WASHING BLANKETS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 4

WASHING BLANKETS.

An authority on domestic matters says : Where blankets have not been washed or cleaned early iu the year, housekeepers sometimes arrange that the business shall be done while they are always from home by the servants, and many a good blanket has been spoilt in consequence. Where servants understand the business they have in hand, I do not see that anything can be urged against the plan, but it is a mistake to run risk needlessly. Blankets are valuable articles, and they are much more easily spoilt than made right again. The first thing to be careful about is to choose a dry day, iu order that the blankets may be hung out of doors to dry a 3 soon as they are washed, but it is best not to put them, in the sun. Next, remember that the washing must not be commenced unless -there is a probability that it can be finished, for blankets should be quickly washed and immediately dried. Let the water used in washing them be neither hot or cold, but-lnke-warm, and let it be in a strong lather when the blankets are put in. lhis lather must be made of nothing but soap and water (no soda must be employed), and may be easily prepared by cutting yellow soap into small pieces, pouring on boiling water to melt the soap, then adding, cold water till the right temperature is gained. Put the blanket into the lather, and move it up and down, press it, and squeeze it, and dip it in and out, but dCfenot rub it, and above all do not rub soap upon it. This would make the blanket look spotted, clean in some places ar.d dirty in others. When washed rinse the blanket in clean warm water in which . a very little soap has been dissolved. If plain water were used the blankets would be har3h. Wash one blanket at a time and get through the job as quickly as possible, and be very careful to have it thoroughly aired after drying. In this way blankets can be washed at home without being spoilt.

AN ARGENTINE GROOM’S PRESENTS TO HIS BRIDE. Writing of the marriage of Thomas St. George Armstrong, an Argentine nabob of Irish origin, to the daughter of Vicomte Faria, the Portuguese Minister to France, the Paris correspondent . of the London Truth gives this description : —‘ No bride of high standing had ever, perhaps, a more sumptuous display of presents from the bridegroom on her gift-table than the lacty who is now Mrs Armstrong.. What'do you think of a string of pearl which cost 60,0001,

and was just long .enough to go once around a slender neck ; of a diamond riviere, to which could be attached a drapery of filigree work, studded and fringed with brilliants ; of solitaire earings large as hazel nuts, to which tassels in brilliants might be adapted, with, io match them, a brooch of one immense pearl, encircled with brilliants, a bouquet of rose 3 in brilliants, a bunch of wheat-ears idem, and a diadem surmounted with a star? There were, besides, sets of turquoise and of pink coral ornaments, of sapphires and other rich and rare gems. Although the bride is Portuguese, she has beauty enough of face and figure to be a blonde Cuban.’

ROYAL COLLECTORS. Under the title of * Collectionnentes Mondaines ’ the Figaro gives some account of royal connoisseurs, the first on the list being our Queen. It is stated that the collections of her Majesty consist entirely of object from Sfevres. Windsor is full of those precious porcelains, and they adorn all her residences. The Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., we are told, bought up the collections of the 4migr6s after the French Revolution, among which were the best specimens to be found. The Queen, who is an excellent connoisseur, augmented the collection herself. She does not admit the public to inspect her collection, but anyone who is enough of a connoisseur to appreciate this art may be admitted to Windsor. The Queen of ” Italy ‘ the Marguerite of Marguerites ’ is a charming lady. She dresses at Worth’s, paints in aquarelle, dances like a sylph, and plays like an angel. Her. saloons at Monza, have the refined elegance -of a Petit Trianon, full of bright porcelain, dazzling crystals, worked jewellery, and stones. She possesses a gallery of portraits of great value; her objects of virtu are Florentine, Milanese, and Venetian. The Empress Eugenie was unfortunate iu her first attempts at collecting. She was swindled and cheated on all hands. She has an invaluable collection, however, of trinkets, medallious, and books, and not a few objects that belonged to Marie Antoinette.

ABYSSINIAN ECONOMIC PLANTS. Among the vegetable articles of diet of the Abyssioians, the first place is taken by teff (Poa abyssinica), a herbaceous plant, whose grains are as small as a pin’s head ; the meal from this forms the bread in general use. A much inferior black bread, used by the poor, is made from a kind of millet called tocusso (Elensine tocusso), frequenting the low grounds. In addition, the roasted seed of the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum) is sometimes eaten, as it was by the ancient Romans and Greeks. Another admired vegetable is the flower stalk of the local plantain, called ensete (Musa ensete), the fruit of which is dry and unfit for eating. The stem is cooked with milk and butter. It is cutoff just above the rootlets, and about two feet high; if old, the green outer coat is peeled off till the white interior shows. It is as tender as a well-cooked turnip, with a flavor like the best new bread somewhat underdone. It is an excellent dish, nourishing, wholesome, and digestible. From meal cakes a fermented drink called bousa is made. The coffee grown in Abyssinia is principally sent to Djedda and Upper Egypt ; though not of first-rate quality] it possesses a special aroma, and is sold at the rate of 16 dollars per cantaro of 113 rottoli (say 375) per cwt. The women of Gurage make mats of the leaves of the ensete. The ecca of the Abyssinians, a species of asclepiad, produces a tough fibre, used in making cordage and tissues on the Red Sea littoral. The bark of Calotropis gigantea affords excellent fibre used for various purposes. The tender leaves newly pulled from the stipa of the dourn palm, are woven into all kinds of matting and basket ware. The powdered seed of a large tree called berebera (Milettia ferrugina) is thrown into the water to stupefy fish and facilitate their capture.

THE aUEEN-MOTHER OF ANAM.

The correspondent of the Temps gives some highly curious and interesting details of the visit paid by the French resident to the Queen-mother of Anam. is seventy-seven years old. She is blind, prpbably with cataract, which is very prevalent among old people there. In spite of her great age and infirmities, her influence over the affairs of the nation is enormous. The King obeys her most passively. The visit was not any easy matter to briDg about, as, according to the custom of the country, no strangers aie allowed to enter that part of the palace occupied by the Queen. M. Paul Bert was accompanied by his wife (who, by-tlie-by, is a Scotch lady) and followed by a suite of twelve persons. On arriving at the gates of the palace, the French cortege was conducted through a number of narrow paths walled in on both sides. Here the sentinels cease to be men, and are formed of old women dressed Jn queer costumes, bearing scimitars sheathed in silver scabbards, who turned their faces to the wall on the sight of the Europeans. Squads of eunuchs and female functionaries advanced, while wierd music was heard in the distance. At length, after winding and turning through a labyrinth of avenues, the party reached a spacious courtyard, paved with marble. Fifty or sixty women of all a»es and in all sorts of dresses were there some bearing parasols and banners, and others playing on flutes and tambourines; they resembled for all the world a batch of used-up ballet dancers. The cortege slowly traversed the courtyard and entered a long, narrow, dark hall; where the audience took place. The King was present, as gracious as ever, but more silent than usual. A solemn stillness pervaded the place. Suddenly a slight noise was heard at the end of the hall. The King, taking off his sandals, approached the wall, and knelt down before a mysterious curtain. This was raised in a few minutes, and behind it appeared a kind of obscure arcade by which the audience chamber is connected with the private apartments of her Majesty. The Queen-Mother could now be faintly distinguished, seated on a divan, dressed in yellow robes aud turban, immobile as ** statue. Her existence being proved to the company, the curtain was let down again.

Thus hidden, invisible but present, her Majesty communicates with the outer world* including the King himself. The King, still on his knees, beckoned to the interpreter to approach and kneel down. He then said something to the Queen, who replied from behind the curtain, and the visit ended. —Pall Mall Gazette.

AN UNWELCOME ORNAMENTNature occasionally indulges in curious freaks upon the human body, and in freaks which, sometimes are sad drawbacks to the, personal appearance. / What, for can well be more distressing thj>fi for a. comely matron of middle age Wdiscover that horns similar to ram’s horns are growing upon her head, and to be obliged to allow them to grow until they reach a size which prevents her hiding the deformity with any cap, hat or bonnet ? The lady thus afflicted is a French woman, and her curious case has been reported to the Academy of Medicine. She had reached her fortieth year when the first horn made its unwelcome appearance on her forehead. It was shortly followed by a second, which, however, fell off of itself after attaining the length of twentyfour centimeters ; but the first remained, to the great inconvenience of the poor woman, who was by it prevented from resting her head comfortably on a pillow. Ultimately a surgical operation was undergone, and the objectionable ornament was removed. The patient recovered her health aud peace of mind, but not for long. Six months after the operation another horn began to grow precisely on the same spot, the latest newsgiven the Academy of Medicine concerning it being that it had reached the length of five ceutimeters, and bids fair to grow rapidly. The phenomenon, it seems, is a rare one, but cases of the kind are not unheard of.—London Standard.

RELIGIOUS MADNESS. The Paris correspondent of a contemporary says : A painful case of\religious madness, analogous to one that happened last year near Melbourne, has just taken place in the Hautes Alps, near Briancon. Two sisters, named Marie and Catherine Olaguer, aged respectively 47 and 45, lived there on the kindest terms, on a little property they had inherited. They had also a sum of 40,070 fr., which was well invested. They were both noted for their piety, aud had a profound belief in miracles and the supernatural. ! On a Monday morning Catherine told Marie that she had had a vision in the night in which God appeared to her and demanded a proof of her obedience in sacrificing her sister. Marie lent heisclf to this /idea, which did not appear to her at all strange. So after devoutly hearing mass on Tuesday' morning she came home to prepare herself to be a sacrifice. Catherine got a sharp razor and cut with it into each of frh# ar-ms in front of the elbow, and into the instep of each foot. The victim kept repeating, ‘Jesus, Maria, my Hope, my Saviour !’ Catherine then collected the blood, to dry it and keep it as a relic. When Marie was lifeless, her sister dressed the corpse i n white and went with the will of the defunct to a notary, to whom she related what she had done. She also said that in obedience to God’s command she; had burned all the debentures and scrip belonging to her ' sister. The number of these had been, however, given to the notary by Marie. Catherine has been arrested, and will be subjected to an examination by doctors who make lunacy a special study.

SLEEP HABITS OF CHILDREN. Many habits and customs, the deleterious effect of which are recognised, would become things of the past if a practical and simple remedy could be devised. I have never met with any plainly written advisory articles on the training of children in proper sleep habits, except as to time. A recent experience has led me to ‘ study up ’ on the subject, in the most practical way, by asking questions of mothers and nurses. My little patient, whose habits and conditions led to this investigation, is ten years old. A serious and chronic affection of the kidneys has resulted from excessive use of sweets, and consequently loss of appetite for, aud assimilation of, nutritious food. She persistently sleeps prone on the back with the arms flexed above her head ; watching re-) suits in seeing her turn nn one side from eight to ten times every night, but, of course, a farther result is diminished sleep, although it i 3 not more restless than usual. Whether the habit cau be permanently broken up is difficult to say. From her birth she exhibited a preference for that position, and had been indulged in it, with the inevitable results of catarrhal affections, dry throat, enervating, restless sleep ; and aggravation of the kidney difficulty, as th« spine was unduly heated by,constant contact with theJbed. From the hour of birth a babe should be laid down to sleep with great care, never should it be permitted to lie on the back while sleeping ; after it begins to play, the restless limbs are very beneficially exercised while laying so, but so soon as sleep comes the little one should be gently lifted and placed on the side,.with the head raised Only sufficiently to insure the spine from any curvature, seeing that there are no folds in the clothing to torture the tender flesh, especial care being taken to lay the ear smoothly back. Alternate the sides, or there will be an unnecessary unevenness of contour when the child is grown ; do not permit the knees be so flexed as to crowd the viscera. Lying on the stomach occasionally is not injurious if the arms lie at the side and face free to the air. Frequently that proves to be a veryrestful position to a play-weary child. It is not a difficult matter to teach a child to sleep with the mouth closed and without snoring or * gritting the teeth.’ A lady of thirty-five who had habitually gritted her teeth from their first possession was cured of the habit in a fortnight by persistent waking at the first indication of the sound; the habit has not been resumed during the five years siuce passed. If mothers could realise how many people suffer from bad sleep habits contracted in childhood, they would pay a little attention to their children at night-time, beyond the ‘hustling off to bed, out of the way,’ and the ‘ keeping covered ’ which is a sort of ‘ dim religious duty ’ kept sight of out of fear of the doctor’s bill, rather than of any other conaidoration. — Phrenological Journal.

A USE FOR THE NOSE. I The old story of how Mozart made use of I isiis long nose when executing a piece of the j piano which would have been impossible but 1 for this way of making up for the want of -an eleventh finger, has often comforted people afflicted with an olfactory organ of 'unusual length. But the full use of the nose has only lately been discovered bv a -comm .l city of young Italians, who claim that by the adroit pressure of the nostrils with thumb and forefinger, supplemented by ."judicious breathing, the softest, sweetest •melodies can ba executed, and that the "Italian’s favorite air, ‘ The Delight of Love, 13 never more charming than when executed on the nasophone, this being the aristocratic ■/name by which the new-born art has been •‘Called. i N ovel, indeed, and original is this ■•musical instrument, but considering how many people sing through“their noses already, it is doubtful whether the new invention will add to the sum of human happimess.—Pall Mall Gazette.