Household Hints.

Lake County Press, Issue 906, 12 April 1900, Page 2

Household Hints.

Chloroform will remove grease or paint maiks from ;i carpet. When a material has been stained, and ammonia is used to clean it. the colour sometimes appears destroyed. The application of chloroform will restore tins. Bread destroys the smell of onions, and it' water with ;i piece of bread in it be boiled in a pan smelling of onions, it will thoroughly clean it. The water should be allowed to boil for about an hour, then be emptied out, and the pan well dried. When buying wicks for lamps, choose these that are soft ami loosely woven. They will burn better than any other kind. When buying lamp-chimneys choose those with a ground glass-edge at the top. Ground glass allows more room for expansion than plain glass, and the chimneys arR, therefore, less likely to break. To destroy mice fill a bucket with water, and scatter oats over the top so that the water is quite hidden. Then put the bucket near a table or chair, from which the mice can jump into it. They will be attracted by the oats, jump into the water, and be drowned. To remove paint spots from wood, cover them with a thick coating of lime and soda. Leave on for twenty-four hours, and then wash off. When putting pots, pans, and kettles away, the lb 1 ? should never be put on, for they retain the odour of cooking in the vessels. Machine grease can often be removed from fabrics by washing with cold rainwater and soap, when other means cannot be employed on account of the colours running. Black walnut furniture may be cleaned by rubbing with a flannel moistened with paraffin. Rub dry, and then apply the following preparation :—Mix together equal parts of linseed oil, vinegar, and turpentine. Shake well, and apply to the furniture with a flannel. Rub in well, leave for a, short time, and then po'ish with dry flannel. To restore black leather mix a 1 tablespoonful of brnvn sugar with the same quantity of gin, and then add gradually sufficiently ivory black (powdered) to make it into a. paste. Add one egg well beaten, an I stir all together. When applied to thn leather it should be left for a few days to dry. If the mixture be too thick another yolk of egg may be added. Oil Stoves and Gas Stoves. Should never be kept burning in a sleeping room, for they are burnt in the open air of the room, and, having no connection with a chimney flue, throw the poisonous carbonide oxide of combustion into the air of the apartment, and make it unfit for respiration. Even an oil lamp is injurious in a sleepingroom if left burning all night, but an oil stove is worse, because stoves generally feed more flame, consume more of the oxygen, and give off more poisonous gas. For Burns or Scalds. Apply some scraped raw potato immediately ; or, if there be not time to scrape it, fasten on a. slice with a linen bandage. This will give rapid relief from pain and is quite harmless to use. A mixture of equal parts of lime-water and linseed-oil should, however, be kept at hand in case of such an accident, and a little piece of medicated wool soaked m this and applied to a burn or scald may be left for hours undisturbed, giving much relief, and greatly assisting healing. Wash Jig" Blankets. In accordance with a request made fey a Broughton correspondent, I here give a •very simple yet effective method for washing blankets—an Undertaking which is generally considered a very arduous and difficult one. I must, however, first suppose thai the blankets are of the ordinary kind, and nut of the special English make which demands a process known as " teasling," in order to bring up that fleecy surface of which the housewile' is so proud. This is a matter far too difficult for me to explain, and in such a case the blankets should be sent out to In' cleaned. The simple washing is, however, a very easy task, if you have a large? wringer and a good pre,mi. First .shake your blankets thoroughly, and place them in a tub, and cover with warm —not hot—water, to which you have added a strong solution of ammonia. Now press the blankets against the sides of the. tub, and squeeze them in every part, but on no account rub them, or the material will become " Celty." When you think they are (dean, rinse in fresh warm water, with more ammonia in it ; wring as dry as possible through your wringer, and harm out. You will see that as they dry a little water will collect at the four corners—this must be squeezed out from time to tine', or your blankets will be hard in those pails.—Minnie L. Downie, in the " Scotsman."