a pitcher of boiling water and rub them with the juice of sorrel and
salt, and then, when the cloth is thoroughly wet, to dip it quickly in
lye and wash at once.
To clean a light cloth gown
Lay the gown on a table, spread out smoothly and cover with powdered
fuller’s earth shaken through a sieve. Hang, without shaking, in a dark
closet for twenty-four hours; then shake and brush in the open air.
To get rid of plant-lice
Put the plants into a closet from which you have cleared everything
else, and set on the floor a pan containing refuse broken tobacco.
Light the tobacco, and shut the closet up for five or six hours. Soak
the earth in the pots with tobacco tea, made by pouring boiling water
upon the tobacco stems and letting it cool. You can brush up the tiny
insects by the hundred. To make sure they will not come to life, burn
all you sweep up.
To take dry ink out of a carpet
Rub into the spot as much thick buttermilk, made into a paste with
table salt, as the place will hold. This may tone down the inkiness.
Cover the wet paste with paper to exclude light and dust, and leave it
alone for six hours. Wash, then, with household ammonia and warm water;
rub dry, and make a second application of salt and buttermilk, covering
as before.
To get rid of the smell of paint
To remove the smell of paint from a room leave in it over night a pail
of water with three or four sliced raw onions in it. Shut the door, and
in the morning the paint smell will have gone, the onions and water
absorbing it.
To clean gold thread
Tarnished gold embroidery may be cleansed by dipping a brush in
pulverized burnt alum, then brushing the embroidery thoroughly.
To polish patent leather
To polish patent leather remove every particle of dust, and apply a
mixture of one part linseed oil to two parts cream. It should be well
mixed and applied with a flannel. Rub the leather well with a soft, dry
cloth.
To clean linoleum
If the linoleum be wiped first with a cloth dipped in warm water, and
wrung as dry as possible, then wiped over with skimmed milk once a
week, the colors will be lightened, and the varnish, which protects the
colors, will be longer preserved. Soften obstinate spots with a little
linseed oil. If the whole floor is treated once a month with linseed
oil, using as little as possible, and rubbing all superfluous oil off,
it will wear longer and the color will be brighter. If the varnish is
entirely removed in any part, a mixture of one part lac varnish and
three parts oil will restore it.
To renew cane-seat chairs
Cane chair seats that have sagged may be tightened by washing in _hot_
soapsuds and leaving to dry in the open air.
How to keep patent-leather shoes
Put them on, and as soon as they are warmed by the natural heat of the
foot, rub with the palm of the hand until you are sensible that the
moisture of the skin is lubricating the leather. Five minutes spent
in this way whenever you wear the shoes will keep them in good order.
About once a week put three drops of neat’s-foot oil into your hand,
hold it until blood-warm, and rub it thoroughly into the leather. Cold
weather induces cracking in patent leather. Gentle warmth prevents it.
To clean russet shoes
Russet shoes may be kept clean and bright by rubbing them with a slice
of banana and polishing with a cloth.
To clean black cloth
Use warm water and alcohol in the proportion of about one or two
tablespoonfuls of alcohol to a pint of water; goods sponged with it and
pressed will look like new. Alcohol is not harmful to any goods, but
ammonia will leave certain colors streaked unless evenly distributed.
Alcohol is excellent for cleaning and brightening jet trimming.
To remove grease spots from cloth
Get at the back of the spots; _i. e._, the wrong side of the stuff, and
rub into each spot as much powdered French chalk as it will hold. Leave
it all night. Then lay soft blotting or tissue paper over the chalk
and press with a warm iron, changing the paper as the grease “draws”
through. Brush out the chalk, and the spot should have disappeared,
unless a trace remains on the right side of something, which is not
grease, but adherent dust. Sponge this with household ammonia.
To take out mildew
Make a thick paste of table salt and buttermilk, and cover the mildew
with it. Lay in the hot sun for a day, renewing the paste at the end of
four hours. If obstinate, repeat next day. Should a trace of the stain
remain, cyanide of potassium will eradicate it. Moisten the spot with
water, rub in the powder and lay in the sun for four hours, moistening
the place twice in this time. Then wash at once with pure water. You
can get the cyanide of potassium from the drug store. It is a deadly
poison, if taken internally.
How to dry-clean a lace curtain
Pin a sheet snugly to the carpet, and pin the curtain smoothly to the
sheet. Go all over it with flour you have dried in the oven, rubbing
it into the lace with what is known as a “complexion brush” until the
whole surface is coated and the curtain will hold no more. Throw a
sheet over all and leave for twenty-four hours. At the end of this time
unpin the curtain, lift carefully, shake out the flour and hang in the
outer air and sunshine (the day must be dry) to let the flour blow out
of it. Lastly, lay it upon the ironing-table, wrong side up, cover with
clean cheese-cloth, or thin muslin slightly dampened, and press firmly
with a warm, not a hot, iron.
Powdered starch may be used instead of flour. Curtains treated
carefully in this way will look almost as fresh as when new.
A trio of useful hints
Perfumed olive oil sprinkled on library shelves will prevent mold on
books.
Mud stains can be removed from black cloth by rubbing them with a raw
potato.
The juice of a raw onion applied to the sting of an insect will remove
the poison.
How to add to one’s stature
If you will take simple stretching exercises two or three times a day
for a year your height will increase. Rising on toes and stretching
the tips of the fingers as far toward the ceiling as they will go, and
sweeping hands over front, touching tips of fingers or palm of hand
to floor, keeping both knees straight, are excellent exercises if one
would grow.
A skin tonic
A bag made of cheese-cloth, doubled and filled with bran, a teaspoonful
of orris root and a half cake of Castile soap, chopped fine, makes an
excellent skin tonic for the bath. After using it for several weeks the
skin will be smooth, firm and white.
How to care for the hands
When the hands are stained by fruit or vegetables, remove the stains
before the hands come in contact with soap or soapy water. Remove the
stains with an acid, such as lemon, vinegar or sour milk, then wash in
clear water.
When using soap and water for any purpose, rinse off all the soap
before wiping the hands. Always wipe the hands perfectly dry. Do not
change soaps if you can avoid it, and always use a good soap.
To soften and whiten the hands
Use some sort of cream on them at night, then powder them and put them
in loose gloves kept for this purpose.
Habitual use of Holmes’ Fragrant Frostilla will keep the hands smooth,
white, and prevent chapping in the winter.
To keep piano keys clean and white
Dampen a piece of muslin with alcohol, and with it rub the keys. If
this does not remove the stains, use a piece of cotton flannel wet with
cologne water. The keys can also be bleached white by laying over the
keys cotton flannel cloths that have been saturated with a solution of
oxalic acid.
A washing compound
Shave a pound bar of good, common laundry soap; put it into a kettle
holding about six or eight quarts. Add two quarts of water to the soap,
and boil until all of it is dissolved. Take it to the dooryard, or on
the porch outside of the house in the open air, and add one-half pint
of gasoline before the soap cools off. It will immediately foam and
boil up until the kettle is full. Let it stand until it has cooled off
somewhat.
The clothes should be soaked first in lukewarm water, or even cold
water, wrung out and put into suds made of this compound and quite hot
water, then rubbed as usual; or it can be used in the washing-machine.
Some may also be put in the boiler without the least danger.
It softens the water and loosens dirt, and the clothes keep white. It
does not injure colored goods any more than the laundry soap by itself
would.
As usual, in using gasoline, be sure to take proper precautions about
mixing it anywhere near fire.
Starch for black lawns, etc.
Boil two quarts of wheat bran in six quarts of water for half an hour.
Let it get cold, then strain. You will need neither soap nor starch
if you use this. If thick, add cold water. This preparation will both
cleanse and stiffen.
Whitewash that will not rub off
Dissolve glue in hot water and add in the proportion of a pint of this
water to four gallons of whitewash; or dissolve an ounce of gum arabic
in a pint of boiling water and stir in, observing the same proportions.
Before applying this or any other wash, scrape the wall clean and
smooth. Do not leave any of the old on.
How to clean a straw hat
Go all over it with damp corn-meal, rubbing it in well. Next apply dry
meal, work thoroughly into the straw and leave it on for some hours.
Brush out the meal and wash freely with peroxide of hydrogen. Let it
dry in the shade.
The care of hardwood floors
The daily care of the hardwood floor is very simple. A room that is
much used must first be swept with a soft-haired brush, then wipe with
a long-handled dust-mop or with a cotton flannel bag put over a broom.
If there are spots on the floor they should be rubbed with a flannel
cloth. If this does not remove them, clean with a little turpentine on
a piece of cloth. The floor should be thoroughly cleaned and polished
twice a year. If any water should get spilled on them it must be wiped
up at once. Any liquid spilled on a waxed floor will produce a stain
if left to dry, which can only be removed by hard rubbing and the
encaustic.
A good floor polish
Melt not quite half a pound of beeswax and pour it into a quart of
turpentine, then add five cents worth of ammonia. Put it in a tin pail
and set it in another vessel containing hot water, and leave it on the
back part of the stove to heat. Keep warm while using, for it goes on
better. Apply with a flannel cloth, and polish with a piece of Brussels
carpet.
To clean hairbrushes
Put a tablespoonful of ammonia into a basin of tepid water and dip the
brushes up and down in it until they are clean. Dry with the bristles
down, and they will be like new.
To wash blankets
Pour into a tub half a pint of household ammonia and lay a blanket over
it; cover immediately with lukewarm water. This sends the fumes of the
ammonia through the blanket and loosens the dirt. The blanket should
then be stirred about with a stick and pressed until all the dirt seems
to be in the water, then rinse in a tub of clear water of the same
temperature as the first, run lightly through a wringer and hang out to
dry.
To keep tinware from rusting
If the tinware is new rub over carefully with fresh lard and heat
thoroughly before it is used.
How to clean marble
To two parts of common baking-soda add one of pumice-stone and one of
fine salt. Sift the mixture through a sieve and mix it with water, then
rub it well all over the marble and the stains will all be removed.
Wash with a strong solution of salt and water, rinse with clear water
and wipe dry.
To remove old tea and coffee stains
Wet the stains with cold water, cover with glycerine and let stand
for two or three hours, then wash in cold water and soap. Repeat if
necessary.
To wash windows and mirrors
A little turpentine dissolved in warm water is the best thing with
which to wash windows and mirrors. A little alcohol will also do
wonders in brightening glass.
To remove grass stain
Cover the stain with common cooking molasses and let stand for two or
three hours. Wash in lukewarm water. Repeat the process if necessary.
To take out machine grease
Cold water, ammonia and soap will take out machine grease where other
things would fail on account of making the colors run.
What to do till the doctor comes
_Croup_: Hot fomentations, flannels wrung out of boiling water, should
be applied to the throat, and, if necessary, a warm bath given. Give
a teaspoonful of wine of ipecac, or the same quantity of powdered
alum stirred into syrup, molasses or honey. Sometimes a few drops of
kerosene on brown sugar will relieve the tightness.
_Whooping cough_: Steaming the throat with thirty drops of pure
carbolic acid in two and one-half pints of boiling water is said to be
an excellent remedy. A half teaspoonful of kerosene will often relieve
the paroxysms of coughing when nothing else will do it.
Antidotes for poisons
For laudanum, morphine and opium: First give a strong emetic of mustard
and water, then very strong coffee and acid drinks; dash cold water on
the head, and keep in constant motion.
For arsenic: Give, just as quickly as possible, an emetic of mustard
and salt, a tablespoonful of each in a cupful of warm water; then
follow with sweet-oil, warmed butter, or milk. You may also use the
white of an egg in half a cupful of milk or lime water. Get a doctor as
soon as possible.
For ammonia: Give lemon juice or vinegar.
For acids: Give magnesia, soda, or soap dissolved in water every two
minutes; then use the stomach-pump, or an emetic.
For belladonna: Give an emetic of mustard, salt and water; then drink
plenty of vinegar and water, or lemonade.
For “white lead” and “sugar of lead”: Give an emetic, then follow with
castor oil, epsom salts or some other good cathartic.
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE
Before attempting to use a range (or stove) one should know something
about its construction, and the appliances that are afforded for its
regulation. An ordinary cooking range is supplied with _dampers_,
_drafts_ and _checks_ to regulate the direction and intensity of the
heat.
When the range is clean and cold examine it carefully. A lever will be
found (often directly above the oven door) which when pulled out or
pushed in (or turned to right or left) will allow the heat and the
smoke to go _directly_ into the chimney flue, or through the range
and around the oven _indirectly_ into the flue. Well down _below_ the
fire-box is the _draft_ (a door), which when open allows the outside
(cold) air to rush in and force the fire to burn more rapidly. Above
the fire-box, near the top of the stove, are the _checks_ (a door
with slides) that allow the outside (cold) air to come in _above_ the
burning fuel, and depress its combustion.
It is readily seen when the smoke _damper_ and the _draft_ are open,
with the _checks_ closed, that the greatest intensity of heat and the
most rapid combustion are obtained. In this way the top part of the
stove directly over the fire-box may be heated quickly and intensely.
When an emergency arises this is the quickest way to boil the water in
the kettle or to cook immediately on the top of the stove. However, the
tax on fuel is excessive and wasteful when the _damper_ and _drafts_
both are open. When _damper_ and _drafts_ are closed and the _check_
open, the fire burns most slowly and the heat radiated is least intense.
A wood fire
When ready to lay the fuel and build the fire in a cold stove, be
sure that the fire-box and ash-pits are clean and free from ashes
and clinkers. Then open the _damper_ and the _drafts_ and close the
_checks_. The fuel should always be put in from the top after removing
the lids over the fire-box. Place the paper, slightly crumpled (never
a number of sheets flat together), on the grating in the bottom of the
fire-box. Lay the kindling on the paper loosely with the sticks across
one another so that air may circulate freely between them. Place stove
wood on the kindling in the same manner. Light the paper from below
after replacing the lids on the stove. When the fire is burning freely
close _damper_ and _drafts_.
A quick wood fire
When a quick wood fire is required for only a few moments’ use, lay the
fuel as usual, except to use about one-third the amount of paper and
kindling and only two or three sticks of stove wood. Build the fire
well back in the fire-box next to the oven, with the smoke _damper_
and _drafts_ wide open. The draft is much stronger in the back of the
fire-box and the fire therefore burns more readily.
A hard-coal fire
If hard coal (anthracite) is to be used, wait until the wood is burning
well and then cover with a thin layer of coal. As soon as this is
thoroughly ignited put in more coal and close the _damper_ into the
chimney flue. The fire-box should never be filled more than two-thirds
full.
A soft-coal fire
A soft-coal fire is laid in the same way, except that this fuel
requires less kindling and ignites more readily than anthracite. The
stove wood may be omitted if the kindling is of good size. In using
bituminous (soft) coals the flues need cleaning oftener; but in any
case these should be kept free from soot. Especially the flues around
the oven should be cleaned once in ten days. If neglected the oven does
not bake well, becomes too hot or will not heat at the bottom, and
causes much annoyance.
Kerosene and other explosive oils should not be used to kindle the
fire. When the stove wood or kindling is damp, patience and an extra
supply of paper will be more effectual and less dangerous.
Bricks for kindling
Common building bricks, that can be obtained from any mason, make a
good substitute for kindling wood. Put half a dozen into a covered tin
slop pail in the corner of a closet in a box, where there is no danger
of fire, and keep them well covered with kerosene. All that you have to
do to start the morning fire is to lay a brick thus soaked in grate or
stove or upon the hearth, pile other fuel upon it and apply a match.
The brick will burn well for forty minutes. If it is in the way, remove
it then. The same brick may be used for months.
FINAL FAMILIAR TALK
EMERGENCIES, BROKEN CHINA, AND—“IN CASE OF”—
A ready command of expedients is the hall-mark of the canny
housekeeper. The ability to snatch safety from apparent ruin, like a
brand from the burning, is a faculty with some. It may be acquired by
many, if not all. The experienced housemother is slow to believe in the
possibility of irreparable disaster. There is no such word as “defeat”
in her dictionary. Absolute success is not always to be had, but there
are grades of success in cookery, as in political preferment. When Mrs.
Faintheart sits down to weep over spilt milk, Mrs. Resolute bethinks
her of something that will take the place of the milk.
She reminds herself also that milk is greasy, and the spot not easily
removed if it is allowed to soak into the silk, woolen or other
unwashable fabric. By the time the milky-way spreads itself over carpet
or gown she has a soft brush, warm water and household ammonia in hand,
sponges, scrubs and rinses—this last with warm, clear water—then rubs
dry with a soft linen cloth.
In case of a broken ink-bottle, or upset inkstand upon a carpet, wash
immediately with skim-milk, using a clean sponge. Soak the ink and the
milk up together, squeezing the sponge hard each time. When the ink
disappears, cleanse the sponge well and wash the place again with warm
water and ammonia. Lastly, scrub with a clean, stiff brush dipped in
warm water and ammonia, following the threads of the carpet. If these
directions are obeyed faithfully the carpet will be brighter than
before the accident.
In case of claret or fruit stains upon table-cloth or napkin hold the
stained part tightly over a bowl and pour boiling water through it for
three or four minutes, using clean water every time.
In case of mildewed linen, rub together equal parts of white soap (old
Castile is best) and powdered starch. Make a soft paste of these with
lemon juice, and coat the mildew on both sides of the linen thickly
with the paste. Lay in the hot sun for several hours, wetting the paste
well with lemon juice every hour. Wash off the coating with clear
water, and if any sign of the mildew remains renew the application.
In case of ants in cupboard or refrigerator, scour the shelves well
with hot water and borax. Dry in the sun if the shelves are portable,
then sprinkle thickly with dry borax. It is odorless and harmless, and
may be used freely.
In case of soured dough, stir an even teaspoonful of bicarbonate
of soda, better known as baking-soda, into a cupful of warm water;
turn the over-risen dough upon a board and work in the soda-water,
gradually, until all is absorbed. If the dough is so soft that it runs,
add a little sifted flour as you go on. Knead thoroughly and set for
the last rising, taking care this is not in a hot place. I have seen an
apparently hopeless batch of dough redeemed in this way.
In case of meat that has a “close” smell, yet is not actually tainted,
wash well in soda and water, rubbing it well into every crack and line;
wash off with fresh iced water; leave in salted iced water for half an
hour, wash again with fresh, wipe quickly until perfectly dry, and cook
at once.
In case of boiling milk more than eight hours old in summer, or twelve
in winter, drop in a bit of baking-soda the size of a pea for each
quart when you put the milk over the fire. I have boiled cream in
this way without curdling it. Bear in mind that the first stage of
decomposition is acid, and treat suspected food with soda as the most
convenient and harmless of alkalies.
In case of curdled mayonnaise, whip the yolk of a fresh egg smooth and
thick and stir into the curdled dressing.
Nothing brings me more closely in touch with my sister housemother than
the request, “Will you tell me what to do in case of”—let the exigency
be a shattered hope, an aching heart, a hankering after a mission, or
broken china.
The dismay of the housewife over the destruction of her brittle
treasures dates far back of the poetical precision who makes her
ability to be “mistress of herself though china fall,” the test of
breeding. I suspect, if the truth were known, we should learn that
the potsherd, picked up from the ash-heap by hapless, skin-smitten
Job, marked an evil day in the calendar of his shrewish wife and the
unlucky servant through whose carelessness pot, or cup, or platter came
to grief. Furthermore, that the broken utensil belonged to a set that
could not be matched in any china-shop in the length and breadth of Uz.
I read, yesterday, in one of the
“Be-thrifty-and-you-will-be-prosperous” essays, that are as rusty
needles in the thick of the thumb of the woman of experience, an
anecdote of a notable manager who still uses the same “snow-drop
figure” napery affected by her mother and her grandmother before her,
and the same pattern of china and cut-glass that set forth their
tables. Hence—the hateful “Hence” that breaks off the needle-point in
the flesh!—“she has no difficulty in matching worn-out and fractured
articles of household use.” Queen Victoria had a similar fad. When the
chair and sofas of Windsor got shabby they were spirited away, one
by one, without her knowledge (presumably), and recovered with stuff
of the same design and color, artistically dimmed and frayed so as
to resemble the old exactly. Queens can afford to have expensive and
almost impossible whims. The drawback to imitation of Mrs. Guelph’s and
Mrs. Notable’s sentimental economics is that crockery, glass and linen
merchants do not carry dead stock. When a pattern becomes unfashionable
it disappears from the market. The moral and exasperating “Hence”
should have a corollary in the shape of a card, telling us where Mrs.
Notable finds benevolent tradesmen who replenish her stores with
snow-drop damask and fifty-year-old designs in “fragiles.”
A friend writes to me of the death of her colored butler, after
twenty-three years’ service in her family.
“He was not particularly bright or brisk,” she says, “and had some
grave faults. But he did not break or chip one piece of glass or china
while he was with us. Do you wonder that we mourn him?”
Considered as a means of grace and of daily discipline in the fine
order of breeding indicated by our poet, our waitress—whatever her
race, age, or previous condition of sovereignty—leaves little to the
liveliest imagination. She “blazes” her trail through our households by
nicks, cracks, breaks and “crazed” glazing.