Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-01
TAKING CARE OF LINEN.
Every Housekeeper Should Have . Closet
for 1t-Borax as a Washing Material
Dutch Women Wash Once q Year-Neat-
ness In Folding-Managing Servants.


for ltBora1 as a Washing Material
Dutch Women Wash Once Year-Nsat-
ness In Folding Managing Servants.
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsrArcH.l
The housekeeper is poor indeed who can
not boast of linen closet, be it ever so
humble. 1t is worthy the name if the stock
on hand in the beginning numbers but q
dozen pieces; and it is surprising how it will
grow by occasionally adding an article.
There is an untold pleasure to the house.
keeper Of limited means In accumulating
linen piece by piece, which the one with q
full pocketbook to store the entire closet at
once knows nothing about. To accomplish
this result it is well for such a young wife to
/ know that it is better to put by one good
dinner cloth, sheet or towel than two poor,
fimsy ones. The process of accumulating
in this way may be slow, but in the end it
will be found the only one that is salts
factory.
After the linen closet is established the
next consideration is the care of it; and the
fastidious housekeeper will pride herself in
nothing more than in the keeping of her
linen pure, unimpeachably clean and
snowy white. To this end I know
Of nothing better than the use
of refined bora1, with due regard
of course, to proper washing, blueing,
rinsing, etc. In Holland and Belgium the
washerwomen understand the virtues of
borax, and use it not only for washing, but
also for bleaching, softening water, and i'm
proving starch-and their fame has gone
out to the uttermost parts Of the earth.
Their linen is as famous for whiteness as
the under-linen of the witches in Tam
O'Shanter. The proportion of powdered
borax used is large handful to about ten
gallons Of boiling water. The finest fabric
is not injured by its use, and the clothes
are made beautifully white with less labor
and with about one half the quantity fsoap
THEY WASH ONCE A YEAR
The facility with which washing is done
by the use of this detergent accounts for its
popularity in the Low countries and in Ger
many. where to many families washday
comes but once year. The notion OF clean
illness which prevails among the better class
of Germans forbids the storing or accumula-
tion of soiled linen in the dwelling house,
hence the necessity Of the "schwartzwasch-
kommer." built near by, where the soiled
or unwashed clothes are hung up, exposed to
the air, on poles or lines. We cannot but
commend them for this custom, and it would
be we'll for those housekeepers to take
hint who store soiled garments in the |
closets of sleeping rooms and under the
beds.
The humblest German haus-frau does not |
feel her poverty if she has an abundance of |
linen, and this she will have if possible, to |
the exclusion of other things which we |
might regard almost as needfuI. She is rich |
indeed if at the end of six months or year |
she can display long lines hung with i'm
maculate linen. We can thus understand |
how even at this day a chest of linen is re-
garded among the peasantry as part of |
their dover or marriage portion OF the
bride.
For these washings a week is usually |
taken and the event regarded as no ordinary |
one. 1t is something Of jubilees in which
fhe entire family takes part. An American
lady travelling IN Germany witnessed one Of |
these frolics," where four or five women
were washing from one capacious tub. |
When asked why they did not adopt the
easier plan of washing weekly one of them
replied that 'sthey feared the people might
think they had but two garments apiece"
FOLDING LINEN IN HOLLAND.
Neither are they more skill ed in washing
than they are in folding the linen-an ac-
complishment which each one of them is
expected to be proficient in before she be-
comes mistress Of home. In Holland es-
pecially the folding of linen requires con-
siderable skill and training. Much Of their
IdDTlC Is VI tuc utleSt tcAtuIc anu Qudllty, |
and they fashion the various pieces in IRON
ing into birds, animals, flowers and all man
ner of artistic shapes. Their linen closets
are often shown to visitors with the same
pride that china closets are shown else
where.
While speaking about the women of Hol-
land it may not be amiss to say it is a fact
beyond dispute that these Dutch house.
wives cannot be equaled in managing their
houses and servants. They seem born to
and the servants to obey. Doubt
less one cause is due to the regularity and
the precision with which their household
affairs are carried on. Unlike too many of
our American women who hire servants,
and, for lack of management, do the most of
the work themselves, they find opportunity
for the literature Of the day, leisure to
cultivate the taste for music and needle
work, and time to associate, being pre-
.minently social people.
EYxHd1 GA