HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 344, 11 March 1911, Page 2

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

GENERALITIES. Varnish stains on the hands should be rubbed with methylated spirit, and then washed in warm soapy water. To prevent vegetables from boiling over, put a teaspoonfnl of butter in the water, just before coming to boiling point. To preserve meat in hot weather, take a quart of best vinegar, 2oz. of lump sugar, and 2oz. of salt. Boil these together for a few minutes, and when cold brush over the meat. To stop bleeding, of the nose a teaspoonful of turpentine should be drawn into the nostrils. When making jam in which the fruit and sugar are put together, don't let it boil until the sugar has thoroughly dissolved, or the jam will be a bad colour.

Copper may be beautifully cleaned by rubbing with a lemon (a squeezed one will do) dipped in salt. Rinse well after in boiling water, and dry at once. House plants often do badly in spite of watering. See that the soil at the top of the pot is not caked, for if that is the case no air can get at the roots, and the plant cannot thrive. In baking meat pies and fruit tarts they often boil over. To prevent this stand them in a baking-tin with some water in the tin. This will prevent the juice and gravy boiling out in the least, as the steam from the bakingtin keeps it in. When wine is spilt on table linen, cover the spots with salt while wet. The salt will absorb the wine in a few minute. If left till the wine is dry, moisten with boiling water over the spot till the stain disappears. Keep a small pane of window glass with your cook-books to place over the open page from which you are working. It serves to keep the book open, as well as preventing anything from soiling the pages. When a fire has to be kept up at night in the room of an invalid an old loose glove should be kept handy, with a long wooden stick. With the glove on, a picee of coal can be picked up with the fingei'3 and put on the fire wtihout making a sound, while, when the fire requires poking, this can be done with the stick with far less noise than with an ordinary poker. If a lamp should be overturned remember that water spreads the flames by floating the burning oil. So never throw down water in such a case. Milk may be used to extinguish the flames if it is at hand, but perhaps the best thing for this purpose is to throw down sand, earth or flour; one or other of these is sure to be available. The brass on the door is often polished at the expense of the paint. There is no reason why one should polish off the paint from the wood while brightening the brass. The plan is to get a strong bit of cardboard or wood, and cut in it a hole large enough for the bell handle or letter plate to come through. This, slipped over the article to be cleaned, will protcet the surrounding paint. Rip lace from discarded garments and wind it on a piece of pasteboard just as new lace comes. When lace needs mending place the pieces of old lace under the worn places and darn down. A new collar lined with old lace will last twice as long, and when hemstitching gives way, place a piece of old lace underneath and stitch on each side of the hem.

A dressmaking Hint: When sewing on hooks and eyes it is difficult to prevent the thread showing on the right side. This will help you—lf the hem is narrow, slip a picee of whalebone into it, sew on hooks and eyes, and slip whalebone out again. For broader herns, a heavy piece of cardboard, cut the proper width, will answer admirably and save a good deal of time in sewing. Those suffering from tired eyes should bathe them in lukewarm water to which a few drops of solution of boracic acicl have been added. The best plan is to buy an ounce of the acid, dissolve it in half a pint of hot water, and bottle it .for use when required. Bathing the eyes several times a day in cold water makes them bright, and greatly helps to preserve the sight to extreme old age. When any substance gets into the eye syringe gently with lukewarm water till free of it.

A goblit of hot water taken just after rising befoie breakfast has cured thousands of indgestion, and no simple remedy is more easily obtanied. Fur headache squeeze the juice of half a lemon into a cup of black coffee and drink. This applies to the neuralgia form. For bilious headache or ordinary biliousness, squeeze the juice of a large lemon into half a tumbler of water; 'idd a quarter of a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda. Drink while effervescing. Those who take cold easily after washing their head, should rub a little cau-de-eologne or other spirit into the scalp after the hair is dried. To thoroughly enjoy a bath you should use witch hazel in the bath water. This is an invaluable remedy for prickly heat and all skin irritations peculiar to hot weather, and acts as a tonic to flesh and nerves. Lemon juice is good for the skin in hot weather; soap should be used with. care. The skin is particularly sensitive in summer. Swollen feet are relived by a bath in salt water. Brown bread, oatmeal baked in the form of oat cake or biscuits, not too much liquid at meals and constant cieaniness are the best aids in preserving the teeth. Those suffering from delicate skins often cause irritation and skin trouble by too much friction. (t is well to use a simple toilet (lusting powder after the bath to give a dry feeling to the skin. Some like a fine oatmeal. Others find one pound of starch powder with four or five drops of otto of rose is pleasant to uao.