Part 53

Six pounds of washing soda and three of unslaked lime. Pour on four gallons of boiling water, let it stand until perfectly clear, then drain off, and put in six pounds of clean fat. Boil it until it begins to harden, about two hours, stirring most of the time. While boiling, thin it with two gallons of cold water, which you have previously poured on the alkaline mixture, after draining off the four gallons. This must be settled 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 makes about forty pounds of soap. It can be flavored just as you turn it out.

SOAP FOR WASHING WITHOUT RUBBING.

A soap to clean clothes without rubbing: Take two pounds of sal soda, two pounds of common bar soap and ten quarts of water. Cut the soap in thin slices and boil together two hours; strain and it will be fit for use. Put the clothes in soak the night before you wash, and to every pailful of water in which you boil them add a pound of soap. They will need no rubbing, but merely rinsing.

TO MAKE SOFT SOAP WITHOUT COOKING.

Pour two pailfuls of boiling water upon twenty pounds of potash and let it stand two hours. Have ready thirty pounds of clean grease, upon which pour one pailful of the lye, adding another pail of water to the potash; let it stand three or four hours, stir it well; then pour a gallon of the lye upon the grease, stir it well; and in half an hour another gallon of the lye, stir it thoroughly; in half an hour repeat the process, and thus proceed until you have poured off all the lye; then add two pails of boiling hot water to the remainder of the potash, and let it stand ten hours; then stir the mixture, and if it has become stiff and the grease has disappeared from the surface, take out a little and see whether the weak lye will thicken it; if it does, add the lye; if it does not, try water, and if that thickens it, let it stand another day, stirring it well five or six times during the day; if the lye does not separate from the grease you may fill up with water.

OLD-STYLE FAMILY SOFT SOAP.

To _set the leach_, bore several holes in the bottom of a barrel, or use one without a bottom; prepare a board larger than the barrel, then set the barrel on it, and cut a groove around just outside the barrel, making one groove from this to the edge of the board, to carry off the lye as it runs off, with a groove around it, running into one in the centre of the board. Place all two feet from the ground and tip it so that the lye may run easily from the board into the vessel below prepared to receive it. Put half bricks or stones around the edge of the inside of the barrel; place on them one end of some sticks about two inches wide, inclining to the centre; on those place some straw to the depth of two inches, over it scatter two pounds of slaked lime. Put in ashes, about half of a bushel at a time, pack it well, by pounding it down, and continue doing so until the barrel is full, leaving a funnel-shaped hollow in the centre large enough to hold several quarts of water. Use rain-water boiling hot. Let the water disappear before adding more. If the ashes are packed very _tightly_ it may require two or three days before the lye will begin to run, but it will be the stronger for it, and much better.

_To Make Boiled Soft Soap_.--Put in a kettle the grease consisting of all kinds of fat that has accumulated in the kitchen, such as scraps and bones from the soup-kettle, rinds from meat, etc.; fill the kettle half full; if there is too much grease it can be skimmed off after the soap is cold, for another kettle of soap. This is the only true test when enough grease is used, as the lye will consume all that is needed and no more. Make a fire under one side of it. The kettle should be in an out-house or out of doors. Let it heat very hot so as to fry; stir occasionally to prevent burning. Now put in the lye a gallon at a time, watching it closely until it boils, as it sometimes runs over at the beginning. Add lye until the kettle is full enough, but not _too full to boil well_. Soap should boil from the _side_ and not the middle, as this would be more likely to cause it to boil over. To test the soap, to one spoonful of soap add one of rain-water; if it stirs up very thick, the soap is good and will keep; if it becomes thinner, it is not good. This is the result of one of three causes, either it is too weak, or there is a deposit of dirt or it is too strong. Continue to boil for a few hours, when it should flow from the stick with which it is stirred like thick molasses; but if after boiling it remains thin, let it stand over night, removing it from the fire, then drain it off very carefully into another vessel, being very

## particular to prevent any sediment from passing. Wash the kettle,

return the soap and boil again, if dirt was the cause; it will now be thick and good; otherwise if it was _too strong_, rain-water added will make it right, adding the water gradually until right and just thick enough.

[Illustration]

FACTS WORTH KNOWING.

_An Agreeable Disinfectant:_--Sprinkle fresh ground coffee on a shovel of hot coals, or burn sugar on hot coals. Vinegar boiled with myrrh, sprinkled on the floor and furniture of a sick room, is an excellent deodorizer.

_To Prevent Mold:_--A small quantity of carbolic acid added to paste, mucilage and ink, will prevent mold. An ounce of the acid to a gallon of whitewash will keep cellars and dairies from the disagreeable odor which often taints milk and meat kept in such places.

_To Make Tracing-Paper:_--Dissolve a ball of white beeswax, one inch in diameter, in half a pint of turpentine. Saturate the paper in this bath and let it dry two or three days before using.

_To Preserve Brooms:_--Dip them for a minute or two in a kettle of boiling suds once a week and they will last much longer, making them tough and pliable. A carpet wears much longer swept with a broom cared for in this manner.

_To Clean Brass-Ware, etc.:_--Mix one ounce of oxalic acid, six ounces of rotten stone, all in powder, one ounce of sweet oil, and sufficient water to make a paste. Apply a small portion, and rub dry with a flannel or leather. The liquid dip most generally used consists of nitric and sulphuric acids; but this is more corrosive.

_Polish or Enamel for Shirt Bosoms_ is made by melting together one ounce of white wax, and two ounces of spermaceti; heat gently and turn into a very shallow pan; when cold cut or break in pieces. When making boiled starch the usual way, enough for a dozen bosoms, add to it a piece of the polish the size of a hazel nut.

_An Erasive Fluid for the Removal of Spots on Furniture_, and all kinds of fabrics, without injuring the color, is made of four ounces of aqua ammonia, one ounce of glycerine, one ounce of castile soap and one of spirits of wine. Dissolve the soap in two quarts of soft water, add the other ingredients. Apply with a soft sponge and rub out. Very good for deaning silks.

_To Remove the Odor of Onion_ from fish-kettle and saucepans in which they have been cooked, put wood-ashes or sal soda, potash or lye; fill with water and let it stand on the stove until it boils; then wash in hot suds, and rinse well.

_To Clean Marble Busts:_--First free them from all dust, then wash them with very weak hydrochloric acid. Soap injures the color of marble.

_To Remove old Putty from Window Frames_, pass a red hot poker slowly over it and it will come off easily.

_Hanging Pictures:_--The most safe material and also the best, is copper wire, of the size proportioned to the weight of the picture. When hung the wire is scarcely visible, and its strength is far superior to cord.

_To Keep Milk Sweet:--_Put into a panful a spoonful of grated horse-radish, it will keep it sweet for days.

_To Take Rust from Steel Implements or Knives:--_Rub them well with kerosene oil, leaving them covered with it a day or so; then rub them hard and well with finely powdered unslaked lime.

_Poison Water:--_Water boiled in galvanized iron becomes poisonous, and cold water passed through zinc-lined iron pipes should never be used for cooking or drinking. Hot water for cooking should never be taken from hot water pipes; keep a supply heated in kettles.

_Scouring Soap for Cotton and Silk Goods:_--Mix one pound of common soap, half a pound of beef-gall and one ounce and a half of Venetian turpentine.

_A Paint for Wood or Stone that Resists all Moisture:_--Melt twelve ounces of resin; mix with it, thoroughly, six gallons of fish oil and one pound of melted sulphur. Rub up some ochre or any other coloring substance with a little linseed oil, enough to give it the right, color and thickness. Apply several coats of the hot composition with a brush. The first coat should be very thin.

_To Ventilate a Room:_--Place a pitcher of cold water on a table in your room and it will absorb all the gases with which the room is filled from the respiration of those eating or sleeping in the apartment. Very few realize how important such purification is for the health of the family, or, indeed, understand or realize that there can be any impurity in the rooms; yet in a few hours a pitcher or pail of cold water--the colder the more effective--will make the air of a room pure, but the water will be entirely unfit for use.

_To Fill Cracks in Plaster:_--Use vinegar instead of water to mix your plaster of Paris. The resultant mass will be like putty, and will not "set" for twenty or thirty minutes; whereas, if you use water the plaster will become hard almost immediately, before you have time to use it. Push it into the cracks and smooth it off nicely with a table knife.

_To Take Spots from Wash Goods:_--Rub them with the yolk of egg before washing.

_To Take White Spots from Varnished Furniture:_--Hold a hot stove lid or plate over them and they will soon disappear.

_To Prevent Oil from Becoming Rancid:_--Drop a few drops of ether into the bottle containing it.

_Troublesome Ants:_--A heavy chalk mark laid a finger's distance from your sugar box and all around (there must be no space not covered) will surely prevent ants from troubling.

_To Make Tough Meat Tender:_--Lay it a few minutes in a strong vinegar water.

_To Remove Discoloration from Bruises:_--Apply a cloth wrung out in very hot water, and renew frequently until the pain ceases. Or apply raw beefsteak.

_A Good Polish for Removing Stains, Spots and Mildew from Furniture_ is made as follows: Take half a pint of ninety-eight per cent, alcohol, a quarter of an ounce each of pulverized resin and gum shellac, add half a pint of linseed oil; shake well and apply with a brush or sponge.

_To Remove Finger-Marks:_--Sweet oil will remove finger-marks from varnished furniture, and kerosene from oiled furniture.

_To Remove Paint from Black Silk:_--Patient rubbing with chloroform will remove paint from black silk or any other goods, and will not hurt the most delicate color or fabric.

_To Freshen Gilt Frames:_--Gilt frames may be revived by carefully dusting them, and then washing with one ounce of soda beaten up with the whites of three eggs. Scraped patches might be touched tip with any gold paint. Castile soap and water, with proper care, may be used to clean oil paintings; other methods should not be employed without some skill.

_To Destroy Moths in Furniture:_--All the baking and steaming are useless, as, although the moths may be killed, their eggs are sure to hatch, and the upholstery to be well riddled. The naphtha-bath process is effectual. A sofa, chair or lounge may be immersed in the large vats used for the purpose, and all insect life will be absolutely destroyed. No egg ever hatches after passing through the naphtha-bath; all oil, dirt or grease disappears, and not the slightest damage is done to the most costly article. Sponging with naphtha will not answer. It is the immersion for two hours or more in the specially prepared vats which is effectual.

_Slicing Pineapples:_--The knife used for peeling a pineapple should not be used for slicing it, as the rind contains an acid that is apt to cause a swollen mouth and sore lips. The Cubans use salt as an antidote for the ill effects of the peel.

_To Clean Iron Sinks:_--Rub them well with a cloth wet with kerosene oil.

_To Erase Discoloration on Stone China:_--Dishes and cups that are used for baking custards, puddings, etc., that require scouring, may be easily cleaned by rubbing with a damp cloth dipped in whiting or "Sapolio," then washed as usual.

_To Remove Ink, Wine or Fruit Stains:_--Saturate well in tomato juice; it is also an excellent thing to remove stains from the hands.

_To Set Colors in Washable Goods:_--Soak them previous to washing in a water in which is allowed a tablespoonful of ox-gall to a gallon of water.

_To Take out Paint:_--Equal parts of ammonia and turpentine will take paint out of clothing, no matter how dry or hard it may be. Saturate the spot two or three times, then wash out in soap-suds. Ten cents' worth of oxalic acid dissolved in a pint of hot water will remove paint spots from the windows. Pour a little into a cup, and apply to the spots with a swab, but be sure not to allow the acid to touch the hands. Brasses may be quickly cleaned with it. Great care must be exercised in labeling the bottle, and putting it out of the reach of children, as it is a deadly poison.

_To Remove Tar from Cloth:_--Saturate the spot and rub it well with turpentine, and every trace of tar will be removed.

_To Destroy Ants:_--Ants that frequent houses or gardens may be destroyed by taking flour of brimstone half a pound, and potash four ounces; set them in an iron or earthen pan over the fire until dissolved and united; afterwards beat them to a powder, and infuse a little of this powder in water, and wherever you sprinkle it the ants will fly the place.

_Simple Disinfectant:_--The following is a refreshing disinfectant for a sick room, or any room that has an unpleasant aroma prevading it: Put some fresh ground coffee in a saucer, and in the centre place a small piece of camphor gum, which light with a match. As the gum burns, allow sufficient coffee to consume with it. The perfume is very pleasant and healthful, being far superior to pastiles, and very much cheaper.

_Cure for Hiccough:_--Sit erect and inflate the lungs fully. Then, retaining the breath, bend forward slowly until the chest meets the knees. After slowly arising again to the erect position, slowly exhale the breath. Repeat this process a second time, and the nerves will be found to have received an access of energy that will enable them to perform their natural functions.

_To Keep out Mosquitoes and Bats:_--If a bottle of the oil of pennyroyal is left uncorked in a room at night, not a mosquito, nor any other blood-sucker, will be found there in the morning. Mix potash with powdered meal, and throw it into the rat-holes of a cellar, and the rats will depart. If a rat or a mouse get into your pantry, stuff into its hole a rag saturated with a solution of cayenne pepper, and no rat or mouse will touch the rag for the purpose of opening communication with a depot of supplies.

_Salt will Curdle New Milk_; hence, in preparing porridge, gravies, etc., the salt should not be added until the dish is prepared.

_To Prevent Rust on Flat-Irons:_--Beeswax and salt will make your rusty flat-irons as smooth and clean as glass. Tie a lump of wax in a rag and keep it for that purpose. When the irons are hot, rub them first with the wax rag, then scour with a paper or cloth sprinkled with salt.

_To Prevent Rust on Knives:_--Steel knives which are not in general use may be kept from rusting if they are dipped in a strong solution of soda: one part water to four of soda; then wipe dry, roll in flannel and keep in a dry place.

_Flowers May be Kept Very Fresh over Night_ if they are excluded from the air. To do this, wet them thoroughly, put in a damp box, and cover with wet raw cotton or wet newspaper, then place in a cool spot.

_To Sweeten Milk:_--Milk which is slightly turned or changed may be sweetened and rendered fit for use again by stirring in a little soda.

_To Scour Knives Easily:_--Mix a small quantity of baking soda with your brick-dust and see if your knives do not polish better.

_To Soften Boots and Shoes:_--Kerosene will soften boots and shoes which have been hardened by water, and render them as pliable as new. Kerosine will make tin kettles as bright as new. Saturate a woolen rag and rub with it. It will also remove stains from clean varnished furniture.

_Faded Goods:_--Plush goods and all articles dyed with aniline colors, which have faded from exposure to the light, will look as bright as new after sponging with chloroform.

_Choking:_--A piece of food lodged in the throat may sometimes be pushed down with the finger, or removed with a hair-pin quickly straightened and hooked at the end, or by two or three vigorous blows on the back between the shoulders.

_To Prevent Mold on the Top of Glasses of Jelly_, lay a lump of paraffine on the top of the hot jelly, letting it melt and spread over it. No brandy paper and no other covering is necessary. If preferred the paraffine can be melted and poured over after the jelly is cold.

_To Preserve Ribbons and Silks:_--Ribbons and silks should be put away for preservation in brown paper; the chloride of lime in white paper discolors them. A white satin dress should be pinned up in blue paper with brown paper outside sewn together at the edges.

_To Preserve Bouquets:_--Put a little saltpetre in the water you use for your bouquets and the flowers will live for a fortnight.

_To Destroy Cockroaches:_--Hellebore sprinkled on the floor at night. They eat it and are poisoned.

_To Remove Iron Rust:_--Lemon juice and salt will remove ordinary iron rust. If the hands are stained there is nothing that will remove the stains as well as lemon. Cut a lemon in halves and apply the cut surface as if it were soap.

_To Keep Bar Soap:_--Cut it into pieces and put it into a dry place; it is more economical to use after it has become hard, as it does not waste so readily.

_To Brighten Carpets:_--Carpets after the dust has been beaten out may be brightened by scattering upon them corn meal mixed with salt and then sweeping it off. Mix salt and meal in equal proportions. Carpets should be thoroughly beaten on the wrong side first and then on the right side, after which spots may be removed by the use of ox-gall or ammonia and water.

_Silver Tea and Coffeepot:_--When putting away those not in use every day lay a little stick across the top under the cover. This will allow fresh air to get in and prevent the mustiness of the contents, familiar to hotel and boarding-house sufferers.

_To Prevent Creaking of Bedsteads:_--If a bedstead creaks at each movement of the sleeper, remove the slats, and wrap the ends of each in old newspapers.

_To Clean Unvarnished Black Walnut:_--Milk, sour or sweet, well rubbed in with an old soft flannel, will make black walnut look new.

_To Prevent Cracking of Bottles and Fruit Jars:_--If a bottle or fruit-jar that has been more than once used is placed on a towel thoroughly soaked in hot water, there is little danger of its being cracked by the introduction of a hot liquid.

_To Prevent Lamp-wicks from Smoking:_--Soak them in vinegar and then dry them thoroughly.

Rub the nickel stove-trimmings and the plated handles and hinges of doors with kerosene and whiting, and polish with a dry cloth.

_Death to Bugs:_--Varnish is death to the most persistent bug. It is cheap--ten cents' worth will do for one bedstead--is easily used, is safe, and improves the looks of the furniture to which it is applied. The application, must, however, be thorough, the slats, sides, and every crack and corner receiving attention.

That salt should be eaten with nuts to aid digestion.

That milk which stands too long makes bitter butter.

_To Clean Drain Pipes:_--Drain pipes, and all places that are sour or impure, may be cleaned with lime-water or carbolic acid.

If oil-cloth be occasionally rubbed with a mixture of beeswax and turpentine, it will last longer.

_To Remove Mildew from Cloth:_--Put a teaspoonful of chloride of lime into a quart of water, strain it twice, then dip the mildewed places in this weak solution; lay in the sun; if the mildew has not disappeared when dry, repeat the operation. Also soaking the article in sour milk and salt; then lay in the sun; repeat until all the mildew is out.

_To Take Ink out of Linen:_--Dip the ink spot in pure melted tallow, then wash out the tallow and the ink will come out with it. This is said to be unfailing. Milk will remove ink from linen or colored muslins, when acids would be ruinous, by soaking the goods until the spot is very faint and then rubbing and rinsing in cold water.

Ink spots on floors can be extracted by scouring with sand wet in oil of vitriol and water. When ink is removed, rinse with strong pearl-ash water.

_To Toughen Lamp Chimneys and Glass-ware:_--Immerse the article in a pot filled with cold water, to which some common salt has been added. Boil the water well, then cool slowly. Glass treated in this way will resist any sudden change of temperature.

_To Remove Paint from Window-glass:_--Rub it well with hot sharp vinegar.

_To Clean Stove-pipe:_--A piece of zinc put on the live coals in the stove will clean out the stove-pipe.

_Packing Bottles:_--India-rubber bands slipped over them will prevent breakage.

_To Clean Ivory Ornaments:_--When ivory ornaments become yellow or dusky, wash them well in soap and water with a small brush, to clean the carvings, and then place them, while wet, in the sunshine. Wet them with soapy water for two or three days, several times a day, still keeping them in the sunshine, then wash them again, and they will be perfectly white.