"The woman's work for her own home is to secure its order, comfort, and loveliness."—JOHN RUSKIN—Sesame and Lilies.
The following recipes are tried and approved ones, useful for housecleaning, laundry work, etc. In a number of instances they give instruction in the making of commodities, such as soap, which are usually purchased in the stores, but which, if made at home will cost less money, and be of better quality. They are arranged alphabetically for ease of reference:
Wash the shelves with salt and water; sprinkle salt in their paths. To keep them out of safes, set the legs of the safe on tin cups; keep the cups filled with water.
The ordinary way of washing a barrel is with boiling water, and when cool examining it with a light inside. If there be any sour or musty smell, however, lime must be used to remove it. Break the lime into lumps, and put it in the cask dry (it will take from 3 to 4 lbs. for each cask), then pour in as many gallons of boiling water as there are pounds of lime, and bung. Roll the cask about now and then, and after a few hours wash it out, steam it, and let it cool.
For bed-bugs nothing is so good as the white of eggs and quicksilver. A thimbleful of quicksilver to the white of each egg; heat until well mixed; apply with a feather.
On a hot, clear summer day, lay the bed upon a scaffold; wash it well with soap-suds upon both sides, rubbing it hard with a stiff brush; pour several gallons of hot water upon the bed slowly, and let it drip through. Rinse with clear water; remove it to a dry part of the scaffold to dry; beat, and turn it two or three times during the day. Sun until perfectly dry. The feathers may be emptied in barrels, washed in soap-suds, and rinsed; then spread in an unoccupied room and dried, or put in bags made of thin sleazy cloth, and kept in the sun until dry. The quality of feathers can be much improved by attention of this kind.
Dissolve a handful of refined borax in ten gallons of water; boil the clothes in it. To whiten brown cloth, boil in weak lye, and expose day and night to the sun and night air; keep the clothes well sprinkled.
Sprinkle a little Cayenne pepper in the cracks at the back of the shelves of the bookcase.
Mix in a saucer three parts of fine sand and one part of lime; dip the scrubbing-brush into this and use it instead of soap. This will remove grease and whiten the boards, while at the same time it will destroy all insects. The boards should be well rinsed with clean water. If they are very greasy, they should be well covered over in places with a coating of fuller's earth moistened with boiling water, which should be left on 24 hours before they are scoured as above directed. In washing boards never rub crosswise, but always with the grain.
A few drops of strong perfumed oil, sprinkled in the bookcase will preserve books from damp and mildew.
Books may be cleaned with a little dry bread crumbled up and rubbed gently, but firmly, over with the open hand. Cloth covers may be washed with a sponge dipped in a mixture made from the white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth and afterwards allowed to settle. To clean grease marks from books, dampen the marks with a little benzine, place a piece of blotting-paper on each side of the page, and pass a hot iron over the top.
Dissolve 1 oz. of oxalic acid in one pint of soft water. Rub it on the brass with a piece of flannel, and polish with another dry piece. This solution should be kept in a bottle labelled "poison," and the bottle well shaken before it is used, which should be only occasionally, for in a general way the Brass should be cleaned with pulverized rottenstone, mixed into a liquid state with oil of turpentine. Rub this on with a piece of soft leather, leave for a few minutes; then wipe it off with a soft cloth. Brass treated generally with the latter, and occasionally with the former mode of cleaning will look most beautiful. A very good general polish for brass may be made of 1/2 a lb. of rottenstone and 1 oz. of oxalic acid, with as much water as will make it into a stiff paste. Set this paste on a plate in a cool oven to dry, pound it very fine, and apply a little of the powder, moistened with sweet oil, to the brass with a piece of leather, polishing with another leather or an old silk handkerchief. This powder should also be labelled "poison."
Articles made of what is usually called Britannia metal may be kept in order by the frequent use of the following composition: 1/2 a lb. of finely-powdered whiting, a wineglass of sweet oil, a tablespoonful of soft soap, and 1/2 an oz. of yellow soap melted in water. Add to these in mixing sufficient spirits—gin or spirits of wine—to make the compound the consistency of cream. This cream should be applied with a sponge or soft flannel, wiped off with soft linen rags, and the article well polished with a leather; or they may be cleaned with only oil and soap in the following manner: Rub the articles with sweet oil on a piece of woolen cloth; then wash well with strong soap-and-water; rub them dry, and polish with a soft leather and whiting. The polish thus given will last for a long time.
Dissolve a piece of soda in some hot water, allowing a piece the size of a walnut to a quart of water. Put the water into a basin, and, after combing out the hair from the brushes, dip them, bristles downward, into the water and out again, keeping the backs and handles as free from the water as possible. Repeat this until the bristles look clean; then rinse the brushes in a little cold water; shake them well, and wipe the handles and backs with a towel, but not the bristles, and set the brushes to dry in the sun, or near the fire; but take care not to put them too close to it. Wiping the bristles of a brush makes them soft, as does also the use of soap.
Shake the carpet well; tack it down, and wash it upon the floor; the floor should be very clean; use cold soap suds; to three gallons add half a tumbler of beef-gall; this will prevent the colors from fading. Should there be grease spots, apply a mixture of beef-gall, fuller's-earth, and water enough to form a paste; put this on before tacking the carpet down. Use tacks inserted in small leather caps. Carpets in bedrooms and stair-carpets may be kept clean by being brushed with a soft hairbrush frequently, and, as occasion requires, being taken up and shaken. Larger carpets should be swept carefully with a whisk-brush or hand-brush of hair, which is far better, especially in the case of fine-piled carpets. Thick carpets, as Axminster and Turkey, should always be brushed one way.
This can hardly be well done without the aid of a proper carpet-fork or stretcher. Work the carpet the length way of the material, which ought to be made up the length way of the room. Nail sides as you go along, until you are quite sure that the carpet is fully stretched, and that there is no fold anywhere in the length of it.
Make stair-carpet longer than necessary, and change it so that it will not cover the steps in the same way each time of putting down. Moved about in this way, the carpet will last much longer. Clean the rods with oxalic acid. They should be kept bright.
Close all doors and windows tightly, and hold a wet blanket in front of the fire to prevent any draught going up the chimney.
Wash in plenty of hot soap suds; have two vessels, and in one rinse in hot water. Turn upon waiters, and let the articles drip before being wiped. Use linen towels for wiping.
Dissolve 1 oz. of gum-mastic in a quantity of highly-rectified spirits of wine; then soften 1 oz. of isinglass in warm water, and, finally, dissolve it in alcohol, till it forms a thick jelly. Mix the isinglass and gum-mastic together, adding 1/4 of an oz. of finely-powdered gum-ammoniac; put the whole into an earthen vessel and in a warm place, till they are thoroughly incorporated together; pour it into a small bottle, and cork it down for use.
In using it, dissolve a small piece of the cement in a silver teaspoon over a lighted candle. The broken pieces of glass or china being warmed, and touched with the now liquid cement, join the parts neatly together, and hold them in their places till the cement has set; then wipe away the cement adhering to the edge of the joint, and leave it for twelve hours without touching it; the joint will be as strong as the china itself, and if neatly done, it will show no joining. It is essential that neither of the pieces be wetted either with hot or cold water.
Woolen dresses may be laid out on a table and brushed all over; but in general, even in woolen fabrics, the lightness of the tissues renders brushing unsuitable to dresses, and it is better to remove the dust from the folds by beating them lightly with a handkerchief or thin cloth. Silk dresses should never be brushed, but rubbed with a piece of merino or other soft material, of a similar color to the silk, kept for the purpose. Summer dresses of muslin, and other light materials, simply require shaking; but if the muslin be tumbled, it must be ironed afterwards.
If feathers have suffered from damp, they should be held near the fire for a few minutes, and restored to their natural state by the hand or a soft brush, or re-curled with a blunt knife, dipped in very hot water. Furs and feathers not in constant use should be wrapped up in linen washed in lye. From May to September they are subject to being made the depository of moth-eggs.
Fine clothes require to be brushed lightly, and with a rather soft brush, except where mud is to be removed, when a hard one is necessary; previously beat the clothes lightly to dislodge the dirt. Lay the garment on a table, and brush in the direction of the nap. Having brushed it properly, turn the sleeves back to the collar, so that the folds may come at the elbow-joints; next turn the lapels or sides back over the folded sleeves; then lay the skirts over level with the collar, so that the crease may fall about the center, and double only half over the other, so that the fold comes in the center of the back.
To remove grease-spots from cotton or woolen materials, absorbent pastes, and even common soap, are used, applied to the spot when dry. When the colors are not fast, place a layer of fuller's-earth or pulverized potter's clay over the spot, and press with a very hot iron. For silks, moires and plain or brocaded satins, pour two drops of rectified spirits of wine over the spot, cover with a linen cloth, and press with a hot iron, changing the linen instantly. The spot will look tarnished, for a portion of the grease still remains; this will be removed entirely by a little sulphuric ether, dropped on the spot, and a very little rubbing. If neatly done, no perceptible mark or circle will remain; nor will the lustre of the richest silk be changed, the union of the two liquids operating with no injurious effects from rubbing. Eau-de-Cologne will also remove grease from cloth and silk. Fruit-spots are removed from white and fast-colored cottons by the use of chloride of soda. Commence by cold-soaping the article, then touch the spot with a hair-pencil or feather dipped in the chloride, and dip immediately into cold water, to prevent the texture of the article being injured. Fresh ink-spots are removed by a few drops of hot water being poured on immediately after applying the chloride of soda. By the same process, iron-mould in linen or calico may be removed, dipping immediately in cold water to prevent injury to the fabric. Wax dropped on a shawl, table-cover, or cloth dress, is easily discharged by applying spirits of wine; syrups or preserved fruits, by washing in lukewarm water with a dry cloth, and pressing the spot between two folds of clean linen.
Place a little water in a tea-kettle and let it boil until there is plenty of steam from the spout; then, holding the crape with both hands, pass it to and fro several times through the steam, and it will be clean and look nearly equal to new.
If it can be avoided, never wash combs, as the water often makes the teeth split, and the tortoise-shell or horn of which they are made, rough. Small brushes, manufactured purposely for cleaning combs, may be purchased at a trifling cost; the comb should be well brushed, and afterwards wiped with a cloth or towel.
Leave a quantity of quicklime in the cupboard for a few days, and the moisture will be entirely absorbed.
Put into a butter firkin a thick layer of coarse dry salt, then a layer of eggs, with the small end down, another layer of salt, then eggs, and so on until the firkin is full. Cover and keep in a dry place. These eggs will keep put up in this way almost any length of time.
Clear out all ash from the grate and lay a few cinders or small pieces of coal at the bottom in open order; over this a few pieces of paper, and over that again eight or ten pieces of dry wood; over the wood, a course of moderate-sized pieces of coal, taking care to leave hollow spaces between for air at the center; and taking care to lay the whole well back in the grate, so that the smoke may go up the chimney, and not into the room. This done, fire the paper with a match from below, and, if properly laid, it will soon burn up; the stream of flame from the wood and paper soon communicating to the coal and cinders, provided there is plenty of air at the center.
Another method of lighting a fire is sometimes practiced with advantage, the fire lighting from the top and burning down, in place of being lighted and burning up from below. This is arranged by laying the coals at the bottom, mixed with a few good-sized cinders, and the wood at the top, with another layer of coals and some paper over it; the paper is lighted in the usual way, and soon burns down to a good fire, with some economy of fuel, it is said.
Cover the feathers with a paste made of pipe-clay, and water, rubbing them one way only. When quite dry, shake off all the powder and curl with a knife.
Never rub soap upon it; make suds by dissolving the soap in warm water; rinse in warm water. Very cold or hot water will shrink flannel. Shake them out several minutes before hanging to dry. Blankets are washed in the same way.
Use pennyroyal or walnut leaves. Scatter them profusely in all infested places.
A mixture of cream, sugar, and ground black pepper, in equal quantities, placed in saucers in a room infested with flies will destroy them. If a small quantity, say the equivalent of a teaspoonful of carbolic acid be poured on a hot shovel, it will drive the flies from the room. But screens should be used to prevent their entrance.
Have a small box filled with clean sand; mix with it a third the quantity of soft soap; clean the forks by sticking in the sand and withdrawing them rapidly, repeating the process until they are bright.
A bouquet of freshly-cut flowers may be preserved alive for a long time by placing them in a glass or vase with fresh water, in which a little charcoal has been steeped, or a small piece of camphor dissolved. The vase should be set upon a plate or dish, and covered with a bell glass, around the edges of which, when it comes in contact with the plate, a little water should be poured to exclude the air. To revive cut flowers, plunge the stems into boiling water, and by the time the water is cold, the flowers will have revived. Then cut the ends of the stems afresh, and place in fresh cold water.
Pour hot water on the spots; wet with ammonia or oxalic acid—a teaspoonful to a teacup of water.
To preserve apple and other fruit trees from the depredations of rabbits, etc., and the ravages of insects, apply soft soap to the trunk and branches in March and September.
Cut 1/4 of a lb. of yellow wax into small pieces and melt it in an earthen vessel, with 1 oz. of black rosin, pounded very fine. Stir in gradually, while these two ingredients are quite warm, 2 ozs. of oil of turpentine. Keep this composition well covered for use in a tin or earthen pot. A little of this gloss should be spread on a piece of coarse woolen cloth, and the furniture well rubbed with it; afterward it should be polished with a fine cloth.
One pint of linseed oil, one wineglass of alcohol. Mix well together. Apply to the furniture with a fine rag. Rub dry with a soft cotton cloth, and polish with a silk cloth. Furniture is improved by washing it occasionally with soap-suds. Wipe dry, and rub over with very little linseed oil upon a clean sponge or flannel. Wipe polished furniture with silk. Separate dusting-cloths and brushes should be kept for highly polished furniture. When sweeping carpets and dusting walls always cover the furniture until the particles of dust floating in the air settle, then remove the covers, and wipe with a silk or soft cotton cloth.
Rub stains on furniture with cold-drawn linseed oil; then rub with alcohol. Remove ink stains with oxalic acid and water; wash off with milk. A hot iron held over stains upon furniture will sometimes remove them.
Moisten some bran with hot water; rub the fur with it, and dry with a flannel. Then rub with a piece of muslin and some dry bran.
Never take a light into the room or look for the leak with a light. Soap and water mixed, and applied with a brush to the pipe will commence to bubble if there is a leak. Send for the plumber at once.
Great care is required in washing glasses. Two perfectly clean bowls are necessary—one for moderately hot and another for cold water. Wash the glasses well in the first, rinse them in the second, and turn them down on a linen cloth folded two or three times, to drain for a few minutes. When sufficiently drained, wipe with a cloth and polish with a finer one, doing so tenderly and carefully.
Decanters and water-jugs require very tender treatment in cleaning. Fill about two-thirds with hot but not boiling water, and put in a few pieces of well-soaked brown paper; leave them thus for two or three hours; then shake the water up and down in the decanters; empty this out, rinse them well with clean, cold water, and put them in a rack to drain. When dry, polish them outside and inside, as far as possible, with a fine cloth. Fine shot or pieces of charcoal placed in a decanter with warm water and shaken for some time, will also remove stains. When this is not effective, fill the bottle with finely chopped potato skins. Cork tight, and let the bottle stand for three days. Empty and rinse thoroughly.
Wrap a hot cloth around the neck of the bottle, thus expanding it, or, if this is not effective, pour a little salad oil round the stopper, and place the bottle near the fire, then tap the stopper with a wooden instrument. The heat will cause the oil to work round the stopper, and it should be easily removed.
Lay plenty of hot ashes; wash off (after the grease is out) with strong soap suds.
Melt four ounces of mutton suet with twelve ounces of beeswax; add twelve ounces of sugar-candy, four ounces of soft soap dissolved in water, and two ounces of indigo, finely powdered. When melted and well mixed, add one-half pint of turpentine. Lay the blacking on the harness with a sponge, and polish off with a brush.
Mix equal quantities of benzine and water, and after well brushing the hat, apply the mixture with a sponge.
The right way in drying herbs for your kitchen and possible medicinal use is to gather them as soon as they begin to open their flowers, and to lay them on some netting in a dry shed or room where the air will get at them on all sides. Be sure they are dry and not moist when you cut or pick them, and free them from dirt and decayed leaves. After they are entirely dried out, put them in paper bags upon which you have written the name of the herb and the date of tying it up. Hang them where the air is dry and there is no chance of their moulding.
Strip the leaves from the stalks, pound, sift out the coarse pieces, put the powder in bottles, and cork tight. Label with exactness every bottle. If, for the convenience of instant use in gravies, soups, etc., you wish different herbs mixed, pound the leaves together when you make them into powders. Celery seed, dried lemon-peel, and other spicy things can thus be combined and ready for the moment's call.
Dig a pit eight or ten feet square, and as deep in the cellar. Lay a double wall with brick; fill between with pulverized charcoal; cover the bottom also double with the same or tan-bark. If the pit is filled with ice, or nearly so, cover six inches with tan-bark; but if only a small quantity is in it, wrap well in a blanket, and over the opening in the pit lay a double bag of charcoal.
Scald in hot tallow. Let it cool; then wash in warm suds. Sometimes these stains can be removed by wetting the place in very sour buttermilk or lemon juice; rub salt over, and bleach in the sun.
The common elder is a great safeguard against the devastations of insects. Scatter it around cucumber and squash-vines. Place it on the branches of plum and other fruit-trees subject to the ravages of insects.
Scour with dry salt and beeswax.
Japanned tea-trays should not be washed in hot water if greasy, a little flour rubbed on with a bit of soft linen will give them a new look; if there are scratches, rub over a little olive oil.
Jewels are generally wrapped up in cotton wool and kept in their cases; but they tarnish from exposure to the air and require cleaning. This is done by preparing clean soap-suds from fine toilet-soap. Dip any article of gold, silver, gilt or precious stones into this lye, and dry by brushing with a brush of soft hair, or a fine sponge; afterwards polish with a piece of fine cloth, and lastly, with a soft leather.
Gold or silver ornaments, and in general all articles of jewelry, may be dressed by dipping them in spirits of wine warmed in a shallow kettle, placed over a slow fire or hot plate. Silver ornaments should be kept in fine arrowroot, and completely covered with it.
Cover a small heavy table on block by tacking over it very tight soft leather or buckskin; pour over half the leather melted suet. Spread over this very fine pulverized bath brick; rub the knives (making rapid strokes) over this. Polish on the other side. Keep steel wrapped in buckskin. Knives should be cleaned every day they are used, and kept sharp. The handles of knives should never be immersed in water, as, after a time, if treated in this way, the blades will loosen and the handles discolor. The blades should be put in a jug or vessel kept for the purpose, filled with hot soda water. This should be done as soon after the knives are used as possible, as stain and rust quickly sink into steel.
Knives not in use will soon spoil. They are best kept in a box in which sifted quicklime has been placed, deep enough to admit of the blades being completely plunged into it. The lime must not touch the handles, which should be occasionally exposed to the air, to keep them from turning yellow.
Make some black tea, about the strength usual for drinking, and strain it off the leaves. Pour enough tea into a basin to cover the material, then squeeze the lace several times, but do not rub it. Dip it frequently into the tea, which will at length assume a dirty appearance. Have ready some weak gum-water and press the lace gently through it; then clap it for a quarter of an hour; after which, pin it to a towel in any shape which you wish it to take. When nearly dry, cover it with another towel and iron it with a cool iron. The lace, if previously sound and discolored only, will, after this process, look as good as new.
In trimming lamps, let the wick be cut evenly all round; as, if left higher in one place than it is in another, it will cause it to smoke and burn badly. The lamp should then be filled with oil from a feeder and afterward well wiped with a cloth or rag. Small sticks, covered with wash-leather pads, are the best things to use for cleaning the inside of the chimney, and a clean duster for polishing the outside. Chimneys should not be washed. The globe of a lamp should be occasionally washed in warm soap-and-water, then well rinsed in cold water, and either wiped dry or left to drain.
For fawn or yellow-colored leather, take a quart of skimmed milk, pour into it one ounce of sulphuric acid, and, when cold, add four ounces of hydrochloric acid, shaking the bottle gently until it ceases to emit white vapors; separate the coagulated from the liquid part, by straining through a sieve, and store it away till required. Clean the leather with a weak solution of oxalic acid, washing it off immediately, and when dry apply the composition with a sponge.
Table-cloths, towels and napkins should be kept faultlessly white; table-cloths and napkins starched; if the latter are fringed, whip the fringe until straight. After using a table-cloth, lay it in the same folds; put it in a close place where dust will not reach it, and lay a heavy weight upon it.
Napkins may be used the second time, if they are so marked that each person gets the napkin previously used.
The gloss, or enamel, as it is sometimes called, is produced mainly by friction with a warm iron, and may be put on linen by almost any person. The linen to be glazed receives as much strong starch as it is possible to charge it with, then it is dried. To each pound of starch a piece of sperm or white wax, about the size of a walnut, is usually added. When ready to be ironed, the linen is laid upon the table and moistened very lightly on the surface with a clean wet cloth. It is then ironed in the usual way with a flatiron, and is ready for the glossing operation. For this purpose a peculiar heavy flatiron, rounded at the bottom, as bright as a mirror, is used. It is pressed firmly upon the linen and rubbed with much force, and this frictional action puts on the gloss. "Elbow grease" is the principal secret connected with the art of glossing linen.
Shred finely some pure india-rubber, and dissolve it in naphtha to the consistency of a stiff paste. Apply the cement to each side of the part to be joined, and leave a cold iron upon it until dry.
Oxalic acid and hot water will remove iron-mould; so also will common sorrel, bruised in a mortar and rubbed on the spots. In both cases the linen should be well washed after the remedy has been applied, either in clear water or a strong solution of cream of tartar and water. Repeat if necessary, and dry in the sun.
The whitest stain, left on a mahogany table by a jug of boiling water, or a very hot dish, may be removed by rubbing in oil, and afterward pouring a little spirits of wine on the spot and rubbing with a soft cloth.
Wash with soda, water, and beef-gall. Or mix together one part blue-stone, three parts whiting, one part soda, and three parts soft soap; boil together ten minutes; stir constantly. Spread this over the marble; let it lie half an hour; wash it off with soap-suds; wipe dry with flannel. Repeat if necessary. Stains that cannot be removed in any other way may be tried with oxalic acid water; but this should be used carefully, and not allowed to remain long at a time.
Use salt in the water, and wipe dry.
When the clothes are washed and ready to boil, pin jimson weed leaves upon the place. Put a handful of the leaves on the bottom of the kettle; lay the stained part next to them. Green tomatoes and salt, sour buttermilk, lemon juice, soap and chalk, are all good; expose to the sun.
Another way: Two ounces of chloride of lime; pour on it a quarter of boiling water; add three quarts of cold water. Steep the cloth in it twelve hours.
Remove, with a damp sponge, fly stains and other soils (the sponge may be clamped with water or spirits of wine). After this dust the surface with the finest sifted whiting or powder-blue, and polish it with a silk handkerchief or soft cloth. Snuff of candle, if quite free from grease, is an excellent polish for the looking-glass.
Strew camphor under a carpet; pack with woolen goods. If moths are in a carpet, lay over it a cotton or linen cloth, and iron with a hot iron. Oil all cracks in storerooms, closets, safes, with turpentine, or a mixture of alcohol and corrosive sublimate; this drives off vermin.
Place pieces of camphor, cedar-wood, Russia leather, tobacco-leaves, boy-myrtle, or anything else strongly aromatic, in the drawers or boxes where furs or other things to be preserved from moths are kept, and they will never take harm.
Take equal parts of skimmed milk and water; wipe dry; never use soap. Varnish oil-cloths once a year. After being varnished, they should be perfectly dry before being used.
Dirty paint should never be wiped with a cloth, but the dust should be loosened with a pair of bellows, and then removed with a dusting-brush. If very dirty, wash the paint lightly with a sponge or soft flannel dipped in weak soda-and-water, or in pearl-ash and water. The sponge or flannel must be used nearly dry, and the portion of paint gone over must immediately be rinsed with a flannel and clean water; both soda and pearl-ash, if suffered to remain on, will injure the paint. The operation of washing should, therefore, be done as quickly as possible, and two persons should be employed; one to follow and dry the paint with soft rags, as soon as the other has scoured off the dirt and washed away the soda. No scrubbing-brush should ever be used on paint.
Place some sulphuric acid in a basin of water and let it stand in the room where the paint is. Change the water daily.
Rub immediately with a rough rag wetted with turpentine.
Rub a freshly cut slice of potato damped in cold water over the picture. Wipe off the lather with a soft, damp sponge, and then finish with luke-warm water, and dry, and polish with a piece of soft silk that has been washed.
Mix flour and water to the consistency of cream, and boil. A few cloves added in the boiling will prevent the paste going sour.
Lay the pears on a shelf in a dry, cool place. Set them stems up and so far apart that they do not touch one another. Allow the air to move freely in the room in which they lie. Layers of paper or of straw make a soft bed, but the less the pear touches the shelf or resting-place the better for its keeping.
Brush them over with water in which onions have been boiled.
Take sufficient sulphur to give a golden tinge to about one and one-half pints of water, and in this boil four or five bruised onions. Strain off the liquid when cold, and with it wash with a soft brush any gilding which requires restoring, and when dry it will come out as bright as new work. Frames may also be brightened in the following manner: Beat up the white of eggs with soda, in the proportion of three ounces of eggs to one ounce of soda. Blow off as much dust as possible from the frames, and paint them over with a soft brush dipped in the mixture. They will immediately come out fresh and bright.
Set traps and put a few drops of rhodium inside; they are fond of it. Cats are, however, the most reliable rat-traps. There is no difficulty in poisoning rats, but they often die in the walls, and create a dreadful odor, hard to get rid of. When poisoning is attempted, remove or cover all water vessels, even the well or cistern.
If there are grease spots, rub the yolk of an egg upon them, on the wrong side; let it dry. Lay it upon a clean cloth, and wash upon each side with a sponge; press on the wrong side. If very much soiled, wash in bran-water; add to the water in which it is rinsed a little muriate of tin to set red, oil of vitriol for green, blue, maroon, and bright yellow.
Make a strong paste of fresh lime and water, and with a fine brush smear it as thickly as possible over all the polished surface requiring preservation. By this simple means, all the grates and fire-irons in an empty house may be kept for months free from harm, without further care or attention.
Rub the spots with soft animal fat; lay the articles by; wrap in thick paper two days; clean off the grease with flannel; rub the spots well with fine rotten-stone and sweet oil; polish with powdered emery and soft leather, or with magnesia or fine chalk.
Rub sweet oil upon them. Let it remain two days; cover with finely-powdered lime; rub this off with leather in a few hours. Repeat if necessary.
To prevent their rusting when not in use: Mix half a pound of lime with a quart of warm water; add sweet oil until it looks like cream. Rub the article with this; when dry, wrap in paper or put over another coat. See also IRONS.
Put half an ounce of oxalic acid in a pint of water. Dip the stain in the water, and apply the acid as often as necessary. Wash very soon, in half an hour at least, or the cloth will be injured by the acid. Preserve in bottle marked "Poison." This also cleans brass beautifully.
[Transcriber's Note: Above title is as-presented in the original.]
Boil scorched articles in milk and turpentine, half a pound of soap, half a gallon of milk. Lay in the sun.
Pour a small quantity of paraffin round the top of the screw. When sufficient time has been allowed for the oil to sink in, the screw can be easily removed.
Three-fourths rosin, one-fourth beeswax; melt. Or use half a pound of rosin, the same quantity of red sealing-wax, and a half an ounce of beeswax; melt, and as it froths up, stir it with a tallow candle. Use new corks; trim (after driving them in securely) even with the bottle, and dip the necks in this cement.
Use for ironing shirts a bosom-board, made of seasoned wood a foot wide, one and a half long, and an inch thick; cover it well by tacking over very tight two or three folds of flannel, according to the thickness of the flannel. Cover it lastly with Canton flannel; this must be drawn over very tight, and tacked well to prevent folds when in use. Make slips of fine white cotton cloth; put a clean one on every week. A shirt-board must be made in the same way for ironing dresses; five feet long, tapering from two feet at one end to a foot and a half at the other, the large end should be round. A clean slip should be upon it whenever used. A similar but smaller board should be kept for ironing gentlemen's summer pants. Keep fluting and crimping irons, a small iron for ruffles, and a polishing-iron.
Remove stains with lemon juice, and polish with beeswax dissolved in turpentine.
Saturate a piece of flannel in boiled linseed oil and rub it well over the soles and round the edges of the shoes, then stand them, soles upward, to dry.
Sponge faded silks with warm water and soap; then rub them with a dry cloth on a flat board; afterward iron them on the inside with a smoothing-iron. Old black silks may be improved by sponging with spirits. In this case, the ironing may be done on the right side, thin paper being spread over to prevent glazing.
Pin the breadths on a soft blanket; then take some stale breadcrumbs, and mix with them a little powder-blue. Rub this thoroughly and carefully over the whole surface with the hand or a piece of clean linen; shake it off and wipe with soft cloths. Satin may be brushed the way of the nap with a clean, soft, hair-brush.
Mix two ounces of essence of lemon and one ounce of turpentine. Grease and other spots in silks are to be rubbed gently with a linen rag dipped in this mixture.
For a dress to be washed, the seams of a skirt do not require to be ripped apart, though it must be removed from the band at the waist, and the lining taken from the bottom. Trimmings or drapings, where there are deep folds, the bottom of which is very difficult to reach, should be undone, so as to remain flat. A black silk dress, without being previously washed, may be refreshed by being soaked during twenty-four hours in soft, clear water, clearness in the water being indispensable. If dirty the black dress may be previously washed. When very old and rusty, a pint of alcohol should be mixed with each gallon of water. This addition is an improvement under any circumstances, whether the silk be previously washed or not. After soaking, the dress should be hung up to drain dry without being wrung. The mode of washing silks is this: The article should be laid upon a clean, smooth table. A flannel just wetted with lukewarm water should be well soaped, and the surface of the silk rubbed one way with it, care being taken that this rubbing is quite even. When the dirt has disappeared, the soap must be washed off with a sponge and plenty of cold water, of which the sponge must be made to imbibe as much as possible. As soon as one side is finished, the other must be washed precisely in the same manner. Let it be understood that not more of either surface must be done at a time than can be spread perfectly flat upon the table, and the hand can conveniently reach; likewise the soap must be quite sponged off one portion before the soaped flannel is applied to another portion. Silks, when washed, should always be dried in the shade, on a linen horse, and alone. If black or dark blue, they will be improved if they are placed on a table when dry, and well sponged with alcohol.
Boil soft rags for five minutes (nothing is better for the purpose than the tops of old cotton stockings) in a mixture of new milk and ammonia. As soon as they are taken out, wring them for a moment in cold water, and dry before the fire. With these rags rub the silver briskly as soon as it has been well washed and dried after daily use. A most beautiful deep polish will be produced, and the silver will require nothing more than merely to be dusted with a leather or a dry, soft cloth before it is again put on the table.
Wash in hot soap suds (use the silver soap if convenient); then clean with a paste of whiting and water, or whiting and alcohol. Polish with buckskin. If silver was always washed in hot suds, rinsed well, and wiped dry, it would seldom need anything else.
Steep the silver in lye four hours; then cover thick with whiting wet with vinegar; let this dry; rub with dry whiting; and polish with dry wheat bran. Egg-stains may be removed from silver by rubbing with table salt.
Take a gallon of water, one pound of sal soda, and one pound of soap; boil one hour, then add one tablespoonful of spirits of turpentine. Put the clothes to soak over night; next morning soap them well with the mixture. Boil well one hour; rinse in three waters; add a little bluing to the last water.
The ashes should be of hardwood (hickory is best), and kept dry. When put in the hopper, mix a bushel of unslacked lime with ten bushels of ashes; put in a layer of ashes; then one slight sprinkling of lime; wet each layer with water (rain water is best). A layer of straw should be put upon the bottom of the hopper before the ashes are put in. An opening in the side or bottom for the lye to drip through, and a trough or vessel under to receive the lye. When the lye is strong enough to bear up an egg, so as to show the size of a dime above the surface, it is ready for making soap; until it is, pour it back into the hopper, and let it drip through again. Add water to the ashes in such quantities as may be needed. Have the vessel very clean in which the soap is to be made. Rub the pot over with corn meal after washing it, and if it is at all discolored, rub it over with more until the vessel is perfectly clean. Melt three pounds of clean grease; add to it a gallon of weak lye, a piece of alum the size of a walnut. Let this stew until well mixed. If strong lye is put to the grease, at first it will not mix well with the grease. In an hour add three gallons of strong hot lye; boil briskly, and stir frequently; stir one way. After it has boiled several hours, cool a spoonful upon a plate; if it does not jelly, add a little water; if this causes it to jelly, then add water to the kettle. Stir quickly while the water is poured in until it ropes on the stick. As to the quantity of water required to make it jelly, judgment must be used; the quantity will depend upon circumstances. It will be well to take some in a bowl, and notice what proportion of water is used to produce this effect.
To harden it: Add a quart of salt to this quantity of soap; let it boil quick ten minutes; let it cool. Next day cut it out. This is now ready for washing purposes.
Take eight gallons of soft soap, two quarts of salt, and one pound of rosin, pulverized; mix, and boil half an hour. Turn it in a tub to cool.
Six pounds of potash, five pounds of grease, and a quarter of a pound of powdered rosin; mix all well in a pot, and, when warm, pour on ten gallons of boiling water. Boil until thick enough.
One bar of turpentine soap, three table-spoonfuls of spirits of turpentine, half a tumbler of water. Let it boil ten minutes. Add six tablespoonfuls of ammonia. Make a suds of this, and wash silver with it.
Scrape it off; put brown paper on the spot and press with hot iron.
Apply ammonia to neutralize the acid; after which apply chloroform. This will remove paints from garments when benzine has failed.
Wet two tablespoonfuls of starch to a smooth paste with cold water; pour to it a pint of boiling water; put it on the fire; let it boil, stirring frequently until it looks transparent; this will probably require half an hour. Add a piece of spermaceti as large as half a nutmeg, or as much salt, or loaf sugar—this will prevent the starch from sticking to the iron.
Mix the starch to a smooth cream with cold water, then add borax dissolved in boiling water in the proportion of a dessertspoonful to a teacupful of starch.
Add to the starch for fine muslins a little white gum Arabic. Keep a bottle of it ready for use. Dissolve two ounces in a pint of hot water; bottle it; use as may be required, adding it to the starch. Muslins, calicoes, etc., should never be stiffer than when new. Rice-water and isinglass stiffen very thin muslins better than starch.
Grease the place with lard or sweet oil. Let it remain a day and night; then wash in suds. If silk or worsted, rub the stain with alcohol.
Paraffin will remove tar from the hands.
An umbrella should not be folded up when it is wet. Let it stand with handle downwards, so that the wet can run off the ends of the ribs, instead of running towards the ferrule and rusting that part of the umbrella.
Hold the velvet, pile downwards, over boiling water, in which ammonia is dissolved, double the velvet (pile inwards) and fold it lightly together.
Tie cotton upon a long stick; brush the walls well with this. When soiled, turn it, or rub the walls with stale loaf bread. Split the loaf, and turn the soft part to the wall.
Put half a bushel of unslacked lime in a barrel; cover it with hot water; stir occasionally, and keep the vessel well covered. When slacked, strain into another barrel through a sieve. Put a pound of glue in a glue-pot; melt it over a slow fire until dissolved. Soak the glue in cold water before putting the pot over the fire. Dissolve a peck of salt in boiling water. Make a thin paste of three pounds of ground rice boiled half an hour. Stir to this half a pound of Spanish whiting. Now add the rice paste to the lime; stir it in well; then the glue; mix well; cover the barrel, and let it stand twenty-four hours. When ready to use, it should be put on hot. It makes a durable wash for outside walls, planks, etc., and may be colored. Spanish brown will make it red or pink, according to the quantity used. A delicate tinge of this is very pretty for inside walls. Lampblack in small quantities will make slate color. Finely pulverized clay mixed with Spanish brown, makes lilac. Yellow chrome or yellow ochre makes yellow. Green must not be used; lime destroys the color, and makes the whitewash peel.
Wash well with soap suds; rinse with warm water; rub dry with linen; and finish by polishing with soft dry paper. A fine polish is given to window-glass by brushing it over with a paste of whiting. Let it dry; rub off with paper or cloth, and with a clean, dry brush, remove every particle of the whiting from the corners. Once a year will be altogether sufficient for this.
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