Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1881 — USEFUL HINTS. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL HINTS.

A spoonful of stewed tomatoes in the gravy of either roasted or fried meats is an advantage. To keep lemons fresh, place them in a jar filled with water, to be renewed every day or two. A lady says that to kill insects she uses one teaspoonful of kerosene to a gallon of water, and sprinkles it on the plants with a hand-broom. It destroys green flies and other pests. Candles are sometimes kept burning in sick-rooms or nurseries the whole night. An easy method of preventing a too-rapid combustion is to place salt, finely powdered, from tbe tallow to the black part of the wick of a partly-burnt candle. Of course, the light is only sufficient for a bed-cham-ber. The little boxes of thin wood which are used to carry butter or lard in, when covered with cambric or silk, make pretty work boxes. Small peach baskets,' painted and lined with a bright color, are ornamental and convenient, beside affording the satisfaction which comes from making something from nothing. When putting up curtains which are to be draped, in a low room, put the cornice to which the curtains are to be fastened close to the ceiling, even if the window is put in lower down, as it gives the effect of greater height to the room. The curtains meeting at the top will conceal the Avail. The paper lamp-shades so fashionable just now can be made very easily. Fold a sheet of tissue paper in the center, forming a half square ; then fold again into a quarter square, then into an eighth. Continue folding in this way as long as possible, always folding from the center. Holding the thick part firmly in one hand, draw it through the other till the paper is thotoughly creased ; then partly unfold and draw it throiigh the hand from the center to the outer edge. When it has become well creased, cut enough from the center to allow of its slipping over the lamp-shade. The white wheaten loaves, considered so desirable, are by no means the most nutritious, as some of the most nourishing principles of the wheat are lost in the whitening process. By this process the flour is deprived to a great degree of its gluten aud phosphate, both important elements of food. Whole meal flour has been offered to the public, but its dark color has interfered with its sale. Bread made of such flour needs no yeast, as enough carbonic acid is evolved in its preparation to secure sufficient lightness of the dough. Some persons have supposed that a lack of the phosphates in the flour generally used by Americans w’as one of the causes of the defectiveness of the the teeth so common in this country.