Gloucester County Democrat., 1879-02-11
DrDiesGr.
Useful Hints for the Household.

When molasses is used in cooking it
is an improvement to boil and skim it
before you use it. 1t takes out the
unpleasant, raw taste and makes it
almost as good as,sugaT.
In winter set the handle Of your
pump as high as possible before you go
to bed. Except in very cold weather,
this keeps the handle from freezing.
When it is extremely cold throw rag
OF blanket over the pump.
Keep an old blanket and sheet on
purpose for ironing; have plenty OF
holders always made that your towels
may not be burned out in such SER
vice.
A good housekeeper never allows her
carpet broom to be used for sweeping
the outside stairs or yard; keep a
coarse broom for this purpose. -
Have all the good bits Of vegetables
and meats collected after dinner and
minced before they are set away, that
they may be in readiness to make a
little savory mince meat for supper or
breakfast. Take the skins off potatoes
before they are cold.
Walls which have been used for
medicine should be put into cold ashes
and water, boiled, and suffered to cool
before they are rinsed.
Never leave out your clothes-line
over night; and see that your clothes
pins are all gathered into basket.
| Have plenty of crash towels in the
| kitchen; never let your white towels
or napkins be used there.
Soap your dirtiest clothes and soak
them in warm water over night. Use
hard soap to wash your clothes, and
soft to wash your floors. Soft soap is
so slippery that it wastes a good deal
in washing clothes.
A little salt sprinkled in starch
while it is boiling, tends to prevent it
from sticking; it is likewise good to
stir it with a clean spermaceti candle.
A few potatoes sliced. and boiling
water poured over them, make an ex-
cellent preparation for cleansing and
stiffening old rusty black silks. Green
tea is also excellent for this purpose.
1t should be boiled in iron, nearly a
cup full to three quarts. The silk
should not be wrung and should be
ironed damp.
Court plaster is made of thin silk,
first dipped in dissolved isinglass and
dried, then dipped several times in
white of an egg and dried.
Lime pulverized, sifted through
coarse muslin, and stirred up tolerably
thick in white Of eggs, makes a strong
cement for glass and china. Plaster
of Paris is still better, particularly for
mending broken images of the same
material. 1t should be stirred up by
the spoonful, as it is wanted.
A bit of .isinglass dissolved in gin,
or boiled in spirits of wine, will make
strong cement for broken glass, china,
and sea-shellS.
The lemon syrup bought at stores
can be made at home much cheaper.
Take pound of Havana sugar, boil it
in water down to a quart, drop in the
white of an egg to clarity it, strain it,
add one-quarter Of an ounce of tartaric
or cftric acid. If you do not find it
sour enough after it has stood two or
three days, add more of the acid. A
| few drops of oil Of lemon improve it.
If you wish to clarity sugar and
water that you are about to boil, it is
well to stir in the white OF an egg,
while cold; if put in after 1t boils, the
egg is apt to get hardened before it can
do any good.
Glass vessels in a cylindrical form
may be cut in two by tying around
them worsted thread, thoroughly
wet with spirits of turpentine, and
then setting fire to the thread.-Free
Press.
To PRESERVE FLOWERs.-1. Mix a
tablespoonful of carbonate of soda in
a pint of water, and in this place your
bouquet. 1t will preserve the flowers
for fortnight. 2. Sprinkle the bou-
quet lightly with fresh water, and
then put it in vessel containing soap
suds. This will keep the flowers as
fresh as if just gathered. Then every
morning take the bouquet out of the
suds, and lay it sideways-the stock
entering first-into clean water, keep
it there minute or two, then take it
out and sprinkle the flowers lightly by
the hand with water, replace it in the
soap suds, and it will bloom as fresh
as when first gathered. The soap suds
need changing every three or four
days. BY observing these rules (says
lady who has tested them), bou-
quet may be kept bright and beautiful
for at least month, and will last
still longer in passable state. 3. We
have heard that the natural color of
flowers may be preserved for any
length of time by dipping them for
moment in clear glycerine. When the
glycerine dries, the various tints are
seen almost as bright as before the
flowers were plucked.