Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1881 — USEFUL HINTS. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL HINTS.

Cold rain water and soap will remove machine grease from washable fabrics. Kerosene will make your tea-kettle as bright as new. Saturate a woolen rag and rub with it. It will also remove stains from the clean, varnished furniture. Simple and tasteful table-covers for bedrooms may be made of pale blue Canton flannel trimmed with antique lace, or with velvet ribbon featherstitched on and finished with fringe made of blue split zephyr or Shetland wool. This is worth trying: Take half a teaspoonful of black pepper in powder, one teaspoonful of brown sugar and one teaspoonful of cream. Mix them well together and place them in a room on a plate where flies are troublesome and they will very soon disappear. An exchange says : “To clean out a stove-pipe, place a piece of zinc on the live coals in the stove. The vapor produced by the zinc will carry off the soot by chemical decomposition. Persons who have tried the process claim it will work every time. ” To revive old kid gloves make a thick mucilage by boiling a handful of flax seed ; add a little dissolved soap; then, when the mixture cools, with a piece of white flannel wipe the gloves, previously fitted to the hand ; use only enough to take off the dirt, without wetting through the glove. Recipe for making eau de cologne: To 3 pints of alcohol of 25 degrees add 12 j drachms oil of lemon, 1J drachms oil’of orange, 2 j drachms oil of cedrat, 1| drachms of vervain, 21 drachms oil of bergamot, 2} drachms oil of mint, 5 drachms oil of lavender, If drachms oil of white thyme, 2 drachms oil of Portugal, If drachms oil of rosemary, Bounces tincture of ambretta, and 1 pound eau de melisse. Mix well in a bottle, and after standing six hours add 2 j drachms tincture of ambergris. Then filter until clear. Very pretty vases can be made from long-necked bottles as follows : Saturate candle wicking or string with kerosene, wrap it around the bottle twice, and tie it, placing it where you want the neck of the bottle broken off. Light the wick all round, and in a few minutes a crackling noise will be heard, which tells you that the bottle is severed in two, and will leave you an article shaped like a tumbler. It is preferable to have them as long as possible, unless you desire more than one. If so, two tall ones and one about two-thirds their size make a pretty set. Cut out bands of gold paper and paste around near the top and bottom, also a circle for the center. Or, if you desire, they can be painted any color and ornamented with gilt stars and embossed pictures, after the manner of decorating pottery. [From the Des Moines (Iowa) State Register.] We notice the following in an exchange: Mr. G. B. Haverer, foreman N.Y. & N. 11. 8. B. Co., suffered for eight days with terrible pain in the back, almost to distraction, until he heard of and used St. Jacobs Oil, one bottle of which cured him completely.