiful, clear white. Then do not iron, but spread the handkerchief out smoothly on marble or glass, gently pulling out or shaping the lace. Just before it is entirely dry, fold evenly and smoothly and place under a heavy weight of some kind, and you will find handkerchiefs lasting thrice as long as before.

Irons are pretty sure to gather rust this weather and cause a good deal of bad temper in the laundry. Heat them hot, then run them forcibly over a flannel cloth that has a liberal sprinkling of salt on it. This will remove every bit of the rust — be sure and rub the edges also — then run the iron over a greased cloth or a cloth that has a little white wax or bees- wax on it, then treat it to a vigorous rubbing on a perfectly clean white cloth.

If the top of the oven insists on being too hot for pastry or bread, put a pan of water on the grate above the bread that is baking too brown. If the grate has been removed to make room, take a big sheet of the common brown wrapping paper, fold it and lay over the bread or pies or whatever it may be. If that is not at hand use a newspaper. Fold it to as many thicknesses as necessary. The thicker it is the more protec- tion it will aiford from the too-hot oven. Of course, it will brown and crisp, but you have only to be careful about slip- ping it out when it has answered its purpose.

For shampooing get five cents' worth of powdered castile soap, the same quantity of borax ; add to them a tablespoon- ful of alcohol, the beaten yolk of an egg and a pint of hot water. Put this in a bottle and cork. There is sufficient for three or four shampoos, as it only takes a small quantity applied to the scalp to cause a good lather, which must, how- ever, be carefully rinsed out with several basins of warm

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water. Some people hold the theory that thorough combing is more beneficial to the hair than brushing, as the latter seems to make it come out more> but, like everything else, it is a matter which depends on the hair, as well as the brusher, and, consequently, depends on the judgment of each individual.

A very pretty work a great many energetic women are try- ing now is that of making their own bead portieres. The Japanese shops sell bamboo and strings of beads, so that one can make curtains to harmonize perfectly with each room. For instance, I saw a charming effect produced by a portiere of green beads used between a dining-room and a small con- servatory adjoining. You have no idea how exquisite the plants and flowers looked through this transparent screen of green. Gold beads give a sunshiny effect, and portieres of solid pink or blue beads are dainty in the extreme. A friend who has recently returned from Japan tell me that the cur- tains strung in patterns are made by having the designs drawn on large pieces of paper and laid on the floor, and then the beads are strung on just as we would trace out the lines in making lace.

When you are paring apples for sauce or pastry, wash them well first. Take the parings and cores, and put them in a pan of water on the stove, and cook till all are tender. Then squeeze the juice through a jelly cloth, and put it in a wide- mouthed jar, with a pound of sugar and a gill of good liquid yeast to a gallon of juice. Let the liquid stand near a warm stove for a month, the mouth of the jar covered with a thin cloth, so that the air can get to the liquid, and bugs and flies cannot. By that time you will have a gallon of splendid vinegar. Pour off a third or more of it in another jar, to settle, and after add to the first jar the juice of your fruit parings every day if you like, pouring off a part of it every week or two, for immediate use. In that way you can keep a perpetual supply on hand, and you can be sure that it will

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not eat up your pickles or the lining to your stomach, as some of the vinegar that you buy does.

BEIGNETS d'ABRICOTS.

Make a batter as follows : The whites of three eggs beaten lightly and two tablespoonsful of potato flour, with the same quantity of powdered sugar and an ounce of melted butter well mixed together. If too stiff, add a small cupful of milk. Make the batter some time before it is required for use. The apricots should not be too ripe; they need not be skinned, but should be cut in quarters, and the stones removed. Well cover each piece with the batter and drop them into clear boiling fat, fry to a light golden brown, drain, cover with powdered sugar and serve hot.

Beignets of peaches, apples, and oranges are made with the same batter. Apples are pared and cored, then cut through to make rings (oranges are divided by the natural divisions). French cooks add a little olive oil to the batter, in place of butter, and water instead of milk. The specialty of the batter thus made is that it clings to whatever is immersed in it and swells into crisp coating.