HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT

3661. Have you ever observed what a dislike servants have to any thing cheap. They hate saving their master's money. I tried this experiment with great success the other day.

3662. Finding we consumed a vast deal of soap, I sat down in my thinking chair, and took the soap question into consideration, and found reason to suspect we were using a very expensive article, where a much cheaper one would serve the purpose better.

3663. I ordered half a dozen pounds of both sorts, but took the precaution of changing the papers on which the prices were marked before giving them into the hands of Betty.

3664. "Well, Betty, which soap do you find washes best?"

3665. "Oh, please sir, the dearest, in the blue paper; it makes a lather as well again as the other."

3666. "Well, Betty, you shall always have it then." And thus the unsuspecting Betty saved me some pounds a-year, and washed the clothes better.--_Rev. Sidney Smith._

3667. _Receipt for Obtaining Good Servants._--Let them observe in your conduct to others just the qualities and virtues that you would desire they should possess and practice as respects you. Be uniformly kind and gentle.

3668. If you reprove, do so with reason and with temper.

3669. Be respectable, and you will be respected by them. Be kind, and you will meet kindness from them.

3670. Consider their interests, and they will consider yours. A friend in a servant is no contemptible thing.

3671. Be to every servant a friend; and heartless, indeed, will be the servant who does not warm in love to you.

3672. Four important rules:

3673. 1. A suitable place for everything, and every thing in its place.

3674. 2. A proper time for every thing, and every thing done in its time.

3675. 3. A distinct name for every thing, and every thing called by its name.

3676. 4. A certain use for every thing, and every thing put to its use.

3677. _Oil-cloth_ should never be scrubbed with a brush, but after being first swept, it should be cleansed by washing with a large soft cloth and lukewarm or cold water. On no account use soap or hot water, as either will bring off the paint.

3678. _Straw Matting_ may be cleaned with a large coarse cloth dipped in salt and water, and then wiped dry: the salt prevents the matting from turning yellow.

3679. _Oil Paintings_ hung over the mantle-piece are liable to wrinkle with the heat.

3680. _Ottomans and Sofas_, whether covered with cloth, damask, or chintz, will look much the better for being cleaned occasionally with bran and flannel.

3681. _Furniture_ made in the winter, and brought from a cold warehouse into a warm apartment, is very liable to crack.

3682. _Rosewood furniture_ should be rubbed gently every day with a clean soft cloth, to keep it in order.

BEVERAGES.

3683. _Water_, pure, sweet, cool water is, undoubtedly, the most healthful drink for thirst.

3684. _Bad water_ should be filtered.--(See pages 42, 43.)

3685. _Tea and coffee_ are the best and least hurtful stimulants.

3686. Liebig, with his chemical discoveries, demonstrates that they have become necessaries of life to all nations; that they were both originally met with amongst nations whose diet is chiefly vegetable; and by contributing to the formation of bile, their peculiar functions have become a substitute for animal food to a large class of the population whose consumption of meat is very limited, and to another large class who are unable to take regular exercise.

3687. _In making coffee_, observe that the broader the bottom and the smaller the top of the vessel, the better it will be.

3688. _Substitute for Cream in Tea or Coffee._--Beat the white of an egg to a froth, put to it a very small lump of butter, and mix well. Then turn into it gradually, so that it may not curdle. If perfectly done, it will be an excellent substitute for cream.--(See page 352.)

3689. _Iceland Moss Chocolate--For the Sick Room._--Iceland moss has been in the highest repute on the continent as a most efficacious remedy in incipient pulmonary complaints; combined with chocolate it will be found a nutritious article of diet, and may be taken as a morning and evening beverage. _Directions_--Mix a teaspoonful of the chocolate with a tea-spoonful of boiling water or milk, stirring constantly until it is completely dissolved.

3690. It is not easy to persuade laboring men that _water_ is the best beverage. Where the _water is bad_, some corrective or palliative will be had. Then home-brewed _beer_ is to be commended.

3691. _Beer and Beverages._--(See "Mrs. Hale's New Cook Book," page 397.)

3692. _To restore a Barrel of Stale or Sour Beer._--Put a quarter of a pound of good hops, and two pounds of sound chalk into the bung-hole, stop it close, and in a few days it will be fit for use.

3693. Or, a small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda may be mixed with each quart as it is used.

3694. _To give New Beer the flavor of Old._--Take out the bung, and put into the cask a handful of pickled cucumbers, or a sliced Seville orange. Either mode will add an apparent six months to the age of the beer.

3695. _Common Beer._--Two gallons of water, a large handful of hops, fresh gathered spruce or sweet fern, and one quart of wheat bran; boil two or three hours, strain and stir in, while hot, two cups of molasses. When lukewarm, pour into a clean barrel, and add a pint of yeast. Shake it well together, and use next day.

3696. _To give Beer a rich Flavor._--Put six sea-biscuits into a bag of hops, and put them in the cask.

3697. _Table Beer, cheap and wholesome._--Eight bottles of water, one quart of molasses, one pint of yeast, one tablespoon of cream of tartar, mixed and bottled in twenty-four hours.

3698. _Table Beer from Sugar._--To four pounds of coarse brown sugar add ten gallons of water and three ounces of hops. Let the whole boil three-quarters of an hour, and then work it as usual. It should stand a week or ten days before being drawn, and will improve daily afterward for a moderate time.

3699. _Treacle Beer._--Take a pound and a half of hops, and boil in thirty-six gallons of water for an hour, then add fourteen pounds of treacle, and a little yeast to work it; ferment, and bottle.

3700. _Summer Drinks._--Ice may be used in all these beverages.

3701. _Tamarind Drink._--Boil three pints of water with an ounce and a half of tamarinds, three ounces of currants, and two ounces of stoned raisins, till about a third has evaporated. Strain, add a bit of lemon-peel, which is to be removed in half an hour, then cool.

3702. _Sangaree._--Mix a bottle of Marsala wine with a bottle and a half of iced water, sweeten with loaf sugar, and flavor with lemon-juice and grated nutmeg.

3703. _Curds and Whey_ (cheap method).--Add six grains of citric acid to a wine-glassful of milk, and the result will be a pleasant acidulous whey, and a fine curd.

3704. _Currant Water._--Take a pound of currants, and squeeze into a quart of water; put in four or five ounces of pounded sugar. Mix well, strain, and ice, or allow to get cold.

3705. _Eau Sucré._--Dissolve sugar in boiling water, and drink cold.

3706. _Lait Sucré._--Boil a pint of milk, sweeten with white sugar, and flavor with lemon.

3707. _Effervescing Lemonade._--Boil two pounds of white sugar with a pint of lemon-juice, bottle and cork. Put a tablespoonful of the syrup into a tumbler about three parts full of cold water, add twenty grains of carbonate of soda and drink quickly.

3708. _Quince Syrup._--Grate quinces, pass the pulp through a sieve, then set before the fire for the juice to settle and clarify; strain, and add a pound of sugar (boiled down) to every four ounces of juice; remove from the fire, and when cold, bottle for use. A tablespoonful of this syrup will flavor a pint of water.

3709. _Effervescing Saline Draughts._--White sugar powdered eight ounces, tartaric acid two ounces, sesquicarbonate of soda two ounces, essence of lemon a few drops. Mix well and keep in a corked bottle.

3710. _Summer Champagne._--To four parts of selter water add one of Moselle wine (or hock), and put a teaspoonful of powdered sugar into a wine-glassful of this mixture; an ebullition takes place, and you have a sort of champagne which is more wholesome in hot weather than the genuine wine known by that name.

3711. _An excellent Spring Beverage._--The yolk of eggs beaten up, lump sugar (_quantum sufficit_), Rhenish wine or not, citric acid, powdered, or tartaric acid (small quantity, exact quantity soon found); one or two drops of essence of lemon on a lump of sugar, to make it mix readily with the water; one quart of water. This is really an excellent, agreeable, and, without the wine, an inexpensive beverage. _Good for bilious complaints._