THE CARE OF CLOTHING

A clothes brush, a wisp broom, a bottle of ammonia, a sponge, a hand brush, a cake of erasive soap, a vial of alcohol, should form a part of ever)'^ toilet. After all dust has been removed from clothing, spots may be taken out of black cloth with the hand brush dipped in a mixture of equal parts of ammonia, alcohol and water. This will brighten as well as cleanse. Benzine is useful in removing grease spots. Spots of grease may be removed from colored silks by putting on them raw starch made into a paste with water. Dust is best removed from silk by a soft flannel, from velvet with a brush made specially for the purpose. If hats and bonnets when taken from the head are brushed, put away in boxes and covered up, instead of being laid down any- where, they will last a long time. Shawls and all articles that may be folded should be folded when taken from the person in their original creases and laid away. Cloaks should be hung up in place, gloves pulled out lengthwise, wrapped in tissue paper, artd laid away ; laces smoothed out nicely and folded, if requisite, so that they will come out of the box new and fresh when needed again. A strip of old black broadcloth four or five inches wide, rolled up tightly and sewed to keep the roll in place, is better than a sponge or a cloth for cleansing black and dark-colored clothes. Whatever lint come from it in rubbing is black and does nc^ show. When black cloths are washed, as they may often be previous to making over, fresh clean water should be used, and they should be pressed on the wrong side before bein^ quite dry. If washed in water previously used for white clothing they will be covered with iint.

There are many meaus of erasing grease spots. Bread crumbs rubbed on the greasy spot will take it out. Dissolve in a quart of water

206 HOUSE-KEEPING.

four ounces of castile soap, add four ounces of ammonia wa,ter and an ounce of ether and glycerine. The mixture should be bottled as soon as made and should be kept from the air, as the ammonia and ether are very volatile and virill soon escape if the bottle is not kept tightly corked. Another method is to put on powder of French chalk and place a piece of blotting paper over it ; then pass a hot iron over the blotting paper. You can get any amount of oil or grease off a carpet or w^oolen stuff, by applying dry buckv/heat plentifully and faithfully- Alcohol and spirits of turpentine will remove tallow and oil from gar- ments if applied before the oil has become dry and hard. Spirits of tur- pentine will clean greasy coat collars or lapels. A teaspoonful of ammonia and alcohol, well mixed, will remove grease ; wet a bit of woolen cloth or soft sponge in it and the grease, if freshly dropped, will disappear. If the spot is of long standing it may require several applications. In woolen or cotton the spot may be rubbed when the liquid is applied, and also in black silk, though not hard. But with light or colored silk, wet the spot with the cloth or sponge with which the ammonia is put on, patting it lightly. Rubbing silk, particularly colored silk, is apt to leave a whitish spot almost as bad looking as the grease spot.