Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1882 — SUGGESTIONS OF VALUE. [ARTICLE]

SUGGESTIONS OF VALUE.

Wild mint scattered about the house will rid it of rata and mice. Mranoßs should not be hung where the aun shines directly upon them. Warm soap-suds will keep the bugs off of house-plants and make them grow very fast. To remove finger-marks, putty-stains, etc;, from glass, put a little soda in the water with which you wash it. If kid gloves are laid upon a damp towel for two or three minutes, they will go on with less chance of tearing. Dish-towels and dish-cloths should be washed, scalded, and thoroughly dried every day, or they soon become musty. To keep linen from turning yellow put it away rough dry after washing and bleaching well and rinsing in blue water. A broom may be kept- in good condition for a long time if it is washed once a week in clean hot suds, and then hung up to dry. Good flour is not tested by its color. White flour may not be the best. The test of good flour is by the amount of water it absorbs. A range may be kept looking bright and nice with little trouble if it is wiped carefully with brown paper after greasy food has been cooked. To clean white kid shoes rub them gently and thoroughly with a perfectly clean white flannel cloth dipped in diluted ammonia water and white soap. To remove ink-stains from wood, take half a teaspoonful of oil of vitrol and dilute it with a teaspoonful of water, and apply with a feather to the damaged spot. Let it remain for a few moments and then rub it off quickly. If not successful the first time, repeat until the ink is entirely removed. It is an excellent plan to keep a large box in which all odds and ends of velvet, ribbons, etc., are keep. Such an omnium gatherum will prove a mine from which bindings, bonnet trimmings and other minor necessaries may frequently be extracted at need, and thus save many a dime or 25-cent piece. The appended recipe for tanning skins with the wool or fur on—for use in sleighs or wagons, or house-rugs, or for other purposes—is given by City and Country: “If the hides are not freshly taken off, soak them in water with a little salt until they ai’o soft as when green. Then scrape the flesh off with the fleshing knife, or with a smooth round edge, and with sheepskins the wool should be washed clean with softsoap and water and the suds thoroughly rinsed out. For each skin take four ounces of salt, four ounces of alum and one ounce of borax. Dissolve these in one quart of hot water, and when cool enough to bear the hand stir in sufficient rye meal to make a thick paste with half an ounce of Spanish whiting. This paste is to be spread over every part of the flesh side of the skin, which should be folded together lengthwise, wool side out, and left for two weeks in an airy place. Then remove the paste, wash and dry the skin. When not quite dry it must be worked and pulled out and scraped with a knife made for the purpose, shaped like a chopping knife, or with a piece of hard wood made with a sharp edge. The more the skin is -scraped and worked as it dries the more pliable it will be.”