HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20076, 12 October 1920, Page 9

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

For the adequate display of a pretty costume and graceful figure, a. writer recommends, first, the golf links, and then the howling green. Vvhcn potatoes turn black in cooking add a few drops of vinegar to the water in which they are boiled. This makes the potatoes white and mealy. To remove rust from steel fife-irons, first rub them with a piece of flannel saturated with ammonia. Then dry with powdered bathbrick and polish with a. dry cloth. Eucalyptus oil will remove grease from any kind of material. Apply with a clean piece of flannel and tub gently until the stains disappear. When washing cut glass add turpentine to the water in the proportion of one tablespoonful to two quarts of water. This will ensure a brilliant polish. A dull-lookmg tortoiseshell comb can be improved and revived by rubbing vigorously with a small quantity of linseed oil sprinkled on flannel. Tumblers that have contained milk should always he washed first with cold water. This will ensure a brilliant glass dull The use of curling-irons, if persisted in, will certainly take all decided colour out of the hair, leaving it of a merely neutral tint. Tea may be made to give a much better brew if the dry leaf be well crushed in the hand before being put into the pot; thus the allowance of tea per cup will be reduced. An umbrella dealer issues a warning against the double use for sun and'rain of an umbrella. Silk wears, he says, as long as its oil lasts; then it splits. Tire sun dries out the oil, hence its harm. Tea-water will cleanse varnished and stained woodwork. This may be made by pouring boiling water on spent tealeaves, straining the liquid afterwards through a cloth or muslin. When deciding upon any combination of colours in hats or costumes, it is well to remember that complementary colours look best together. Yellow goes well with violet, red with green, and orange with blue. Silver, likewise, goes best with blue, and .gold with green. Corsets, it surprises one to learn, were first invented by a man, the Greek poet Ginesias. He was exceedingly proud of his personal appearance, and deeming himself too straight and slim, he contrived a kind of belt made of strips of thin flexible wood. The Roman women of fashion soon after adopted it, but for a very long while the corset only encircled the waist. When slewing rhubarb or any other sour fruit, cover it with cold water, bring to the boil very quickly, then pour off the water; pour on fresh and start again. The first lot of water takers off the acidity, and one does not need to use nearly so much sugar as if ono cooked the fruit in the ordinary way. Or, cook first, then add just a little bicarbonate of soda and a small bit of butter, and then very little sugar is needed. Many people throw away the skin which forms when the milk cools, but the skin is really the cream, and by throwing it away the host part of the milk is wasted. When the milk just boils, put it into a. jug, ami stand it in a basin not as deep as the jug, and let cold water run into the basin to cool the milk quickly. Stir the milk well, and the cream will intermix again. When cold there will be no skin. Tomato juice, it may not be generally known, acts as a capital sldu tonic and freckle remover. if a ripe tomato' be cut in half and the face well rubbed with it at least once a day, a decided improvement in the complexion will soon be noticed. With many skins it is much more efficacious than cucumber.