Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1882 — USEFUL HINTS. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL HINTS.

Neats foot oil is the best for softening leather. Aiß-SDAOKEDIime is an excellent polish for silver and tin ware. For tender feet, rub them with spirits mixed with tallow dropped from a candle before retiring. For strengthening the hair use the following : Scald black tea, two ounces, with one gallon of boiling water, strain, and add three ounces of glycerine, tincture of cantharides one- half ounce, and bay rum one quart. Mix well by shaking, then perfume. Garments to be ironed in cold starch should be immediately dipped in boiling water, and ironed as soon as starched. You will, in this way, have no trouble with flats sticking to the doth. Another good way is to wet the starch with weak, cold suds made from white soap. For dandruff, the following is an excellent remedy: Take one ounce of flour of sulphur and one quart of water. Pour off the clear liquid after the mixture has been repeatedly shaken during intervals of a few hours. Wash the head with this every morning, and avoid using a fine comb. How to Detect Incipient SmallPox.—The feeling of tiredness and pain in the back are almost universal and prominent symptoms, but the one thing that distinguishes small-pox from every other is the hardness of the eruption. By pressing or passing the hand over the forehead or legs the feeling is exactly that which wotud be caused by me-dium-sized shot being buried under the skin, and the severity of the disease may certainly be known by the number or thickness of these shot like bumps.

Baby’s First Steps.—A young child’s bones are soft and cartilaginous, and keeping a poor little thing tied up against a chair, when it ought to be lying on its back kicking the air and strengthening its limbs, or crawling on the nursery floor, is positively injurious and sinful. It is done with the view of teaching it all the sooner to maintain the erect attitude; but bent legs may be the result, and, however strong a bent-legged man may be, he certainly does not look elegant. Let the child creep, then, and as soon as he finds that he can pull himself up, and stand by the side of a box, he will do so. This is the only safe and natural process. Soon after this he will, if encouraged, venture upon what parents call the first step. Let him creep, and when he walks and falls, laugh at him. Unless you want to make the child an idiot, do not rush to pull him up. Children are not at all brittle, and they ought to' learn at a very early age to depend upon the strength nature has endowed them, with. Some nurses tie a band around a poor child’s waist, and then shove him, kicking and sprawling, on before them, during which time the child looks as graceful as the golden lamb which hosiers hang out as a sign. The practice is most injurious. Eatingl Between Meals.—ls your children are disposed to be greedy, and desire food between meals, reason with them on the subject A woman who has even a very superficial knowledge of the working of the stomach can explain it to her child in such a way that it will make a strong impression upon his mind. To represent to an imaginative child that the stomach is like a man who,.adieu ho has eat§n his breakfast, pops tp work upon that with all his might, and who does not rest until he has ground the food up and given the good part to the blood, so feeding each portion of the body, not forgetting the lingers and toes even, and who rejects all the bad, keeping you from sickness and pain, will awaken interest in the child’s mind, and be a great aid to obedience. Put it before him, and ask him if it is not unkind and even cruel to give out another tusk before the first is finished and a little time for rest been given. It will help you greatly in enforcing it upon his mind that he must not eat at irregular intervals. A child’s digestive organs may be weak; he may need to oat more frequently than a grown person, but it should invariably be at some stated time. Cake or pastry should be given him but seldom, if at all; there is nothing which is more ruinous to the digestive organs.