Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-07-08
THE HOUSEHOLD.
Little Thing. in the IIOu.ewife's way

Little Things in the IHOusewife's Way.
A knowledge of many little facts that are
not always to be had systematically laid down
in books, but which descend additionally
from mother to daughter by word of mouth,
as the unwritten music Of the songs of Shaks-
peare descends from actress to actress is often
more useful to the sorely bestead young house
mistress than all the Latin and mathematics
that she learned at school can be. She may
know how to play Beethoven's sonatas so as
to hold a drawing room breathless and en-
tranced, but 1t stands her poorly If while she
plays, great ink spot on the drawing room
carpet stares her in the face, that she does
not know how to wash out with milk, and
clean up afterward with warm and nice soap
suds, or grease spot that could have been
absorbed out of existence by frequent appli-
cations Of magnesia or buckwheat -four, il
she had only known enough to sprinkle it
abundantly on the spot, and brush it off af
terward. What does it benefit her that her
ready wit and repartee can keep whole din
ner table gay, while the fine cookery, that at
no end of trouble she has taught her cook,
keeps them contented, if the company are forced
all the time to be nervously flirting hats and
napkins and adjectives against the pestifer-
Gus flies that she could have driven away by
leaving in the room, an hour or SO before
hand, a little preparation of equal quantities
OF cream and brown sugar, and half as much
black pepper, had her mother ever known as
much, or thought to tell her of il? OF what
use is it to her, living possibly far from
bakeries and bread shops, to keep crackers
for instance, in the house if she has never
learned how to freshen them by leaving them
for three minutes in a hot oven, or to pre-
vent them being nibbled all over by ants by
strewing the storeroom shelves with few
cloves, occasionally renewed? Such things
are trihes, each one by itself, of course but
half hundred such things can contribute
very materially to comfort and good nature
in family.
If the knowledge that the steam of green
tea will revive her rusty black lace, and make
it as fresh as new, has not descended to her
of what good is it that the lace has Or why
should she have costly bit of the beautiful
Brussels lace in her keeping if nobody has
ever told her to shut it away from the air or
from peculiarly strong perfume She will
spend more presently in frequent repairs and
redressings than the lace cost in the first
place. She can afford possibly to wear gold
embroidery, in an era of gliding, if she
knows enough to clean it, when it furnishes
with brush dipped in burned and pulverized
rock alum and she may be splendid aud
graceful in long white ostrich plumes that
would need as long purse to provide fire.
quently, if she had never seen them dipped
and dipped again in the thick warm lather of
curd soap, then rinsed and dried, and curled
over a knitting needle before the fire She
may be the best of cooks, and know how to
make twenty different omelets but if she is
not acquainted with the fact that little salt
rubbed on the dscolored eggspoon will re.
store its silver tint, she would better not serve
the eggs in any shape and if they that had
the care of her youth never let her see that
hot water tOOk mach ltaipu mt nf tab
cloth, or that port and claret stains were rem
dered dull by an immediate handful of salt,
wet with sherry, she might as well buy gray
and partly-colored damask to begin with.
What right has she to be at the head of
family if she is not sufficiently mistress of
herself and of few surgical facts to arrest
the bleeding of cut limb by tight ligature
between the cut and the pulsing heart ?-if
she does not know that always handy mus
tard and water will empty the stomach that
has received poison, or that the white of an
egg when administered internally will trans
form swallowed corrosive sublimate with its
deadly torture in the simple salvation of blue
mass I-if she can not distinguish between
apoplexy and drunkenness by knowing that
the limb will convulsively withdraw in the
former case if the sole of the foot be tickled
and does not then further know that the
clothing must be once loosened, and blsters
be applied to the calves of the legs, the pit of
the stomach, and the back of the neck? If
she be pioneers wife, it would be a useful
thing for her to remember that when her
grandmother was pioneers wife before her,
she found pine sawdust nearly as good as
soap with which to wash her linen And if
she is in the heart of civilization her husband
can with better relish set choice wines before
his guests if she has learned, SO that she
may understand, whether or not it is we'll done
by her servants, that port should be carefully
decanted, and that warmth brings out the fla
vor of claret instead of ice.-Hdrper's Bazar.