Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1885-05-27
THE HOUSEHOLD.
Helps for HO,ssesUOs.E.

One failing we women have is willing
ness to worry along without proper utensils
to do our work with. We go on lifting the
heavy iron pot to boil a half-dozen potatoes in
when three-quart granite kettle or even
cheap tin one would be so handy. We do
without the extra broom for the best car
PETS and this is piece of poor economy:
we lack good sharp knife cutting meat
little one to pare vegetables with, boiler
for oatmeal, carpet sweeper; there is
scantiness OF clothes-p!ns, no Switchboard for
ironing dresses, and so on. This lack
makes the work a third more 1rksome.
No man would blunder along SO much.
But he is ma ter of his pocket-book,
giving thought to the subject she
could get tho desired articles. because really
these things do not cost meSSh. The usual
kind of hired girl will not do without the
herself, and it is better to have the conven-
lent utensils and then dispense with the help
if possible. AS unski led as the girls for
homework are now, they often largely in
crease the nervous wear Of housekeeping.
A good carpetrsweeper is great help, but
be sure 1t IS good one before you buy it;
of course, it will not dig out all the corners
or perfectly sweep the room without the aid
of broom, but by sweeping a sitting-room
about the edges and corners once a week
thoroughly with bI Dom and finishing it of
with the carpet-sweeper to take up the dust
you keep it neat the rest Of the time by the
use OF the sweeper and without raising
dust. The threads from your sewing, the
seed and feathers from the bird cage, and the
children's litter all vanish without your hav-
ing to stoop once to the fioor.-Anie II. Whita-
ke,, IN Arthur's Magazine.
Oilcloth.
The best is always the cheapest in the
end. Burlap forms the body of all
floor oilcloth. The material is irst sized,
which is done by treating it to a saturaEion
of dissolved glue. 1t passes then through
fifteen heated wire rollers. which not only
dries 1t but presses the glue water into the
porous material and removes all inequalities
of surface. 1t then passes to the paint rooms
to receive its first and many subsequent coats
OF paint, the principal ingredient OF which is
Ochre, OF which, it is said, thirty tons are
used weekly. The paint is literally put on,
and the cloth, after passing undera roller to
press out superduous paint, is run on long
are heated steam pipes. After re-
naming on the racks a prescribed NUM-
Der OF hours the cloth Is run through
machine, where it is pumice stoned
ceives second coat of paint, and is again
pumtce.stoned, and SO On until the requisite
number of coats are put on both sides. The
well-prepared material now goes into the
hands of the printer. This work il all done
by hand, ard it requires considerable expert
ence on the part OF the wOckmen to make .
good job. Every color rquires separate i'm
preston, the. blocks in the hands of the
workmen being about eighteen inches square,
and great care must be taken that the block
is placed in the proper place. as 4 hairs
breadth displacement would show; also, that
the proper blocks are taken up in their o:der.
After being well dried in bteam-heated cham.
bers, the now nearly finished goods goes to
the vanishing machine, where a number of
arms, with brushes attached, and worked in
almost exact imitation of q painters arm, are
passed over it, giving it Il complete and
evenly distributed coat. when, after drying
and trimming, the article Is ready for
market.