Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1875 — Carpet Sweeping. [ARTICLE]

Carpet Sweeping.

In no other department of the household labor is there so much room for improvement as in respect to sweeping. I think it safe to say that ninety-nine out of every 100 women who do this work thwart, in large measure, the end sought by their manner of doing it. Year after year they go on, flinging the dust to the opposite wall at every stroke, converting with their best efforts the air of the apartment into a choking cloud of dust. The sweeping done, they stoically wait for the dust to settle (upon the furniture only), as they never seem to take into consideration the fact that an equal amount to the square inch falls to the share of the carpet they have been toiling so rigorously to free from the same. The air cleared, the dusting begins, which in a large majority of cases results in a further addition of dirt to the carpet, it being accomplished by simply brushing off the same such dust as has alighted upon the furniture. The carpet is then pronounced clean; but any lady wearing black will tell you it would have soiled her train less to have drawn it across that room before the broom went into it. It is the settling of these smudges, a portion of which attaches to the draperies, walls and everything depending from them, that gives to so many otherwise pleasant rooms such a dirty, sooty appearance and which causes so many carpets to be forever dirty. “ But car-pet-sweepers are a nuisance,” say you, “ except to pick up with, and what is to be done?” I will tell you what has been done in my own house for the past twelve years and you shall judge if there be not a better way. When a room is to be “ done up” all the tables and what-nots bearing books, toys, etc., as well as such articles of furniture as will prove troublesome to dust, are covered by a variety of old print spreads (rhlics of past dressskirts, which have cost nothing but the saving). Then the curtains, walls, pictures, etc., are all thoroughly swept down with a feather duster. The carpet is then divided into sections not more than two or three yards square, each of which is swept by itself and toward the center, to avoid taking the dirt further than is necessary. The first time over the stroke of the broom is light, short and slowly and carefully managed, so as to raise no dust. The second time a longer and harder stroke is allowed; while for the third there are no limitations, save the exercise of a little care as the heap in tire middle is approached. - Any person unacquainted with this method would be surprised to see how nice and clean a very dirty and dusty carpet may be made by it without raising a bit of smudge. I have taught the process to girls of all nationalities and with unvarying success. They are usually a little impatient with the first effort, as it requires about double the time generally given to the ordinary sweep. But my demonstration that the same depth of dust which they see on the furniture (I always let them sweep one room in their own way first, making.as much dust as they like, and use the furniture of that for my lesson) is also on this clean carpet, although not as visible, has never yet failed to astonish them or cbnvince them of the superiority of my method. And the time lost in sweeping is always more than gained in dusting and cleaning up afterward; notwithstanding, I insist that the final dusting shall be done by carefully wiping

with a soft cloth, which as often as soiled shall be shaken out of doors. When a room is “done up” in this manner the dirt is really all out of it. 1 rarely find it necessary to repeat such a sweep oftener than once a week in any room. The intervening time I pick up with a carpet-sweeper, or brush carefully on to a dust-pan. Managed in this way your rooms are nice and fresh-looking up to the very day of house-cleafilng. I am sure I shall be met with the objection of the wear of the carpets, as this has often been urged. Nevertheless it is an incontrovertible fact that my carpets have worn beyond precedent, looking bright and new till the very last. In the light of my experience, I stoutly maintain that dust and dirt have ground out a hundred where the broom has ever destroyed one.—Cor. Hearth and Home. Among topics most discussed at the late openings was the rumored revival of crinoline. It was said at one house that some of the most fashionable customers had ordered hoop-skirts, and Jarge tournures were readily sold everywhere. Some of the most fashionable modistes have no faith in the return of crinoline, as all their newly-imported dresses have narrow skirts, and the Parisiennes at present are wearing very moderate tournures. The preference here is for elaborate bouffant tournures that extend far down, making the dress project sharply out quite a distance behind, but so slenderly that nothing is added to the sides, and leaving the clinging, sheathlike front of the dress unchanged.— Harper's Bazar.