Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1881 — USEFUL HINTS. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL HINTS.

Housekeepers may be glad to know that a table-spoonful of ammonia in one gallon of warm water will restore the color of carpets. To remove grease from wall paper, lay several folds of blotting paper on the spot and hold-a hot iron near it until the grease is absorbed. Pur one or two red peppers, or a few pieces of charcoal, into a pot where ham, cabbage, etc., is boiling, and the house will not be filled with the offensive odor. Beeswax and salt will make flatirons as clean and smooth as glass. Tie a lump of wax in a rag and keep it for that purpose. When the irons are hot, rub them with the wax rag, then scour with a paper or rag sprinkled with salt. Boiling water will remove tea stains and many fruit stains ; pour the water through the stain, and thus prevent it from spreading over the fabric, while soaking in milk before washing will always remove ink-stains from any fabric. Paste for Paper.—To ten parts by weight of gum arabic add three parts of sugar, in order to prevent the gum from cracking; then add water until the desired consistency is obtained If a very strong paste is required, add a quantity of flour equal in weight to the gum, wit hout boiling the mixture. The paste improves in strength when it begins to ferment To Clean Black Materials.—Take the article you wish to clean, on the side you intend to make up as the right side; brush well all the dust out of it; then take a piece of black flannel or an old black woolen stocking (it must always be black); dip it into cold coffee, and sponge well the material all over alike; then fold up each piece or breadth nice and even, and let it remain for three or four hours. Iron on the wrong side, and the old, dusty, shabby dress will look just as fresh and bright as new. I have tried this receipt on black silk, paramtas, lusters and merinos, and consider it the best I have used. It neither streaks, deadens the gloss nor rots the materials. Kerosene Stains Upon a Floor.— A correspondent writes from Pilot Mound, Minn., that the breaking of a kerosene lamp has caused a “ frightful spot” upon the floor, and wishes to know how it can be removed. Good kerosene has a boiling point of 380 degrees, considerably above the melting of lard—hence in order to drive it completely from any fabric, from paper, or from wood, it must be heated high enough to form a vapor, when, if pure, it may be completely removed. Heat may be applied to the floor by using flat-irons sufficiently hot, first placing a piece of paper over the spot. It may be that, after the oil is driven from the surface by heat, the stain will reappear ; some of the oil remaining in the wood will be brought to the surface by capillary attraction. In such a case it will be necessary to repeat the operation as often as the stain appears.