MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 September 1938, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

SPRING CLEANING. PROBLEM MADE EASY. Spring seems to be the most natural time to brighten and clean up the house after the dullness and stuffiness of the winter months. Modern houses are easier to keep than the old ones. There is no room for accumulated clothes or furnishings, and fewer draperies, pictures, and ornaments are in use to-day. Cleaning is now tackled in a sane manner. The housewife does not upset the whole house at once, she .sets about cleaning one room at a time and putting it to rights again before she tackles another.

If you are doing some decorating this season it is better to get all painting and papering finished before beginning the general clean. As far as possible, remove the furniture from the rooms to be redecorated and take up all carpets both in these rooms and on the stairs’ and passages leading to them. If the carpets require professional treatment, send them at once to the cleaners and they will be ready when von want them again. i If chimneys need sweeping get the, sweep in before the decorator starts work.

Each year brings improvements in household equipment. There are many makes and patterns of vacuum cleaners on the market today and at prices to suit every pocket. You will find the new elect»ic models marvels of efficiency. One amazingly inexpensive model extracts deeply embedded grit and di’l from carpets, polishes plain floors, 'and by simply detaching the long handle the machine can be used for cleaning upholstered furniture, stairs and for general dusting. After all the dust has been removed, mix some flour and water into a stiff dough and rub this over the walls, turning the dough in, or Uoing :

a fresh piece, as soon as it becomes soiled.

Should you find any greasy marks, mix some fuller's earth to a paste with carbon tetrachloride and apply this with a flexible knife. When dry, brush this off, and the mark ishoulct have disappeared, but give a second application if necessary. UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE Only a suction cleaner can remove hidden dust satisfactorily from upholstered furniture. Be sure not to neglect the spaces between the seats, the back and sides of the chair and settee, in order to prevent trouble from moths. Should the upholstery of. your furniture be soiled heat some bran and tub this over the surface with a soft, duster. Use plenty of bran. When tackling the bedrooms give a little special attention to the mattresses. After sucking out the dust with the vacuum, clean the tick. To do this make a thin starch and spread this over the surface. When dry, brush off the powder with a clean, stiff brush.

For health reasons 1 mattresses should be periodically teased and purified. You can have them professionally treated where modern machinery’ will do the work hygienicallj' and thoroughly at moderate charges. The non-electric suction sweepers are useful helpers in the home also and are very moderately priced. Some housewives fight shy of renovations, but with the many excellent and easy to use lacquers, enamels, fleer stains, distempers and paints now on the market, it’s a simple, matter for the amateur to get excellent results. Aipy article that can be painted will look attractive with a coat of lacquer. It is easy to apply and dries quickly with a brilliant glossy surface, which is resistant to heat, water, oil and hard wear.

It is ideal for furniture, baths, taps, floors, walls, wickerware, and for all general household purposes. Wallpapers this year are patterned again, but they are different from anything you have seen before. They are very varied in design and colouring. See them for yourself. A large room looks well if given a large patterned paper, but those small square rooms which generally characterise the modern little house look their largest when given a paper with a tiny pattern in self tones. When planning redecoration of rooms remember that natural, cream and vellum shades, off-white greens, and off-white blues, give you an easier background on which io work. CURTAIN'S AN’I) COVERS. If you feel you waul a change of colour scheme in bedroom or liviugloom you can have your carpet, curtains and loose covers, etc., dyed an entirely new shade, and the cost will be most reasonable. lio you know r how much a brightlypatterned slip-cover can do for an easy chair that has seen better days? Really the cost is negligible if you make these things yourself. Curtains of the cheapest material can look very attractive if they arc well chosen and given a good finish. You'll be charmed with the new fabrics in the shops. And don’t forget to give your cushions some new covers of gay fabrics that will brighten your rooms considerably. A little beauty treatment with the right formulae will soon restore furniture to a shining loveliness.

French polished furniture responds to the finer types of furniture cream, as do lacquer cabinets 1 and pianos. A simple polish of beeswax and turpentine will give a mellow surface to any natural woods that have not I ecu french polished, but a lot of rubbing is necessary to attain good results, always being sure to rub witii the grain. After a few applications, these pieces will be less susceptible to stains and scratches than the more delicate pieces.

On new pieces a. coating of cellulose varnish has the effect of render-, ing them impervious to heat, and practically stain proof.

The disfiguring marks that appear on polished tables when excessively hot plates are used, should be treated with spirits of camphor. Apply with a soft cloth in a rotary movement.

For ordinary scratches on wooden surfaces, a mixture of equal purls of turpentine and camphorated oil is excellent. but should be. left for a day

before polish is applied. White enamel furniture should be washed with Avarm, soapy water, wiped as dry as possible, and then nibbed with a flannel dipped in dry whitening. Give a final rub with a clean leather.

Ebony furniture responds well to a little olive oil of the best quality, being rubbed in and polished off with soft rubber, while linseed oil seems to agree Avell "with mahogany. In applying polish remember—very little polish but plenty of rubbing. Eurniture of wicker should be Heated with a. stiff brush or the I : ushing attachment of the vacuum ( I'.aner, and lightly polished with a soft cloth. To prevent the wicker-work from tiiiuing yellow it should be washed over with salts of lemon and water. The application should not bo too drastic, as too much damp will crack the wicker. Dry well out of doors, apply 1. small quantity of white furniture ci earn, and polish lightly.

} WOMAN’S PAPER IN JAPAN. I SOLITARY VENTURE. ! An interesting journalistic experiment in Japan, where woman’s place is still overwhelmingly in the home, a newspaper edited by a woman for woman readers has now successfully readied its,fifth year of publication. This is the “Katel Shimbun” (literally the “Family Newspaper’’). Started as u. daily, it is now published every fifth day. With a growing circulation .which has passed the 10,000 mark, and with an increasing volume of advertising, the newspaper has placed itself 'on a sound financial basis. I It is a publication of eight, pages, i well illustrated with photographs, picituies, and cartoons. Leading women l in various fields regularly contribute I articles. ■ When the editor of the “Kate! ShimYun.” Mrs T. Niizuma, first conceived the idea of a women’s newspaper, she tried to appeal to the tastes and interests of the “average” Japanese woman. She felt that in order to awaken (his average woman to broader political, social, and intellectual interests, she would have to make some concessions to the prevalent sensationalism of the Japanese press.

Exciting stories of courageous maids or wives driving away intruding burglars, of triangular love affairs, and double suicides were featured, while sober discussion of such questions as | women’s suffrage, family relations, 'unemployment, slipped in more or less ias contraband, somewhere between ■the courageous maids and the triangular tangles. CHANGED TO A FORUM. Rut this policy was not a success. Mrs Niizuma soon realised that it was useless to compete in sensationalism with the large daily newspapers, -with their larger staffs and superior facilities for quick reporting. So she changed the policy and character of her newspaper, shifted from a daily to a five-day basis of publication and made out of the newspaper something of a forum in which the more educated woman could find discus: ion of the questions which interest, them and confront them in daily life. Typical of the trend of the newspaper is a recent issue which put on the front page an article by Miss Tsuneko Akamatsu, a trade-union worker, urging equal pay for men and women engaged in the same work. Mis.-?, Akamatsu pointed out that now women often receive only half or twothirds of the wages of men in the •:a.mo trade. She argued that, if this should continue, women would oust mon from employment and appealed to men to co-operate with women in putting a stop to this discrepancy. An editorial on the same- page was a plea for better treatment of the families of men who have been arrested for alleged anti-war thoughts and activities. The editorial stressed the point that arrest should not be considered synonymous with conviction, recalled the Teikoku Rayon case, where many defendants were found not guilty after suffering a good deal of hardship and ill treatment in prison, and recommended a kinder attitude toward families which are suffering great distress, since the'- chief earner is in prison. Other items on the front page were a brief summary of outstanding news items and a qu&stion-and-ansvzer expose of the National Mobilisation Act. The second page contained a discussion of the vice problem in Tokyo and means which are taken to deal v, ith it. Other pages were given over to such specialised subjects as housekeeping and other women's interests and literature; and there was a children’s page where one found stories on hi .tory, geography, and , natural science in simple language. s The entire publication made the impression of a liberal newspaper with, broad interests, cleverly edited, and steering carefully amid the reefs of wartime censorship and psychology. PRINCESS MARGARET ROSE. LONDON, August 21. Princess Margaret Rose, who is eight years old to-day, is progressing rapidly in her lessons in drawing, c.c- ording to the “Sunday Dispatch.” She described needlework as "stodgy stuff,” it is said, until her mother explained that it -was a clever and ancient handicraft. Princess Margaret Rose has said that she wished that the Coronation last year was an annual, as she loved wearing the silver gown, velvet cloak, ami diadem. She went to a fancy dress party in a costume representing an angel by an Italian master, but tipped the halo over her eye. The Queen remarked: “You do not look angelic.’’ The Princess replied: “That’s all right. 1 am going as the Holy Terror.”