Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 January 1892 — Household Notes. [ARTICLE]

Household Notes.

Greasy kettles wash much better if taken while hot. Most fruit stains can betake® from table linen by pouring boiling water over the stain before wetting the cloth in cooler water. An exchange recommends bunches of green tansy strewn around, as a remedy for red ants in the house. Another recommends dry saltor brimstone. Neat housekeepers do not use the dish towel about the oven, or to lift hot dishes from the stove. A stove cloth is as important as a duster or dish towel. The fragrant pillows area comfort, if only they are not covered with so much finery that one cannot use them. White covers that admit of being washed are the most satisfactory. Sweet ferns, pine needles or hops are agreeable. To make tins shiae wash them in hot soap-suds, dip a dampened cloth in fine sifted coal ashes, then polish with dry ashes. In washing cloths It is well to remember that too much bluing renders clothes yellow after a time. Inexperienced or careless servants think the more bluing in the water the better for the wash, and it is a difficult matter to convince them that the clothes will look far better if only a small quantity is used. The first rip in a glove should be mended at once, using a very fine needle and sewing silk for this purpose. A tear is not so easily repaired. First work around the edges in buttonhole stitch, then draw these stitches together in the center, working over and over. If this is done neatly the tear will hardly be noticed. The time has passed when a man who cooked or who engaged in other feminine employments was considered less entitled to respectful consideration. There .are men dressmakers, men milliners and cooks, and there might be a greater number of boys willing to give household service to their mothers when servants can not be hired.