The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1875-05-06
alsefnl' aud Curious.
SPRING WORK.

As the lengthening days grow warmer and
brighter, housekeepers realize more fully that
the recurring Onerous labors of Spring are upon
them. Those TO whom the yearly routine OF do
mestic toll has from long habits become easy and
familiar, move leisurely through April and May,
accomplishing without friction the duties appro-
pirate to these months. Some very windy day Is
chosen for the cleaning of all the blankets IN the
hOdse. With a wringer and a washer, or what
is almost as good, a pounding barrel this task Is
easily gone through. The chief difficulty is heat
ing water fast enough to keep the work from be-
ing retarded. Two half days given TO cleansing
blankets and quilts will finish this task for a
year. If pair of masculine hands can be pro-
cured to work the FOUNDER aud turn the wringer,
i'll such a case the "gude wife" may have time
by and by to drop corn, or to weed in the gar
den.
Then on day of comparative leisure, dne at
tention will be given TO the bedsteads. Thorough
busting, careful washing with hot soap suds,
and an application of the whites of eggs beaten
up with quicksilver Zone white to five cents
worth of quicksilver, put on with n feather) will
insure freedom from nightly visitation of unwel-
come guests.
Then comes the cleaning of paint, the shaking
of carpets, the cleansing of curtains and "put-
ting things to rights" A few drops of ammonia
added to the water with which the paint is clean
sed will render the work easy; whiting also is
very useful in removing spots and CRIME; cold
tea is used for cleansing grained wood. After
the carpets are thoroughly shaken and tackled
down, then, if they look solid, they may be
scrubbed with a brush in the same way that I'M
painted floors scrubbed, and restored to their
original color, or at least be very much improved
thereby. Even velvet carpets rejoice under this
heroic treatment. The water used in washing
them should be frequently changed, and made
alkaline with a gall or ammonia rather than
with soap. The soiled water should be poured
on the house plants or around the roots of rose
bushes or fruit trees, as it is a good fertilizer
and heightens the color of blooming plants If
whitewashing, kalsomining, planting, or paper
ing are to be done, the work should be arranged
in the above order. Now that paint is sold in
large paint stores ready mixed for use and of
skill can apply it herself, and varnish likewise.
With kalsOmine and coat of yarnish on the
furniture, and paint on the wood work, a room
seems as if furnished anew. The expense, leav
ing out the labor, is trivial. Directions for con-
Quoting these various household improvements
have been repeatedly given in this column.
1t is neither necessary nor possible that all
this work shall be done in one day or in two days
If by easy stages, one thing at time is accom-
plished by the beginning of Summer, which falls
on the 22d of June, any reasonable ambition
should be satisfied. Young housekeepers are apt
to feel that everything must be done at once
and looking down the vista of the next two or
three months, the accumulation of work fairly
takes their breath away. They need to remind
themselves, in the language of Jane Taylor's Dis
cOntented Pendulum that ''for every tick re-
quired a second is allowed to tick in" and be
contented to live just one day at time, doing
the work of that day, and borrowing no trouble
for the next day, though they may, by wise fore
cast, anticipate and provide for its demands.
So far as may he, these internal improvements
should be carried on without disturbing the or
binary routine of daily life. There should always
be one room unvisted of hubbub, where the fam
lily can gather at meal time and in the evening
in quiet comfort. 1t is as impOite and unwise
as it is uncomfortable to tear up the whole house
at once and turn everybody out of doors. Of
and kalsomining, that when begun must not
pause until they are finished, but one room at a
time will suffice under pressure, and it is quite
desirable that the mistress of the house should
emerge from her arduous labors, not only alive,
but in OVERLOOKING health and spirits.