Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1884 — WHAT EVERYBODY SHOULD KNOW. [ARTICLE]

WHAT EVERYBODY SHOULD KNOW.

; IFrom Dio Lewis" Monthly.) Make new stiff rope flexible by boiling it two hours in water. Loosen screws and nuts by pouring on the thread a little kerosene. Pare apples by pouring scalding tt-ater on them, then quickly slip off the skins. Prevent the formation of crust in itea-kettles by keeping in them an oyster shell. Scour knives with brick dust or pow,der by using, instead of a rag and water, !a potato cut smooth at the end. Make modeling clay moist and plastic for a great length of time by kneading it with glycerine instead of water. Prevent weeds growing on gravel walks by sprinkling them well with a solution Of two pounds blue vitroil in six gallons of watojh j Preserve carpets and prevent dust rising from between the boards of the Boor, by laying down under the carpets large sheets of paper. Restore yellow flannels to white by soaking them in a solution of soap suds and ammonia water. Wash the flannels afterward in clear water. Prevent ivory knife handles from cracking while washing by soaking the blades in a pitcher of w ater, instead of laying them down in a pan. Prepare indelibly marked wooden labels for garden use by writing with a soft lead pencil on the surface of the label moistened with linseed oil. Keep iron farm implements from rusting during the winter by rubbing them over with kerosene. Treat stoves the same way during the summer. Clean brass with a solution made by dissolving one tablespoon fuf oxalic acid and two tablespoonfuls triiVoUlb a half pint of soft w'ater. Apply with a woolen rag, and after a few minutes wipe dry and polish. Clinkers may be loosened from firebricks by throwing in the fire-box, when very hot, two or three quarts of oyster or clam shells, or a less quantity of salt, allowing the fire to go out, and then cleave off the clinkers. Loosen ground-glass stoppers by wrapping around the neck of the bottle a thick rag wet with hot y-ater. Remove the stopper before the heat reaches and expands it. If sticky, drop a little camphene between the neck and stopper. To make wood indestructible from rot or fire, immerse it in a saturated solution of borax, heated to the boiling point. Let the wood remain in the solution twelve hours > take out, dry, immerse again in a w-eaker solution three hours, and dry. Make lead-pencil writing indelible by laying the written sheet face upwards in a shallotv dish and cover with skimmed milk; dry carefully. Pencil writing may be made partially indelible by moistening it with saliva or even by breathing slowly upon it. . The use of tobacco, for over 5,000 years, according to one author, was cellfined to Central America. In the year that " Columbus discovered America, while lying oft' Cuba, he sent two men ashore "to reconnoitre. On their return they reported that they saw “the naked savages twist large leaves together, light one end in the fire and smoke like devils.”