The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1890-01-24
HOW TO DUST A ROOM.
A WOMAN WHO THINKS THERE SHOULD
BE A METHOD IN THIS AS IN OTHER
WORK.

A feather duster is an abomination,
writes Christina Terhune Herrick in q
recent number of The Housewife. In
the hands of careless housemaid it is
hlrted among the furniture, up about
the picture frames, down amid the
chair rungs, into hooks and corners,
scattering the dust everywhere, brush
ing the impalpable power from one spot
and driving it into another, until, when
the maid retires from her labors, all
the dust in the room has changed its
place, while but little of it has been
permanently removed.
There should be method in dusting
and it should be closely followed First
of all, the carpet should be brushed.
A thorough sweeping may not be-
necessary, but in most living rooms
there is daily need of carpet sweeper
or dust pan and brush, often of ali
three. The carpet sweeper is admir-
able for taking up the dirt in the mid
die of the room, but it is practically
useless in corners. Every housekeeper
should have one of the dust pans that
can be held in place by the foot. The
gain in comfort is imneasurable to the
woman who has been acustomed to
bend herself double when she wished
to brush up the fluff that she had
gathered together with her broom.
The high places of the room should
next receive attention, the cornices,
curtain poles, etc. A Turks head
brush is invaluable here and is easily
improvised by tying cloth or towel
around feather duster and attaching
this to the end of pole long enough to
enable one to touch the ceiling with
the brush.
For the other parts of the room a
cloth must be used. Old silk handker-
chiefs make excellent busters, but even
they are not superior to those of cheese
cloth. These should not be too large.
A duster a yard long by half yard
wide is big enough for all ordinary
purposes. Cheese cloth is so cheap
that there is no reason why every fam
lily should not be provided with a
generous supply of busters.
They must be he rmed, of course,
and may be prettily finished by a
feather stitching of bright marking
cotton. Such busters will 60 in to all
the hooks and corners, gathering up
the dust and retaining it. They shonld
be shaken after using and washed fire.
quently. 1t is tedious business to
dust the modern parlor. Filled with
bric-a- brac, adorned with hangings over
doors, windows and mantles, ornamen.
ted with bits of drapery flung over
easels and picture frames, it presents a
discourging aspect to the busy house
wife.
One must pay for having pretty aud
artistic surroundings, but, as long as the
dust gathering agencies are kept out
of sleeping rooms, little harm is done.
Everything shold be moved in dusting.
There should be no dusty rims left
around ornaments to show how the
cloth SKINNED around them without
touching them. Such carelessness
must be watched for in the housemaid
whose study often is to slight skillfully
instead of to perform her task thorou,
ghly.
| For busting tufted furniture, nothing
is better than an ordinary house paint
ing brush. The bristles go into every
crevice and fold of the covering ant
fray The material less than do tn,
straws of a whisk broom.