Household Hints

SOAP

Five pounds lard or five and one-half pounds cracklings, one can of lye, one and one-half gallons water. Stir occasionally the first day, then set for three days. Cook until clear. Let set until hard and cut into bars.

WASHING FLUID

One can Babbit's lye dissolved in one gallon rain water; let cool, and add 10 cents' worth of salts of tartar and 10 cents' worth of ammonia. Use in washing and boiling water, a half teacupful to one-half boiler of water.

SOLUTION FOR TAKING OUT STAINS
Half pound chloride of lime, one and a half pounds sal soda; put both in a jar and pour one gallon of boiling water over, stir until dissolved, then strain and bottle. Wet the stain with the solution and lay in sun.

HINTS ON WASHING
Clothes should not be soaked over night; it gives them a grey look, and the soiled parts lying against the clean portions streak them. Rub the clothes in warm--not hot--water, for hot water sets, in place of removing the dirt. Wash flannels in luke-warm water, and avoid rubbing soap upon flannels.

TO KEEP BLUE CALICOES BRIGHT AND FRESH
The first time they are washed, put them in water with a cupful of spirits of turpentine to each pail of water. This will set the color, and they will always look well.

CLEANING SILKS

To renovate silk, rip and dust the garment; lay the pieces on an old sheet; take half a cup of ox-gall, half a cup of ammonia, and half a pint of tepid soft water; mix; sponge the silk on both sides, especially the soiled places; then roll on a round stick (old broom handle), being careful about wrinkles. Silk thus cleaned and dried needs no ironing, and keeps the lustre. Try woolens the same way.

TO CLEAN CORSETS

Take out the steels at front and sides, then scrub thoroughly with tepid or cold lather of white Castile soap, using a very small scrubbing brush. Do not lay them in water. When quite clean, let cold water run on them freely from the spigot to rinse out the soap thoroughly. Dry, without ironing (after pulling lengthwise until they are straight and shapely), in a cool place.

CLEANING KID GLOVES

The simplest and most successful method of cleaning kid gloves is to buy a pint of naphtha of any dealer in burning fluids; wash your kid gloves in it as if it were water, rubbing the parts soiled most. Wash two or three times in clean fluid, according to the needs of the soiled gloves. The usual care should be taken, as this fluid is highly explosive, much the same as kerosene.

SHOE POLISH

To restore the color of black kid boots, take a small quantity of black ink, mix it with the white of an egg, and apply with a soft sponge.

TO CLEAN SILVER

Table silver should be cleaned at least once or twice a week, and can easily be kept in good order and polished brightly in this way: Have your dish pan half full of boiling water; place your silver in so that it may become warm; then with a soft cloth dipped into the hot water, soaped and sprinkled with powdered borax, scour the silver well; then rinse in clean hot water; dry with a clean, dry cloth.

TO WHITEN KNIFE HANDLES

The ivory handles of knives sometimes become yellow from being allowed to remain in dish water. Rub them with sandpaper till white. If the blades have become rusty from careless usage, rub them also with sandpaper, and they will look as nice as new.

TO WASH WINDOWS

Have a pail partly filled with tepid water, throw in a teaspoonful of powdered borax, have one small chamois dipped into the borax water to wash the windows, then with a dry chamois rub the window dry and polish. In this way windows may be cleaned in a very few moments, and not wet the carpets or tire the person.

FURNITURE POLISH

One tablespoonful sweet oil; one tablespoonful lemon juice; one tablespoonful corn starch.

MOTHS IN CARPETS

A good way to kill them is to take a coarse towel and wring it out of clean water. Spread it smoothly on the carpet, then iron it dry with a good hot iron, repeating the operation on all suspected places, and those least used. It does not injure the carpet in the least. It is not necessary to press hard, heat and steam being the agents, and they do the work effectually on worms and eggs.

BEDBUGS

Close the outside doors and windows and burn brimstone, and you will not have any trouble with bedbugs, as we know from experience. Twelve years ago I bought a farm I now own, and the house was alive with them. I heated an iron red hot, placed it in a large kettle, placing brimstone on it, and left it twenty-four hours. Have not seen a bug since.

CURES FOR HOUSEHOLD PESTS

Rats are said to have such a dislike for potash, that if it is powdered and scattered around their haunts, they will leave them. A piece of rag well soaked in a solution of cayenne is a capital thing to put into rat and mice holes, as they will not attempt to eat it. A plug of wood, covered with a piece of flannel so prepared, may be used to fill up the holes. Cockroaches and ants have a similar dislike of cayenne, and a little strewed about a cellar will keep it clear of them.

PASTE FOR SCRAP-BOOKS

On wash days there is always enough thick starch left, or sticking to the sides of the pan, to last through the week for paste. If wanted in large quantities, of course, starch would be expensive, but scrap-books can be made merely by saving what would otherwise have been thrown away. It makes a very nice, smooth paste, and a little of it goes a great way. It will keep a week in a cool place, even in summer.