HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2118, 23 May 1925, Page 6

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

A cut lemon rubbed on the forehead will cr ”e a severe headache.

Gold embroidery may be cleaned when it tarnishes with a brush dipped in burned and pulverised rock alum.

The best liniment for rheumatism is made by mixing one part of turps and two of olive oil. It is also good for

neuralgia.

When buying apples pfek the heaviest; also test the fruit by seeing if, when pressed with the thumb, it yields with a slight cracking sound.

To remove the mark of a scorch, wet whatever is scorched with cold water and place it in the sun. When dry, the mark will have disappeared.

Brown boots and shoes should he rubbed over with a slice of raw potato before the polish is applied. This cleans and removes the stains quite easily.

Films on starch can be avoided by making starch in the usual way, adding half a teaspoonful of salt, and covering with a thick cloth to prevent steam escaping.

The creaking of a door may be instantly stopped by rubbing the binge with a piece of soap. It does not spoil tlie look of the paint as when oil is used.

Brown leather travelling-bags, or any other brown leather goods, may be beautifully polished by rubbing them well with tiic inside of a banana skin, and then polishing with a soft dry cloth.

■ Bootlace-tags sometimes come of! good laces. li. this case they may be replaced with impromptu tags of sealing-wax'. Cut the tag, smeat it over with sealing-wax, then press it :o a point while the wax is still warm.

To make beautiful salt, take four tablespoonfuls of common salt and one teaspoonful of cornflour; pound together until very smooth, and it is ready for use. The salt cannot cake, and will not blacken silver salt-cellars.

If a lump of soda dissolved in a little hot water is added to the bluewacer on wash day, it will prevent the blue from settling in the clothes and make them perfectly white. This is especially useful when the water is very hard.

The bars of a grate often have a burned and ugly appearance, which prevents their taking a good polish. This difficulty is soon overcome. Before applying the blacklead, rub the bars with a piece of lemon, and they will be quite easy to polish afterwards.

Very frequently when separating the whites from the yolks of eggs the yolks become broken and falls into the white. Dip a cloth in warm water, wring it dry, and touch the yolk with a corner of it, and the yolk will adhere to the cloth and may easily be removed.

Jewellery can be successfully cleaned by washing in hot soapsuds to which a few drops of ammonia have been added. Then shake off the water, rinse in alcohol, and drop into a box of jeweller’s sawdust. This method leaves neither mark nor scratches, and gives great brilliance to jewels, gold, and silver.

If the marble of the washstand is stained try rubbing the marks off with fine table-salt. Another method is to mix lemon juice and whiting to a paste and apply this to the marble, leaving it on for twenty-four hours. Wash off then with clean water. Do not use soap or any gritty powder in cleaning marble.

Copper cooking vessels can be kept in burnished condition if, after each time of use, they are lightly rubbed with half a lemon dipped in silver sand. The lemon will last for a long time, but it is not necessary to cut one specially for cleaning purposes, as the lemon from which the juice has been squeezed for cooking purposes answers just as well. Failing a lemon, the best substitute is a linen rag soaked in vinegar and dipped in silver sand. Cafe must be taken to dry the vessels thoroughly after they have been rinsed, and also to. have the insides re-tinned when the original lining is burnt or worn away.

Some houses have such thin, crumb ling walls that it is impossible to put in a nail, for hanging a picture, without its breaking away and leaving a gap in the wall. To prevent this happening, get a little plaster of Paris. Drive the nail in the desired position, and when the plaster of the wall begins to crumble fill in the hole round the nail with the plaster of Paris. Leave for a few hours, when the plaster will have set as hard as iron, holding the nail in its centre with absolute security. Even a heavy picture may then be safely hung upon the nail, and there is no danger of a collapse. If the plaster of Paris is very noticeable, a fresh little bit of wallpaper, of which you are sure to have some pieces over, may be torn (not cut) to fit the gap, and pasted down over it.

Included amongst the correspondence received by Ratana by the last English mail were letters from Russia, and Riga invoking his add in the treatment of ailments (says the Wanganui Herald). A tribute to the Empire’s postal officials is the delivery of a, letter to Ratana from. Berlin, addressed originally tot “Herr Ratana, South Africa.”

“At a prohibition lecture once,” Mr H. E. B. Watson told his audience at a. Jersey demonstration at Levin (says the Chronicle), “I beard the lecturer say ‘that there was nothing like whisky to make people oblivious to its effects.’ But when I go round and see the class of cow that many farmers are carrying on with I begin to think that whisky is not in it as a. deceiver with the scrub cow.”

During the course of a, Council meeting, the Kawhia County engineer referred in strong ifcerms to the restrictions being placed on metalling work by the Main Highways Board. Among oilier matters, lie said, the Board de manded that metal should he laid and rolled in separate courses, while the floor of the road was also to bo rolled. To carry ouft these conditions necessitated the puit.liase of suitable machinery for screening and rolling, as well as involving extra, labour and delay in construction. He had written to the District Highways Council pointing out (the special conditions obtaining in this district, making special mention, of the splendid binding qualities of the river shingle employed.