Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 August 1881 — USEFUL HINTS. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL HINTS.

Linen garments which have become yellow from time may be whitened by being bathed in a lather made of milk and pure white soap, a pound of the latter to a gallon of the former. After the boiling process the linen should be twice rinsed, a little blue being added to the last water used. To utilize the feathers of ducks, chickens and turkeys, generally thrown aside as refuse, trim the plume from the stump, inclose them in a tight bag, rub the whole as if washing clothes and you will secure a perfectly uniform and light down, excellent for quilting, coverlets and other purposes. When a sudden, though probably brief, visitation of fine and warm summer weather entails a small plague of flies and insects, it is well to remember that the prompt application of an alkali to the bitten part allays the irritation and commonly at once relieves the suffering consequent on a class of injuries, which, though small, are often exceedingly annoying and even troublesome, especially in the case of children and persons with sensitive skins. Soda and ammonia will answer tne purpose.

Tea drinkers nowadays will do well to apply the following simple test to the tea purchased of their grocers. Turn out the infused leaves, and if they are a good brown color, with fair substance, the tea will be wholesome ; but if the leaves are black and of a rotten texture, with an oily appearanoe, the tea will not be fit to drink. The purer the tea the more the distinctively brown color of the leaf strikes the attention. The mixing that is frequently adopted to reduce prices results in the two kinds of leaves being supplied together. It is important to see that the leaves have the serrated or saw-like edges, without which no tea is genuine. The best material for cleaning coat collars and grease spots of all kinds is pure benzine. The article is sold at the principal drug stores in cities. That used by painters is not puro enough, and has a very unpleasant odor, which the pure article has not, and the little which it has soon disappears. If this cannot be obtained, strong alcohol (95 per cent.) will clean collars very well. A mixture of equal parts of strong alcohol and water of ammonia is also used. The trouble with all these liquids is that not enough is used; a small quantity only softens and spreads the grease spot; they should be applied in sufficient quantity and repeated to not only dissolve the foreign matter, but to wash it out. During one of the discussions on the alimentation and diseases of infants, which now occupy so much attention in France, M. Jules Guerin stated that the addition of a little charcoal (about half a teaspoonful of Belluc’s or other finelypowdered charcoal) to a nursing-bottle full of milk exerts a most remarkably curative effect on the diarrhea of infants. He has repeatedly seen children who had become exhausted by seven or eight days’ duration of an obstinate diarrhea regain all the appearance of health in two or three days. At the same time that the charcoal is added, the milk should also be diluted with half or a third of sugared water, the children taking the mixture without any repugnance, and no vomiting being induced.