Ladies’ Columns

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4816, 28 July 1939, Page 3

Ladies’ Columns

THE HOUSEWIVES' NOTEBOOK,

Fresh ink can be removed by applying milk and then washing. For grass-stains rub in molasses and wash.

To remove iron-mould from clothes mix lemon juice and salt and apply to the spots, then hold over the steam of a boiling kettle.

Soak bacon in milk for 10 to 15 minutes before cooking—longer if it very salt. Then fry slowly.

If a cake turns out heavy and generally unsatisfactory, the cause may be that the cook when melting the butter has allowed it to oil.

Use pure glycerine or boiling milk to remove coffee stains.

Preserved eggs are likely to crack when put into hot water. The safeguard is to pierce one end with a fine needle.

Pour boiling milk through materials to remove fruit-stains. The same method applies to tea stains. Another way with tea stains is to use a strong solution of sugar and water.

To polish steel fenders, fire-irons, etc.: Powder some bath-brick, and make into a paste with turpentine. Apply to the steel with a piece of flannel and polish with a clean, soft duster. This is an excellent recipe for cleaning fire-irons that have Jbeen neglected.

USEFUL RECIPES. SAUSAGE FRITTERS. Half a pound of sausage meat or pork sausages will make a small dish for two or three persons. Remove the skins of the sausages, and roll the meat into balls the size of a large marble, then flatten them with a wet knife till they are about as thick and large as a halfpenny, and dust them over with flour. Now a thick batter with legg, I lb flour, a pinch of salt and 11 gills of milk. Dip each round of sausage in this, then take it out with a spoon, and slip into a saucepan filled with fat. Fry till crisp and of a pale brown colour. When all the fritters are fried, pile them high on a hot dish covered with fancy paper, dust over a little salt, and serve very hot.

Vegetable Stew

Slice thinly an onion, carrots, turnip and parsnip, and brown them in a little dripping. Put in a casserole. Cut lib of shin of beef or other cheap port into very thin pieces, and brown for about half a minute on each side. Put this on the vegetables and season with salt, pepper and chopped parsley. Brown a dessertspoonful of flour in the dripping, add half to three-quarters of a pint of stock or water, and boil up. Season it, add a tablespoonful of tomato ketchup, and pour over the meat. Fill up the casserole with as many sliced potatoes as are required, cover closely and simmer gently for not less than three hours.

Cheese Scones

Two breakfast cups flour, 2 full dessertspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, pinch cayenne pepper, loz butter or lard, 1 teacup grated cheese, 1 egg, three-quarters breakfast cup milk. Sift together all dry ingredients; rub in fat, add grated cheese. Beat egg, add milk. Proceed to milk as for scones; cut into required shape. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. WARDROBE TOPS. Wardrobe tops are often a dusty problem, comments a writer in the "Cape Times." The wood is inclined to be rough, so that the dust is even more difficult to remove. It is a pity to waste the space—which is useful for storing suitcases and hat boxes — and layers of newspapers are only a temporary solution because you must change them often. The best thing to do is to give the surface a thorough sand-papering, followed by a good washing with soap and water. When the wood is quite dry, give it one or two coats of clear varnish. The- smooth, glossy finish will be very easy to dust. By the way, if your wardrobe is decorated with a raised ornamental wooden boi'der—unless you are particularly attached to it—take it off. A plain top, with no edging at all, is much more useful and easier to manage.

THE COMMON COLD. ENGLISH HABITS CONDEMNED. The news that research is proceeding apace into the common cold would be good were it really believable, comments a writer in the "Manchester Guardian." It is not that there is any doubt about research workers, but about the possessors of colds themselves. For few English people would really feel themselves without the common cold, which is so common as almost to be a great flood, instead of innumerable tributaries. It is perhaps for this reason that the English set out to catch cold. They go out from their chilly houses, never warm, firm in the belief that this is healthy and hardening. They arrange their doors and windows and even their floors so that a maximum of draught enters thereby. Not only this but even in their modern public vehicles they revel in opening opposite end windows, so that a blast shall sweep down the bus in the coldest Aveather, a process which the sybarite owners of private cars have done their utmost to prevent.

Only in this way, exposed to every form of catching and retaining colds, do the English feel really healthy. It is a surprise to go to a climate such as New York, with its extremes of heat and cold, both in the houses and out of doors, and find that the common cold is not common at all. People with colds are, for one thing, abhorred. It is no pleasure for a person with a common cold to cough and blow and snuffle and spread contagion, as is the case in this country. He is not regarded as a patriot but rather as a pariah. Colds are not hardy; they are unhygienic, and people soon learn to know it. Research workers concerning the common cold have, therefore, first to convert this nation, to make the common cold unpopular, rude, unwelcome, if they are really to do away with what is little less than a national curse.

GAS STOCKINGS. "Madam, your stockings are to be made from gas." The idea comes from America. Mr. Harold de Witt Smith, speaking at the Textile Conference at Bath, told the hosiery trade all about it. He explained that these stockings will be much more ladder-resisting than silk ones, because of the greater resiliency of the filaments from which the yarn is spun.

The new yarn is called nylon. British manufacturers are going to cash in on it immediately. I learn, writes a "Sunday Referee" reporter, that a big company is being floated. It hopes to launch the new yarn in the trade within eighteen months. So that's the date when you will be able to buy your made-from-gas stockings. But don't imagine they'll look like a series of smoke rings blown round your limbs. Nylon is woven fast like any other yarn, looks like sheerest silk. It will make stockings almost ladder-proof. Dresses will probably also be made of nylon. There is no limit to the uses to which it will be put. Successful experiments have been made in America for using it for toothbrushes, sewing thread, and fishing lines. Nylon will revolutionise the yarn industry, and may in time entirely replace silk in the manufacture of stockings. For not only is it more durable—it is much cheaper.

CHILBLAINS CAN BE PREVENTED.

Chilblains are a matter of general health and circulation, but improper shoes and stockings help to cause these also. It should be remembered that tight shoes, like tight gloves, cause the feet and hands to be cold, because the free circulation is interfered with. The main cause is a shortage of calcium (lime) in the body, and this can be made up by taking at least a pint and a half of milk each day. Cheese is also valuable. There are various forms of calcium tablets which can be taken with advantage. The calcium treatment is best undertaken some weeks before the cold weather begins. Rubbing of the feet and keeping dry also help to prevent chilblains. If a chilblin develops, apply colodion.

As to diet, foods which contain calcium in abundance are oranges, lemons, fish, raw cabbage, spinach, lettuce, dates and figs, besides the cheese and milk already mentioned.

THIS WEEK'S BEAUTY HINT. Many an aching foot has been caused by wearing garters or shoestraps which are too tight. If your feet are very sore, and you feel that you simply must dance, try dabbing them with eau de Cologne before donning your shoes and stockings.

DID YOU KNOW . . . That our National Anthem was written to commemorate the saving of a King's life from treachery? In 1650 the Gunpowder Plot was discovered and Dr. Bull, organist to Queen Elizabeth, wrote the words, taking the tune from the Continent. At the Merchant Tailors' Ball, a few weeks later, James I. was entertained at dinner, and the assembly rose to sing, "God Save the King" for the first time.

THE ROYAL LADIES LIKE SHOPPING.

Most people suppose that the Royal ladies have everything sent to the Palace or to their respective homes and make a choice there. But they like a good choice of things just as we do and they also enjoy the gay, busy atmosphere of the big store. The Duchess of Kent, for instance, has been seen several times in a big London shoe shop. She leaves her car up one of the side streets and goes alone or with another of the Royal ladies or with a ingThe Princess Royal and the Duchess of Kent both buy gloves from the same woman glovemaker, who makes them by hand. "It must be nice to own a chain of stores.'

"Yes, you can spend all your time on the links."

NOW IN HER TEENS. PRINCESS ELIZABETH. IMMEDIATE HEIR TO THRONE. Princess Elizabeth, elder daughter of their Majesties the King and Queen, and first in the line of succession to the Throne of England, recently turned 13 years. The young Princess is the darling of the Empire, and her birthday a celebration of wide interest.

Princess Elizabeth was born in the London house of Lord and Lady Strathmore, Brunton Street on April 21, 1926.

It is interesting to recall that the Duke and Duchess of York, as her parents then were, had intended to rent a house so that the Duchess might live in London at this critical time, but his late Majesty King George V expressed disapproval that one who might be heir to the Throne should be born in a hired house. Immediately Lord Strathmore put his town house at the disposal of the Duke and Duchess.

England has been delighted with the charm and dignity of the little girl who became the immediate heir to the Throne on the abdication in 1936 of her uncle, King Edward VIII, now the Duke of Windsor. s

Even in this remote corner of the Empire, pictures have made the people familiar with the appearance of the Princess Elizabeth. Her poise is remarkable in one so young, but is an indication of the training she receives so that she may fittingly fill the high position which may some day be herß.