Hints and Suggestions.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 74

Hints and Suggestions.

Take a wax candle and shred it finely into a small bowl, then pour enough turpentine over it so as to well cover the wax. Place this in a -warm place, so that the wax melts and mixes with ths turpentine. When cold it forms a cream or paste, which should be rubbed over the floor or varnished wood with a flannel cloth, then with a soft duster, and a lovely and lasting polish will be the result. A very little paste goes a long way. To prevent shoes from cracking, take a small piece of flannel dipped in ca6toroi; and rub well all over the shoes and let dry. Then polish with a dry cloth, and %o'u will find it makes the shoes like new, also keeps them soft, and they will wear twice as long as shoes brushed in the ordinary way. For fine linen or anything likely to be exposed to damp air, rice water will be found far preferable to ordinary starch. This prevents them hanging limp.- Rice water aleo gives a finer appearance, improves the "texture, and preserves the colour. Clothes starched in this way will not stick to the irons when ironing. To make, a furniture cream, take 2£oz of beeswax, of white wax, £oz of Castile soap, half a pint of turpentine, half a pint of boiling water. Cut up the wax and soap, pour the boiling water over them, and add the turpentine last. Stir the cream occasionally, and in a day or so it will be fit *or use.

To clean a discoloured copper kettle make a strong solution of soap and water and soda, and stand th© kettle in it for a couple of hours. Then take some fine coal ash (it is well to sift it) and mix with paraffin to make a paste, and scour the kettle. After two or three turns it will look like new.

Drink no water unless it has been boiled when away on holiday. When water is boiled and cooled again, it has a flat taste, which most people dislike. To remedy 4his, take it to the window where it is exposed to light and air, and 1 then pour it rapidly trom one jug to another. If this is done for some time, the water will be as fresh and crisp as though it had never been boiled.

Odd scraps ox bread that would otherwise be thrown away, if dried in the oven until crisp and then crumbled — while hot — with the rolling-pin, will be found much better if used for frying fish, etc., than if ordinary breadcrumbs are u.<-ed, and will keep any length of time. Beef suet will keep fresh in even the hottest weather if, when it come.«. it is put into a b3i=in in the oven, and left till the suet is really hot through and begins to melt. When needed, it should be chopped ju?t in the ordinary way, or put through a mincing machine. Not every percon knows that if a pinch of baking soda be added to i rhubarb pie or pudding, it not only improves the flavour, but also economises the sugar. Tho coda, immediately the rhubarb commences to cook, mixes with the arid, and the two stait to effex'vesce. Most of the acid is thus counteracted, and .=o less sugar ifc required. Irritation of the skin is often canted by ?ea-balhing. Anyone suffering from any trouble of the skin should carefully avoid bathing at the seaside, as the salt water caused iiritation.

Every time tho hands are washed they should be washed thoroughly, not merely dipped in water and dried. Take care that the line* on the palm are perfectly cleaned. If there are neglected they will Lcconie coarser and deeper. The face (should always be washed in soft water, after batliinsr. to prevent the .*kin cracking, and a little elder-flower water rubbed in afterwards.

To obtain and keep pretty nails, it is a good habit to r-ub cold cream into the cuticle every night. aJwavs rubbing the cuticle away from the nails. — Cate of Eyelashes. —

Long eyelashes and well-trained brows are marks of beauty too often neglected by the average girl. Both lashes and browo are for the protection of the eyes, and if there is anything abnormal about them the appearance of the eye is altered. Don't allow the brows to grow shaggy, but bru. e h them a.= regularly es you do

your hair. If they are inclined to stand out paste them down -with adhesive plaster at night after having arranged them in a narrow, good line. If they are scanty anoint them with Ted vaseline, taking care not to get any into the eyee. The same treatment, will make tho lashes grow long and heavy. Clip the lashes once or twice a year a very little, being careful to get them even, and if any one hair is unruly pull: it out. Never, "if you can possibly avoid doing so, use an eyebrow pencil, as.it makes the hairs come, out If you wish v to darken the eyebrows for an occasion, take a very small stump (such as is used in drawing},' and, after holding in the smoke of a candle, pass it gently over the eyebrows until they are shaded as desired.