Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1883 — THE LAUNDRY. [ARTICLE]

THE LAUNDRY.

Boiled starch is improved by the addition of a little spermaceti, or salt, or both, or gum arabic dissolved. To remove oil spots from matting, counterpanes, etc., wet with alcohol, rub with hard soap, then wash with cold water. The addition of three-quarters of an ounce of borax to a pound of soap, melted in without boiling, makes a saving of one-half in the cost of soap, and three-fourths the labor of washing, and improves the whiteness of the fabrics; besides the usual caustic effect is removed, and the hands are left with a peculiar soft and silky feeling, leaving nothing more to be desired by the most ambitious washerwoman. Freezing Clothes Dry.—The American Agriculturist deprecates the practice of allowing clothes to freeze dry for the reason that the wet fibres, even if but one-sixteenth of an inch long, are sufficiently expanded in freezing to greatly weakep, if not break them. The 1-112 inch of expansion in a thread 1 of an inch long is enough to break the small fibres, however tough and strong. Whitening Yellow Flannel.—Flannekthat has become yellow from being bably washed can be whitened by soaking it for two or three hours in a lather made of one-quarter of a pound of curd soap, two tablespoonfuls of powdered borax and two tablespoonfuls of carbonate of ammonia, dissolved in five or six gallons of water. Boil the soap in small shavings in water till dissolved, then add to it the other ingredients. Let the flannel it until it looks whiter, then squeeze and press it, and rinse in bluing water, and hang up in the hot sun to dry. Iron while it is still damp. To Wash Flannel Dresses.—Boil a quarter of a pound of yellow bar soap in three quarts of water, slicing the soap into thin shavings, and letting it boil until it is all dissolved. Take a tub of lukewarm water, and add enough of the hot soapsuds to make a good lather. Dip the dress in and rub it well, but do not rub soap upon it, for it will leave a white mark. Wring it out with the hands, not with the wringer, because it creases it badly. Wash in another water with a little more of the soapsuds', if it is much soiled. Then wring it again, and dip into lukewarm water to rinse it, and make it very blue with the indigo bag. Shake it out thoroughly after wringing it, and dry in the shade until damp enough to iron on the wrong side. It must not be dried entirely before it is ironed. Colored woolen or cotton stockings can be washed in the same way, and rinsed in strong salt and water to keep the colors from running, instead of blued water.