Boil a double handful of hay or grass in a new iron pot, before attempting to cook with it; scrub out with soap and sand; then set on full of fair water, and let it boil half an hour. After this, you may use it without fear. As soon as you empty a pot or frying-pan of that which has beencooked in it, fill with hot or cold water (hot is best) and set back upon the fire to scald thoroughly.
New tins should stand near the fire with boiling water in them, in which has been dissolved a spoonful of soda, for an hour; then be scoured inside with soft soap; afterward rinsed with hot water. Keep them clean by rubbing with siftedwood-ashes, or whitening.
Copper utensils should be cleaned with brickdust and flannel.
Never set a vessel in the pot-closet without cleaning and wiping it thoroughly. If grease be left in it, it will grow rancid. If set aside wet, it is apt to rust.
Clean with a soft flannel and Bath brick. If rusty, use wood-ashes, rubbed on with a newly cut bit of Irish potato. This will remove spots when nothing else will. Keep your best set wrapped insoftwhite paper; then in linen, in a drawer out of damp and dust.
Never dip the ivory handles of knives in hot water.
Wash, after each meal, all that is soiled, inveryhot soft water, with hard soap. Wipe hard and quickly on a clean towel; then polish with dry flannel. If discolored with egg, mustard, spinach, or beans, by any other means, rub out the stain with a stiff toothbrush (used only for this purpose), and silver soap.
For years I have used no other preparation for cleaning silver than the Indexical silver soap, applied as I have described. After rubbing with a stiff lather made with this, wash off with hot water, wipe and polish while hot. There is no need for the weekly silver cleaning to be anevent or a bugbear, if a little care and watchfulness be observed after each meal. Silver should never be allowed to grow dingy. If Bridget or Chloe willnotattend properly to this matter, take it in hand yourself. Have your own soap-cups—two of them—one with common soap, the other with a cake of silver soap in the bottom. Have for one a mop, for the other a stiff brush—a toothbrush is best. Use your softest towels for silver.
Besides being clean and easy of application, the silver soap will not wear away the metal as will whiting or chalk, or plate-powder, however finely pulverized.
There are few of the minor crooks in the lot of the careful housewife that cause her more anxiety and more discouragement than the attempt to teach domestics how to wash up dishes.
“I’ve heard that Mrs. —— is veryexactabout some things, such as washing up dishes and the likes of that!” said a woman to me, with an affected laugh, having called to apply for the then vacant position of cook in my kitchen. She had high recommendations, a whine engrafted upon her native brogue, and spoke of me in the third person—a trick of cheap (and bogus) gentility that tries my nerves and temper to the very marrow of my spine. “I was a-saying to myself, as I came along, that Mrs. —— must have beenveryonlucky in her girls if she had to tache them how to wash up dishes. I always thought that was one of the things that camekinder nat’ralto every cook.”
“Mrs. ——’s” experience goes to prove that the wrong way of doing this must “come natural” to the class mentioned, and that Nature is mighty in woman. The fact that the right way isnotto pile unrinsed dishes andplates in a big pan with a loose bit of soap on top, and pour lukewarm water over all; then with a bit of rag to splash said water over each separately, and make another pile of them upon the kitchen-table, until the last is drawn, reeking with liquid grease, sticky and streaming, from the now filthy puddle of diluted swill; then to rub them lightly and leisurely with one towel—be they many or few—is as difficult of comprehension to the scullionly mind as would be a familiar lecture upon thepons asinorum.
Yet the right and only neat method is so simple and easy! Rinse the greasy plates, and whatever is sticky with sugar or other sweet, in hot water and transfer to a larger pan ofveryhot. Wash glass first; next silver; then china—one article at a time, although you may put several in the pan. Have a mop with a handle; rub upon the soap (over which the water should have been poured) until you have strong suds. There is a little implement made by the “Dover Stamping Co.,” a cup of tinned wire, called a “soap-shaker,” that greatly facilitates this process of suds-making, without waste of soap. Wash both sides of plate and saucer, and wipebefore putting it out of your hand. Draining leaves streaks which can be felt by sensitive finger-tips, if not seen. If china is rough to the touch, it is dirty. Hot, clean suds, a dry, clean towel, and quick wiping leave it bright and shining. Roll your glasses around in the water, filling them as soon as they touch it, and you need never crack one. A lady did once explain the dinginess of her goblets to me by saying that she was “afraid to put them in hot water. Itrotsglass and makes it so tender! I prefer to have them a little cloudy.” This is literally true—that she said it, I mean. Certainly not that a year’s soak in hot water could make glass tender.
Dissolve a little washing-soda in the water if the glass is very dim with smoke or dirt. Do not let it run on the sash, but wash each pane with old flannel; dry quickly with a soft, clean towel, wiping the corners with especial care. Polish with chamois skin, or newspapers rubbed soft between the hands.
Sprinkle the carpet with tea-leaves; sweep well; then use soap and soft, warm water for the grease and dirt spots. This freshens up old carpets marvellously. Rub the wet spots dry with a clean cloth.
Scour with a flat brush, less harsh than that used for floors, using warm soft suds; before it dries wash off with old flannel dipped in clean cold water, and wipe dry with a linen towel or cloth. Go through the whole process quickly, that the water may not dry upon and streak the paint.
Beat out all the dust, and sun for a day; shake very hard; fold neatly and pin—or, what is better, sew up—closely in muslin or linen cloths, putting a small lump of gum-camphor in the centre of each bundle. Wrap newspapers about all, pinning so as to exclude dust and insects.
These are really all the precautions necessary for the safety even of furs, if they are strictly obeyed. But you may set moths at defiance if you can, in addition to these, secure, as a packing-case, a whiskey or alcoholbarrel, but lately emptied, and still strongly scented by the liquor. Have a close head, and fit it in neatly. Set away in the garret, and think no more of your treasures until next winter.
Put a teaspoonful of sugar of lead into a pailful of water, and soak fifteen minutes before washing.
Rub soap upon the wristbands and collar; dip them in boiling-hot suds—and scrub with a stiff clean brush. Treat the grease and dirt spots in the same way. Change the suds for clean and hot as it gets dirty. Wet and brush the whole coat, the right way of the cloth, with fresh suds, when you have scoured out the spots, adding three or four tablespoonfuls of alcohol to the water. Stretch the sleeves, pocket-holes, wristbands, and collar into shape, folding the sleeves as if they had been ironed, also the collar. Lay upon a clean cloth, spread upon the table or floor, and let it get perfectly dry in the shade, turning over three or four times without disturbing the folds.
To Remove Grease Spots.—Scrape Venetian or French chalk fine; moisten to a stiff paste with soap-suds; make it into flat cakes by pressing between two boards, and dry in the sun or oven. Keep these for use. When you need them, scrape one to powder and cover the spot with it, laying the silk upon a fine clean linen or cotton cloth. Lay two or three folds of tissue-paper upon the chalk, and press it with a hot iron for a minute or more, taking care it does not touch the silk. Raise the paper and scrape off the grease with the chalk. Split a visiting-card, and rubthe place where the spotwas, with the inside, to restore the lustre. The silk should be pressed on the wrong side.
If the spot be discovered at once, simply rub the wrong side hard with powdered French chalk, and leave it to wear off.
To Wash Silk.—Mix together
Shake up well; lay the silk, a breadth at a time, on a table, and sponge both sides with this, rubbing it well in; shake it about well and up and down in a tub of cold water; flap it as dry as you can, but do not wring it. Hang it by the edges, not the middle, until fit to iron. Iron on the wrong side while it is very damp.
Black and dark or sober-colored silks may be successfully treated in this way.
To Smooth Wrinkled Silk.—Sponge on the right side with very weak gum-arabic water, and iron on the wrong side.
Stretch over a basin of boiling water, holding it smooth, but not tight, over the top, and shifting as the steam fairly penetrates it. Fold, while damp, in the original creases, and lay under a heavy book or board to dry. It will look almost as well as new.
If but slightly pressed, treat as you would crape. Steam on the right side until heated through. If very badly crushed, wet on the wrong side; let an assistant hold a hotiron, bottom upward, and pass the wet side of the velvet slowly over the flat surface—a sort of upside-down ironing. When the steam rises thickly through to the right side, it will raise the pile with it. Dry without handling.
Hold over the heated top of the range or stove, not near enough to burn; withdraw, shake them out, and hold them over it again until curled.
Wash with a cloth dipped in clean salt and water; then wipe dry at once. This prevents it from turning yellow.
Boil two quarts of wheat-bran in six quarts, or more, of water, half an hour. Strain through a coarse towel and mix in the water in which the muslin is to be washed. Use no soap, if you can help it, and no starch. Rinse lightly in fair water. This preparation both cleanses and stiffens the lawn. If you can conveniently, take out all the gathers. The skirt should always be ripped from the waist.
Wash in clean, hot soap suds; rinse out in clear, hot water, and shake out the wet without passing through the wringer. Worsted dress-goods should never be wrung when washed.
Have a quart bottle covered with linen, stitched smoothly to fit the shape. Begin at the bottom and wind the lace about it, basting fast at both edges, even the minutestpoint, to the linen. Wash on the bottle, soaping it well, rinse by plunging in a pail of fair water, and boil as you would a white handkerchief, bottle and all. Set in the hot sun to dry. When quite dry, clip the basting-threads, and use the lace without ironing. If neatly basted on, it will look nearly as well as new—if not quite.
Squeeze the tumbled rusty lace through this four times, then rinse in a cup of hot water in which a black kid glove has been boiled. Pull out the edges of the lace until almost dry; then press for two days between the leaves of a heavy book.
Sponge on the right side with a strong tea made offig leaves, and iron on the wrong.
This process restores lustre and crispness to alpaca, bombazine, etc.
2 parts soft water to 1 part alcohol, or if there be paint spots upon the stuff, spirits turpentine. Soap a sponge well, dip in the mixture and rub, a breadth at a time, on both sides, stretching it upon a table. Iron on the wrong side, or that which is to be inside when the stuff is made up. Sponge off with fair water, hot but not scalding,before you iron. Iron while damp.
Make a mortar of unslacked lime and very strong lye.Cover the spot thickly with it and leave it on for six weeks. Wash it off perfectly clean, and rubhardwith a brush dipped in a lather of soap and water. Polish with a smooth, hard brush.
Is as nearly ineradicable as it is possible for stain to be.Trymoistening the part injured with ink, and while this is wet, rub in muriatic acid diluted with five times its weight of water. I have heard that the old and new stain can sometimes be removed together by this operation.
Is likewise obstinate. If anything will extract it, it is lemon-juice mixed with an equal weight of salt, powdered starch, and soft soap. Rub on thickly and lay upon the grass in the hot sun; renewing the application two or three times a day until the spot fades or comes out.
I have also used salt wet with tomato-juice, often renewed, laying the article stained upon the grass. Sometimes the stain was taken out, sometimes not.
While the stains are yet wet upon the carpet, sponge them with skim-milkthoroughly. Then wash out the milk with a clean sponge dipped again and again in fair water, cold. Exchange this presently for warm; then rub dry with a cloth. If the stain is upon any article of clothing, or table, or bed linen, wash in the milk well, afterward in the water.
Dryink stains can be removed from white cloth by oxalic acid, or lemon-juice and salt.
Treat acid stains with hartshorn; alkaline with acids.For instance, if the color be taken out of cloth by whitewash, wash with strong vinegar.
Shake up well and bottle. It is excellent for removing grease spots from woolens.
Shake up well; apply and wrap in soft linen.
Until you can procure this keep the part covered withwood-sootmixed to a soft paste with lard,or, if you have not these, with common molasses.
Bind the cut with cobwebs and brown sugar, pressed on like lint.Or, if you cannot procure these, with the fine dust of tea. When the blood ceases to flow, apply laudanum.
Soak blotting or tissue paper instrongsaltpetre water. Dry, and burn at night in your bed-room.
Iknowthis to be an excellent prescription.
Foranypoison swallow instantly a glass of cold water with a heaping teaspoonful of common salt and one ofground mustard stirred in. This is a speedy emetic. When it has acted, swallow the whites of two raw eggs.
If you have taken corrosive sublimate take half a dozen raw eggs besides the emetic. If laudanum, a cup ofverystrong coffee. If arsenic, first the emetic, then half a cup of sweet oil or melted lard.
Cork and shake well.
Pour on 4 gallons boiling water.
Let it stand until perfectly clear, then drain off. Put in 6 lbs. clean fat.
Boil until it begins to harden—about two hours—stirring most of the time.
While boiling, thin with two gallons of cold water, which you have poured on the alkaline mixture after draining off the four gallons. This must also settle clear before it is drawn off. Add it when there is danger of boiling over.
Try the thickness by cooling a little on a plate. Put in a handful of salt just before taking from the fire. Wet a tub to prevent sticking; turn in the soap and let it stand until solid. Cut into bars; put on a board and let it dry.
This will make about forty pounds of nice soap; much better for washing (when it has dried out for two or three months) than yellow turpentine soap.
Buy a box at a time; cut into small squares and lay upon the garret-floor to dry for several weeks before it is used.
Let it stand for several days until the grease is eaten up. If too thick, add more water. Stir every day. If wood-ashes are used instead of soda, boil the mixture.