HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue VII, 17 February 1894, Page 166

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

THREE ways of cleaning plate. (1) Often plate is not properly washed between the times oi cleaning. We have used Goddard’s plate powder for years, and have our plate always bright; but it is washed with silver soap, and rubbed up with a chamois leather every time it is used. If kept properly washed and properly rubbed up (that is the secret), very little plate powder is required. (2) Wash the plate or plated ware first with bot water and soda, to remove all grease ; then have prepared whiting and whisky made into a paste ; rub it on the silver, and leave it until dry ; polish it off with a soft chamois leather. This is better than any plate powder. (3) An old manservant of ours who was very successful, first washed everything in boiling water with a little soap, but no soda. They were then put into clean lukewarm water, and well dried with a leather. Some pieces that had become much tarnished by being stored away were actually boiled in a large saucepan over a fire, in soap and water. When the washing, and thus the cleaning process was accomplished, he commenced the ‘burnishing.’ For this he had a little rouge in powder, and he took from under the grate as much of the finest white ashes as would cover a half-crown. He mixed these together well, making them slightly damp, and smeared it over each thing with his hand or a piece of flannel. For the chased and highly ornamented silver, he put it on with a small brush, and then with a thin brush rubbed until bright. For the plainer things it remained on for a quarter or half an hour, then he proceeded to rub it off with dry flannel, and finally burnished it by making the plate hot before the fire. I have even seen him close it in the oven for a few minutes, and giving it a rubbing with bis leathers. This process was taught to several successive parlour-maids, with the one strict injunction to me, * See that daily washing after use is never neglected, and if they put on too much powder make them wash it off before they use their leathers.’ We have never found hie plan fail, and always have bright silver.

DRAWING-ROOM FLOWERS. Dropping in for tea and gossip with a friend a few days ago, I was charmed with an arrangement she showed me to do away with the ugly appearance of mould in a flowerpot used for household decoration. She had filled the pot with coarse moss in the same way that it is usually filled with earth, and some weeks ago bad planted a cutting and a few seeds therein, which had sprung up quite successfully. For drawing-room purposes I defy any floral arrangement to be prettier. She confessed to me that the idea was not her own, but it was none the less attractive. In such a situation plants grown in moss will thrive better than in garden mould. Another advantage pointed out was that moss would not retain more moisture than precisely the quantity best adapted to the absorbent powers of the root, a condition which can scarcely be obtained with any certainty with the use of earth. I thought the idea was lovely, and announced my intention of copying it immediately upon my return.