COMMON MODE OF WASHING

Assort the clothes, and put those most soiled in soak the night before. Never pour hot water on them, as it sets the dirt. In assorting clothes, put the flannels in one lot, the colored clothes in another, the coarse white ones in a third, and the fine clothes in a fourth lot. Wash the fine clothes in one tub of suds. When clothes are very much soiled, a second suds is needful, turning them wrong side out. Put them in the boiling-bag, and boil them in strong suds for half an hour, and not much more. Move them, while boil ing, with the clothes-stick. Take them out of the boiling- bag', and put them into a tub of water, and rub the dirtiest places again, if need be. Throw theni into the rinsing-wa ter, and then wring them out, and put them into the bluing- water. Put the articles to be stiffened into a clothes-basket

114 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPER.

by themselves, and, just before hanging out, dip them in starch, clapping it in, so as to have them equally stiff in all parts. Hang white clothes in the sun, and colored ones (wrong side out) in the shade. Fasten them with clothes pins. Then wash the coarser white articles in the same man ner. Then wash the colored clothes. These must not be soaked, nor have lye or soda put in the water, and they ought not to lie wet long before hanging out, as it injures their colors. Beefs-gall, one spoonful to two pailfuls of suds, improves calicoes. Lastly, wash the flannels in suds as hot as the hand can bear. Never rub on soap, as this shrinks them in spots. Wring them out of the first suds, and throw them into another tub of hot suds, turning them wrong side out. Then throw them into hot bluing-water. * Do not put bluing into suds, as it makes specks in the flannel. Never leave flannels long in water, nor put them in cold or luke warm water. Before hanging them out, shake and stretch them. Some housekeepers have a close closet, made with slats across the top. On these slats, they put their flannels, when ready to hang out, and then burn brimstone under them, for ten minutes. It is but little trouble, and keeps the flannels as white as new. Wash the colored flannels and hose after the white, adding more hot water. Some persons dry woolen hose on stocking-boards, shaped like a foot and leg, with strings to tie them on the line. This keeps them from shrinking, and makes them look better than if ironed. It is also less work than to iron them properly.

Bedding should be washed in long days, and in hot weath er. Empty straw beds once a year.

The following cautions in regard to calicoes are useful. Never wash them in very warm water ; and change the wa ter when it appears dingy, or the light parts will look dirty. Never rub on soap; but remove grease with French chalk, starch, magnesia, or Wilmington clay. Make starch for black calicoes with coffee-water, to prevent any whitish appearance. Glue is good for stiffening calicoes. When laid aside, not to be used, all stiffening §hould be washed out, or they will oft en be injured. Never let calicoes freeze in drying. Some persons use bran-water (four quarts of wheat-bran to two

WASHING, IRONING, AND CLEANSING. 115

pails of water), and no soap, for calicoes ; washing and rins ing in the bran-water. Potato-water is equally good. Take eight peeled and grated potatoes to one gallon of water.

To cleanse, Gentlemen's Broadcloths. — The best way, which the writer has repeatedly tried with unfailing success, is the following : Take one beefs-gall, half a pound of saleratus, and four gallons of warm water. Lay the article on a table, and scour it thoroughly, in every part, with a clothes-brush dipped in this mixture. The collar of a coat, and the grease- spots, (previously marked by stitches of white thread,) must be repeatedly brushed. Then take the article and rinse it up and down in the mixture. Then rinse it up and down in a tub of soft cold water. Then, without wringing or press ing, hang it to drain and d-ry. Fasten a coat up by the collar. When perfectly dry, it is sometimes the case, with coats, that nothing more is needed. In other cases, it is nec essary to dampen with a sponge the parts which look wrink led, and either pull them smooth with the fingers, or press them with an iron, having a piece of bombazine or thin wool en cloth between the iron and the article.

TO MANUFACTURE LYE, SOAP, STARCH, AND OTHER ARTICLES USED IN WASHING.

To make Lye. — Provide a large tub, made of pine or ash, and set it on a form, so high that a tub can stand under it. Make a hole, an inch in diameter, near the bottom, on one side. Lay bricks inside about this hole, and straw over them. To every seven bushels of ashes add two gallons af unslack- ed lime, and throw in the ashes and lime in alternate layers. While putting in the ashes and lime, pour on boiling water, using three or four pallfuls. After this, add a pailful of cold soft water once an hour, till all the ashes appear to be well soaked. Catch the drippings in a tub and try its strength with an egg. If the egg rise so as to show a circle as large as a ten-cent piece, the strength is right ; if it rise higher, the lye must be weakened by water; if not so high, the ashes are not good, and the whole process must be repeated, put ting in fresh ashes, and running the weak lye through the new ashes, with some additional water. Quick-lye is made

116 THE HOUSEKEEPER AND HEALTHKEEPEE.

by pouring one gallon of boiling soft water on three quarts of ashes, and straining it. Oak ashes are best.

To make Soft Soap. — Save all drippings and fat, melt them, and set them away in cakes. Some persons keep, for soap-grease, a half-barrel, with weak lye in it, and a cover over it. To make soft soap, take the proportion of one pail ful of lye to three pounds of fat. Melt the fat, and pour in the lye, by degrees. Boil it steadily, through the day, till it is ropy. If not boiled enough, on cooling it will turn to lye and sediment. While boiling, there should always be a lit tle oil on the surface. If this does not appear, add more grease. If there is too much grease, on cooling, it will rise, and can be skimmed off. Try it, by cooling a small quantity. When it appears like jelly on becoming cold, it is done. It must then be put in a cool place and often stirred.

To make cold Soft Soap, melt thirty pounds of grease, put it in a barrel, add four pailfuls of strong lye, and stir it up thoroughly. Then gradually add more lye, till the barrel is nearly full, and the soap looks about right.

To make Potash-Soap, melt thirty-nine pounds of grease, and put it in a barrel. Take twenty-nine pounds of light ash-colored potash, (the reddish-colored, will spoil the soap,) and pour hot water on it; then pour it off into the grease, stirring it well. Continue thus till all the potash is melted. Add one pailful of cold water, stirring it a great deal every day, till the barrel be full, and then it is done. This is the cheapest and best kind of soap. It is best to sell ashes and buy potasii. The soap is better, if it stand a year before it is used ; therefore make two barrels at once.

To prepare Starch. — Take four table-spoonfuls of starch ; put in as much water, and rub it, till all lumps are removed. Then add half a cup of cold water. Pour this into a quart of boiling water, and boil it for half an hour, adding a piece of spermaceti, or a lump of salt or sugar, as large as a hazel- nut. Strain it, and put in a very little bluing. Thin it with hot water.

Beefs-Gall. — Send a junk-bottle to the butcher, and have several gall-bladders emptied into it. Keep it salted, and in a cool place. Some persons perfume it ; but fresh air re-

WASHING, IRONING, AND CLEANSING. 117

moves the unpleasant smell which it gives, when used for