Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1874-01-03
DOMESTIC ECONOMY.
A Few Household Hints.

OILING.-Neyer allow Q door to creak for
want of oil, OF TO shut hard so as 10 require
slamnng to make il latch. For this parpose
pass around once q week At some regular time,
says Saturday evening or Monday morning,
with drop Of oil on feather, or on the tip OF
the finger, aud give every rubbing part, latch,
hinge, &c, a touch The door and walls will
last longer than when incessantly pounded AMI
battered, and the dissgrsesble no Sc will not
make sick persons worse or annoy well ones.
Scissors sometimes work hard, when a tenth of
a grain of oil, touched along the cutting edges
to make them move easily over each other, will
VENTILATION would be more easily accom-
plished and more certainly performed, and
rooms kept with pureI and healthier air. If
windows were made TO slide easily. Ii not hung
by pulleys and weights, add good and freely
Norking catches. Never permit = broken pane
CELLARS should be kept constantly clean-ss
much 50 As your psrlor. IL is the easiest
thing in the world, If you attend to It daily; and
only becomes Q heavy task when you ailo~
months accumulations-on the sarae priDci-
pie that the boy who combed his head once a
summer was amazed that any one could do it
daily.
OscE A WEEK 20 over all your house and out
houses, and see what wants attention to keep
all in perfect order You will md something
every time, and attend to it promptly.
Baking Apples.
Apples such usually find them, are far
from being perfect. They lack usually in rpany
qualities, such A. flavor, sweetness, readiness Of
cooking, hneness Of texture, and nay say APP
unfavorably with the bright, yellow and red i'm
an apple, when set baked on the table. Now
where one or more of these and other qualities
are lacking, substitute may be supplied, as
sugar where there is lack Of sweetness, the
spices where aroma is wanting, ami so on.
Sometimes much Ii to be done to a fruitto bring
1t up TO the proper point when II i largely de-
hcient. But If not deficient, any addition will
hurt, unless superior in virtue 10 the
quality added to- Hence to those who are
in love with the peculiar flavor of the ROT-
bury Russet, any addition or interference
here would be repealed. Still more 80 with
the SpitzenbuTgh, absolutely at the head OF
Now, TO attempt TO add to this fruit is like at
tempting to gild refined god--worse. it is
hurting the fruit. Yet in some stages this may
be done, as N the early stage, at Tlpening, aud
for weeks after, at which time an addition of
sugar improves it, because the sugar then is
deficient. 1t is only when the fruit has become
mellow that the SpitZenburgh needs no addi-
ton, no doctoriDg-needs nothing. Ii may then
be baked, put into pie, ste wed, fried, eaten out
OF hand, or cider made Of it; and in all nothing
farther is wished-it meets the full reauire-
ments-not indeed for every taste: this can be
done with no single fruit or dish whatever. But
to a cultivated taste, accustomed to the NICE
ties which embrace science, this fruit meets all
the requirements of an apple. Hence to use 1t,
when in its perfect state, is simply TO use il,
care only being taken TO apply properly the
heat when cooked; and this Is of some impor-
lance. Bake your apple slow, yet with all the
heat 1t will bear short Of breaking Tie SiH this to
keep IN the moisture, for, the skin broken,
evaporation, especially outside escape, rapidly
taxes place, forming coat or scale, dry, aad A
Don-conductor of heat, so that that part OF the
apple exposed does not bake unless heat is
applied hot enough to scorch the rest of the
irutt. Bake them several hours with uniform
heat until the fruit is thoroughly soft aud done
Then remove, open and take out ths core.
Apply sugar If not sweet enOugh-white sugar
granulaed best-miN and work with small
spoon To a fine pulp; then close and let cool.
The MASKING with a spoon is but aiding the
heat, doing What it left unfinished-reducng
SPltzenburgh with All its qualities intact,
soitened and mellowed down by the heat, and
thus improved AS a table dish. Butter or cream
would spoil it, however nice the product might
be. Spice would interfere with the flavor of
the ffuit Try the dish, and he careful in its
preparation.
Kerosene Lamps.
This il the season when nearly every paper
We take up relates some horrible casualty from
the explosion of kerosene lamp, or the like,
and women and children are either killed out
right or terribly burned. and SCARED for life.
simple knowledge OF the inhammabe nature
of the fluid would probably put an end to
nearly all the accidents. First, no lamps
should ever be filed after dark by the light
of "A candle Always do this work after tue
breakfast dishes are put away, and then not
only fill them, but wash the chimneys, for il
they are dim and smoky. you cannot expect to
have a bright light. Take the chimney in one
hand, and breathe through it; then draw
large wisp of paper up and down it, and all
the blur will be removed. III the chimney is
tidthSbCu WIN lamp SuOhts lufu WdTnlsn
water through the tube. and then wipe out
with paper in the same style as before. IL the
lamps are glass, and they become clOuded with
deposit from the kerosene, take lime water
IL at il milky with the lime aud shake il up In
the lamp. DO this with two different washings,
ard all the deposit will be removed. little
chloride of time, dissolved in warm water, and
left in lamp or can which has held kerosene,
Will deod0TiZe 1t very soon. Lamps must be
filled every morning. This is iH.perdtice duty
for every housekeeper to perform for As the
oil burns down in lamp, there is created a
highly iDhammable gas, which gathers imper
ceptible over the surface, and as fast the Oil
in consumed this gas increases, so when the oil
is nearly out Of the lamp the slightest jar of the
table will set the gas on lire; an explosion fol-
lows instantaneously, and bombshell Would
not be more destructive, for its touches are
deatbly. But if the oil is burned only half way
down in your lamp, the gas is not OF suff cent
power to do any injury; therefore let me beg OF
you never to defer the operation of lamp filling
to another day, but see yourself that 1t is done.
Country Gentleman.