HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2955, 2 November 1910, Page 75

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

It is not generally known that grebe feather will wash like new. Lay the grebe ifeather on a board and sponge down the right way of the feather with a good soap lather. Rinse with clean lukewarm water and hang by the fiTe to dry. Grebe feather washed in this way is equal to new. A clothes line which has been soiled will not twist as a new one is apt to do. In the making of hot starch 6oapy water should always be used. This gives the necessary shine to the linen, while it prevents any chance of the iron sticking to the surface of the article. Few people are aware what an excellent tonic a cold-water bath is for the eyes. Not the ordinary sponge bath, with closed lids, but opening the eyes and holding them open for a minute or more in clear, cool water. How frequently we see children whose front teeth seem to be entirely decayed, when in reality it is only tartar, which can be removed by a liberal amount of powdered pumice stone and a good hard tooth brush. To clean and polish old copper coins which have become badlly coated with dirt'and oxide boil them in a strong aaueon* solution of caustic soda, rinse ia

i soft water, and polish with a little putty powder, rouge or tripoli. If i when mixing beeswax and turpentine for polishing, about a teaspoonful of soft soap is added it will be found much easier to polish, and it will give a much better and brighter polish when finished. To fake mildew stains from table linen or* summer frocks, soak them in buttermilk for an hour or two, and then wash' out with clear hot water. To fill cracks in wooden floors, put one half-pound newspapers in three quarts water and soak three days. Then add one tablespoonful powdered alum and one quart wheaten flour; stir and boil until Jike caked dough ; cool and fill cracks. It will harden like cement. To remove grease from silk, lay the silk on a table, on a clean white cloth. Cover the damaged part' thickly with powdered French chalk. On this lay a sheet of blotting poper, <md on the top a hot iron. If the grease does not disappear at once, repeat the process. When the white and not the yoke of an egg is required for use, make a small hole in the shell and let the white run out, and stand the egg in an eggcup, which .should be set in a cool place. The yolk will keep its colour and freshness for some days. Handles may be refitted into knives and j forks by nearly filling them with finely-. ' powdered resin and bathbrick in the proportion of two parts of resin to one of bathbrick. Heat the steel that goes into the handle till it is nearly red hot, and then gradually work it into handle. Fuller's earth is excellent for cleaning suede gloves. Put the gloves on the hands and rub the earth in well with a small soft brush. An old nail or toothbrush answers the purpose admirably. A | mixture of the earth and powdered alum in equal quantities may also be used. To clean white straw hats, provide yourself with a lemon and an ounce of flour of sulphur. Take off the ribbon and well brush the hat. Cut the lemon in half, dip in it the four of sulphur, and rub the hat all over with it. Rinse in cold water, and then go over it again in the same way av th the other half of the lemon. Rinse finally in clear water, pull into shape, and lay on a fiat surface in the open air, but not in the sun, to dry. j Iron on the inside when nearly dry. If a woollen di'ess l looks dreadfully creased and wrinkled after packing, try the following plan, and don't try to iron the creases out. Instead, dip a clean piece of same material, if you have it, in hot water, "wring it slightly, and sponge the creased places with it. Then hang the dress in the open air, not in the sun, and the creases will disappear as it dries. When glazed tiles become discoloured or spotted, they should be rubbed with a cloth moistened with lemon-juice, left for a quarter of an hour, and polished with a soft cloth. They should never be washed in the ordinary way, but rubbed with a damp cloth, and then polished with skim milk and water. A rag just moistened with paraffin also gives a brilliant polish, but. the tiles should be well rubbed with a clean soft rag after. Remember that paraffin is very inflammable, and must not be used near a light or fire. When the weather is warm, and it is' difficult to prevent milk from turning sour and spoiling, it should be scalded. It must on no account be allowed to boil, or there will be a skin instead of a cream upon the milk, and the slower the process the safer will it be. A very good plan to scald milk is to put the pan that contains it into a saucepan or wide kettle of boiling water. When the surface looks thick, the milk is sufficiently scalded, and it should then be put away in a cool place in the same vessel that it was scalded in. Cream may be kept for twenty-four hours if scalded ~ without sugar, and by the addition of the latter ingredient it will remain good double the time, if kept in a cool place. j