Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1891 — THE HOUSEHOLD. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE HOUSEHOLD.

How to IMnko » Watnr-Kilter. Chas. Wilson, of Winmetka, 111., has contributed the following to tho “Short Cuts” column of the Practical

Farmer: Not feeling disposed to pay SB.OO for a three-q u a r t crock filter, I filter my water with a ten -gallon keg and ordinary water cask,» as .shown in ’sketch. A I number o f j one-quarter . inch holes are bored into

the bottom of keg. Inside I put a four inch layer of coarse gravel, another of sand, same thickness,, near a layer of pulverized charcoal, and this covered with a piece of cheese cloth, to catch any coarse material. Gravel and sand, of course, should be previously well washed. I fill my keg from the cistern; but the waterspout from the house could he connected with it. Cost of filter is very slight. Social Hint* A young woman unconsciously struck the key-note of covcrsational ability, in her comment the other day upon a friend: “I like to talk to him,” she said emphatically; “he makes me think of something to say.” The ability to draw out one’s compan. ion in conversation is far greater and rarer than the possession of fluency in expressing one’s own opinions. A persistent talker, even if brilliant, becomes tiresome after awhile. Said a clever hostess, planning a dinner which she wished specially suecessful: “I can’t ask Mrs. S., though on some accounts I shoald like to; she talks so unceasingly that she soon depresses the company.” A man expands the same idea a little more when he said he had enjoyed encountering a person slow to awaken the spirit of a conversation. “There is no game,” he says, “in these brilliant people, who, meet you alert, manysided, responding instantly to every subject suggested. All you can do is to go down before them; while the other sort it is a pleasure and subtle flattery to one’s skill to rouse and develop.” To Cool a lle<l-Room. If the sleeping-room is warm, it may he cooled for a time by wringing large pieces of cotton out of water and hanging them before the window, says the Ladies’ Home Journal. Leave the door open, and as the air comes through the wet cotton it will be cooled. This is a good device for cooling a sick room; the cloths can be wet again and again. Keep the gas turned low during the process of undressing and sleep without a lamp, unless it is a tiny night lamp.