Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 September 1879 — USEFUL INFORMATION. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL INFORMATION.

Window gardening with geraniums, calceolarias and mignonette will keep flies out of the room. A composition of three parts tin, five parts bismuth, and two parts lead, will melt at 21 deg. Fahr. This forms a good fusible plug for boilers. Apply wet tartaric acid to the iron stain on your marble-top table. Let it remain on the spot twenty-four hours, wash off with sapolio or strong potash water. Be careful not to put your hands in the potash water, as it may take off the cuticle, and perhaps make sores in the flesh of your hands. Flies have a habit (unfortunately for housekeepers) of settling upon freshly cleaned mirrors and windows. To prevent this, cut up on onion into a bowl of water, and after leaving it in long enough to impart the strong flavor of the onion, remove it, and use the water for cleaning. A friend suggested -that a few drops of oil of pennyroyal would answer the same purpose, and be more agreeable to use. The Scientific Neivs calls attention to the importance, at this season, of getting rid of all vile smells about dwellings, and makes this practical suggestion: “The article commonly used to disinfect foul places is chloride of lime, but in reality it is not of much value. It may and generally does remove bad smells, but the cause still remains, as the chloride simply destroys the gaseous emanations. The much-advertised disinfectants are usually catchpenny nostrums, and unworthy of notice. One of the very best known disinfectants is old-fashioned ‘ copperas,’ or sulphate of iron, which can be had very cheap.” To Mend Stockings. —A lady, who finds in the practice of the homely art that she brings comfort to her family, gives these suggestions as to stockingmending: Given a dozen pairs of woolen ribbed socks. Select from them the two or three pairs most worn; cut away the heels and toes, and lay by the better parts for use in mending—well, yes, for patches. From the best hose retained to be repaired cut out the worn heel, and from the patches cut a new heel precisely like the old one. First sew the bottom of tbe heel, then sew it into the place made vacant. Use soft cotton, or else the tine, soft mending yarn, which comes, of all colors, on spools. Sew tho raw edges “over and over,” about as close as a nice overcast; so that when this new heel is worn out you have only to pull the thread and insert another. The thread must not be so tight but that the seam will flatten and become imperceptible to the foot. To sew in such a heel will require about one minute. If the toe is worn, so that the new dams seem to take from the old, and the rent is made worse, cut it off so far toward the instep as is thin. From the top of one of the socks put aside cut a new toe like the old. Sew across the end, and then around the foot, observing to make the seam, as before, flat and soft. When again worn out, repeat the process, till the entire dozen, like the fabled ducks, have eaten one another up.