SERVICEABLE SUGGESTIONS

Kerosene will make the tin tea-kettle as new. Saturate a woolen rag, and rub with it. It will also remove stains from clean varnished furniture.

To clean tinware : Damp a cloth and dip in common soda, and rub the ware briskly, after which wipe dry. Any blackened ware can be made to look as good as new.

After a stove has once been thoroughly blacked, it can be kept look- ing well for a long time by rubbing it with a newspaper every morning.

Lamp chimneys can be washed easily by holding them over the nose of the tea-kettle when the kettle is boiling furiously. This will make them beautifully clear. Of course they must be wiped with a clean cloth.

In washing dishes, pots and kettles, a wisp of broom-corn and a small quantity of soapy water is handy and useful in cleaning them from all bits and grease, which is objectionable to the dishcloth. The wisps are formed by tying the broom-corn into bundles as large as a broom handle, with two stout cords near the coarse ends, which form a handle.

SERVICEABLE SUGGESTIONS. 189

Old boot tops, cut into pieces the right size and lined, make good iron holders. The leather keeps all heat away from the hand.

Corsets with the whalebones removed make good cleaning cloths.

Iron holders should have a cover of white cotton cloth made to fit nicely, and fastened on with buttons, and when it becomes soiled it can be removed, washed and replaced.

To make a mop take old wrappers cut in convenient strips ; do not get it too heavy or it will strain the hands.

The best dish cloths are made of corsets with the whalebones all out and only the cords left in, or small turkish towels cut to convenient size.

When dish-towels begin to wear out, fold them together, the best outside, as small or large as you like, and run together around and across through the center with coarse thread.

It is a good idea to keep a supply of ironing holders made up ; take old cloths, fold as many thicknesses wanted, and cover with a new piece of heavy cloth, tacking in the center, then you can have a clean holder when necessary without having to stop and make one.

An oven holder should be made of heavy cloth, two thicknesses, and fully half a yard square ; an old grain sack makes them. This will save you many a burn and keep you from using your dish-towel or apron.

Keep your stove blacking brush and plate handy, and after dinner each day brush off your stove, and you will find it much nicer than washing it off ; besides with an occasional brushing your stove will always look nicely, and if your stove is not kept looking clean the whole kitchen looks untidy.

A cloth saturated in kerosene and dipped into whiting, for cleaning tinware, is much better than anything else used.

When sweeping, dip the broom occasionally in water, hot is best, and keep the dust from flying over everything. Coarse salt sprinkled over the floor occasionally is said to keep the moths out of the carpet.

It is a good plan to put new earthen ware into cold water and let it heat gradually until it boils ; then cool again. Brown earthenware in particular may be toughened in this way. A handful of rye or wheat bran thrown in while it is boiling will preserve the glazing so that it will not be destroyed by acid or salt.

New iron should be gradually heated at first. After it has become used to the heat it is not as likely to crack.

To remove iron taste from new kettles, boil a handful of hay in them, and repeat the process if necessaiy. Hay water is a great sweetener of tin, wooden and iron ware. In Irish dairies everything used for milk is scalded with hay water.

All sorts of vessels and utensils may be purified from long retained smells of every kind, in the easiest and most perfect manner, by rinsing

190 HOUSE-KEEPING.

them out well with charcoal powder after the grosser impurities have been scoured off with sand and water.

A piece of charcoal to be changed occasionally should be kept in refrigerators as a purifier. Milk, butter and all strong-smelling articles should be kept covered, especially when the water from the refrigerator is used for drinking.

Old wall paper can be very much improved in appearance by simply rubbing it well with a flannel cloth dipped in oat meal.

Carbolic acid may be used with satisfactory results during the sum- mer months to destroy ants, and as a disinfectant.

Gum camphor is a speedy remedy to clear the house of cockroaches.

An oyster shell put into a tea-kettle will prevent its becoming furred.

Newspapers are good for cleaning stoves, tinware, knives, spoons, mirrors, windows and lamp chimneys.

To prevent milk rapidly souring, put in a very small portion of bicar- bonate of soda.

Apply a little soap to the hinges to prevent the doors creaking.

Kitchen floors painted with boiled linseed oil are easiest cleaned.

When water has once been made to boil, the fire may be very much lessened, as but little heat is required to keep it at a boiling point. There is no advantage whatever in making water boil furiously ; the heat will escape in steam, without raising the heat of the water.

Kerosene lamps which are trimmed daily rarely explode. The care- lessness of the housewife can be blamed for most of the lamp explosions.

Grease can be drawn from unpainted kitchen floors by putting plenty of soft soap on the spot and rubbing a hot flat-iron through the soap. One application is usually sufficient; sometimes another is required, washing thoroughly afterwards.

Oil cloths can be kept like new if washed once a month in skim milk and water, equal quantities of each ; rub them once in three months with linseed oil ; put on very little, rub it in well and polish with an old silk cloth, and they will keep for years.

Nothing is better to clean silver with than alcohol and ammonia ; after rubbing with this take a little whitening or a soft cloth and polish in this way ; even frosted silver, which is so difficult to clean, may be easily made clear and bright.

To remove ink spots on floors : Rub with sand wet in oil of vitriol and water. When the ink is" removed, rinse with strong pearl-ash water.

To clean brass, immerse or wash it several times in sour milk or whey ; this will brighten it without scouring ; it may then be scoured with a woolen cloth dipped in ashes.

To remove the lids of tin cans, place a shovelful of live coals on the top, which will speedily unsolder them ; they can then be removed by

SER VICE ABLE S UGGES TIONS. 191

the aid of an old case-knife ; care must be taken or the side seam will also open.

Take coach varnish and renew all the old oil cloths. Wash them clean, wipe dry and apply a coat of varnish. Be careful not to step on them until they are dry. If this is done once a year the oil cloths will last twice as long as they will without it.

In washing windows a narrow bladed wooden knife, sharply pointed, will take out the dust that hardens in the corners of the sash. Dry whiting will polish the glass, which should first be washed with weak black tea mixed with a little alcohol.

When putting aw^ay the silver tea or coffee pot which is not used every day, lay a little stick across the top under the cover ; this will allow fresh air to get in, and will prevent mustiness ; it will then be ready for use at any time, after having first been thoroughly rinsed with boiling water.

To remove starch or rust from flat-irons, have a piece of yellow bees- wax tied in a coarse cloth ; when the iron is almost hot enough to use, but not quite, rub it quickly with the beeswax and then with a clean coarse clolh or on sand paper.

Chippings from marble put in the fire till red hot, then cooled and pounded fine, is the best sand for scrubbing white floors and tinware,

A good way to clean zinc is to rub it with a piece of cotton cloth dipped in kerosene; afterward rub with a dry cotton cloth and it will be as bright as when new. Zincs may be scoured with great economy of time and strength by using either glycerine or creosote mixed with a little diluted sulphuric acid.

To take the woody taste out of a wooden pail, fill the pail with boil- ing hot water ; let it remain until cold, then empty it and dissolve some soda in lukewarm water, adding a little lime to it and wash the inside well with the solution ; after that, scald with hot water and rinse well.

If brooms are wet in boiling suds once a week they will become very tough, will not cut a carpet, will last much longer and always sweep like a new broom. A good housekeeper never allows her carpet broom to be used for sweeping the outside stairs or yard ; keep a coarse broom for this purpose. To keep a broom from getting stiff and hard, hang it in the cellar way. If raw potatoes or the peelings are cut fine and sprinkled on the carpet before sweeping, they will be found more effect- ual than salt or cornmeal.

Old towels make nice dusters by having the ends sewed together.

Do not let knives be dropped into hot water. It is a good plan to have a large tin pot to wash them in, just high enough to wash the blades without wetting the handles. Keep your castors covered with blotting paper and green flannel. Keep your salt spoons out of the salt and clean them often. When ivory handled knives turn yellow.

192 HO USE-KEEPING.

rub them with nice sand paper or emery; it will take off all the spots and restore their whiteness.

Steel knives may be saved from rusting by being rubbed with mutton tallow, wrapped in paper, and put into a baize lined chest.

Do not wrap knives and forks in woolens. Wrap them in good, strong paper. Steel is injured by lying in woolens.

Crockery with gilt bands or flowers should not be wiped. It should be washed quickly, rinsed and drained until dry.

Tumblers that have had milk in them should not be put in hot water.

Glass should be washed in cold water, which gives it a brighter and cleaner look than when cfeansed with warm water.

Britannia ware should be first rubbed gently with a woolen cloth and sweet oil ; then washed in warm water suds and rubbed with soft leather and whiting. Thus treated it will retain its beauty to the last.

Have plenty of crash towels in the kitchen ; never let your white towels or napkins be used there.