Hints and Suggestions.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 73

Hints and Suggestions.

A raw potato will remove stains from black cloth. It should be cut in half and rubbed on the marks, j The ravellings cut from a new table- • cloth before hemming iv are the best medium that can be found for the darning of linen. j To see a cheerful face is as beneficial to an invalid as fine, bright weather. Do [ not carry your woes . intc the room of suffering. : As a preventive against moths, take a piece of linen well moistened with tur- ! pentine and put it in the wardrobe or : efoest of drawers for a single day two or -three times r year. When a lemon has been cut, butonlyhalf . pi it has -beer used, the- remaining half . may be kept fresh for long by putting it ! cut side downsvards on a plate and covering it with a glass. I The best thing for cleaning tinware is . common soda. Damp r cloth fon<~ dip in soda, and rub the ware briskly, ' after which wipe dry. Any blackened or dirty ware can be made to look as" well as new. To prevent silk petticoats from splitting, sew a thin piece of Indian muslin down ! the front width when the petticoat is : new. The bend of the knees will not j then wear the silk. | ♦Refreshing Drink. — Put £lb of oat flour, 6oz, of loaf sugar, and half a sliced lemon I into a. pan ; mix al' together with a littie i warm water, then add a gallon of boiling. ! water, stii thoroughly, and use when cold. I A goad polish for tinware can be obtained by making into a paste with water '. about one wineglassful of finely-powdered j whiting amd £lb of ordinary mottled soap shredded. Apply with a p'ieoe of flannel, , polish, with a dry cloth, and a little powdered whiting. Walking about all day with "wet boots will not do half so much harm as sitting I for an hour under the same circumstances. ( Therefore it will be .plainly seen how ( necessary it is to change your boots as ( soon as possible after yoy return from a , walk or from, business. i A pinch of salt on the tongue, followed 10 minutes afterwards by a drink of cold water, often cures 9 sick headache. Salt - hardens gums, makes teeth white, and sweetens the breath. Cut flowers may be kept fresh by adding salt to the water. • Weak ankles shoxlld be* rubbed with solution of salt water and alcohol. I Pace creams if used too lavishly 'are apt to encourage the growth of superfluous hair on the face. The best thing, if one is inclined to be troubled in this way, is to use cold cream only about twice a week, and to avoid massaging the j upper lij or any part where hair tends to grow. Loosen the screw that holds the footplate of your sewing machine, remove it, and you will be surprised at the amount of fluff accumulated there, dean the 1 little grooves, and under the whole of the plate with a penknife. The needle must be taken out before the work is begun. You Trill often find this is the only cause for tbe machine's running hard. Warts on the hands can be very easily removed with glacial acetic acid. Buy two drachms of Uie acid from the chemist, and ask him to fix a little glass i<od into the inside of the cork. When the cork 1 ie withdrawn, the glass rod has a small quantity of the acid upon it. The excess must be allowed to drip off. f hen touch the wart with the point of the glass rod. taking care that the acid does not run from the wart on to the healthy skin Do this twice s day, and the war will drop oft' in about a week. I To Break a- glass jar or bottle (juite , evenly, soak a piece of string in turpentine and tie it round the glaiss just where you wish the break to come. Then fill the glass or bottle up' to that point with cold water, 'and set fire to the spring. The glass will snap all along the heated line. -By breaking off the top of a broken or , cracked decanter it may, if the base be I intact, be converted into useful sugar basin or fruit difih. j ' v To clean white enamelled baths, make ' a solution of three ounces of common j

f washing soda, with, a gill of boiling water. ■ Take enough whiting to form a smooth paste }with the solution. Rub inside of bath with ~a soft cloth dipped in this i paste, then wash the bath with, clean ; cold "water. The bath 's left perfectly clean and polished. To clean steel fireifons, heat some mutton fat to nearly boiling-point, and mix with it enough emery powder to make a paste. Rub the article all over with a i little of this (applying with a cloth) till all the rust is removed, and then polish with a clean cloth, dipped in finelypowdered bath-brick. Tins treatment will also remove all kinds of stains from steel. I Flowers that are to igo by post should be placed in a, jar of water for about an hour before they are packed. Then- pack them rather tightly in a cardboard box, with a layer of grass or leaves round, •and sprinkle a very little w^tei. oy*r. Flowers packed in this way walJ arrive,, even after a long journey, quite fresh. An excellent \ray to clean carpets* is to take one ounce of good soap, one pennyworth of ammonia, two pennyworth of methylated spirit. , Dissolve sqap. in. ..one pint of boiling water; after it is cool put in the ammonia and methylated spirit; then make it up to one quart with cold water. Method; ' Use clean flannel, and wash -the carpet with the liquid. It brings the colours up and makes the carpet like new. " . Superfluous 'hair on the face, neck, or arms ' can only be " effectively rembved by electrolysis. It requires the electric jieedle to kill- the hair bulb, and the .treatmentshoulc? always be done by a qualified doctor — a specialist iri ' electricity. ' Otherwise, scars are almost certain to be left, and there is a danger of infection if the needle is not carefully - sterilised. Some-, times, however, dark hairs, if they ' are artificially lightened, hardly show at all," especially on* the arms. y Here is what x is considered . the best method of bleaching superfluous hair: — Apply peroxide of / hydrogen with a email, clean sponge or a piece of clean cotton-wool. The' application, of cou'ree, must be renewed from time to time.