The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-01-01
RATIONALE OF LAUNDRY WORK.

RATIONALE OF LAUNDRY WORK.
The Perfect Laudress and Her Prac-
tees.
To wash or not to wash, is seldom the
question.
Civilization so emphasizes cleanliness
as to make plentiful and regular launder-
ing imperative.
But the wisest woman of us may we'll
ponder the how and wherefore of clean
clothes. Soiled garments may duly go
through the suds, the boil, the rinsing
water, and yet come out almost as far
from clean as they went in. Indeed,
their case is often worse.
Every skilled laundress knows that it
is much easier to wash garment in the
original dirt than to make it white and
clean after it has come streaked and
gTimy from the tub.
The reason is not far to seek. A wise
man has defined dirt as s'inatter out OF
place. What is called ttdlrt'' upon our
clothes is mighty varied assortment of
'smatter, - spread usually on the outside
tihres of textile stuffs. Soap, water and
rubbing well applied will remove it. H.
applied the result is to ''set the Dirt by
carrying it so deep into the texture as to
Dirt Is got rid of in two ways-chemi-
cally and mechanically.
In the first the water dissolves it out
of the fibre; in the second, the particles
are expelled by rubbing, kneading or
pounding.
The soilure upon body and bed linen
has always more or less of oil from the
skin. With this soap unites to form a
compound soluble in water = especially
hot water; hence the efficacy in boiling
in soapy water.
On the other hand, acid or milky or
pasty spots are hardened by the action OF
alkalies and heat. Often, too, they are
discolored as well. Therefore everything
soiled IN such manner ought to be well
soaked in clear, cold water, then rubbed
through clear hot water, before dropping
into suds. Without such precaution the
last estate of table linen, children S gar
ments and many other things is apt to
be worse than the first. Fruit stains in
particular, readily removable after the
cold soaking, become darkly iudelible at
the touch of soap.
Chemically, soap is a salt, the COM
pound OF fatty and resinous matter with
an alkaline base. In a perfect soap the
ingredients balance exactly. Many of the
cheaper soaps have a resinous or else an
alkaline excess. The effect of alkali upon
fibre of all sorts is to eat ii and destroy it.
That is why many washing powders play
such havoc with our Wardrobes. They
do take out the dirt-no doubt of that
bat take 50 much of the garment along
with them as to make the triumph of
cleanliness dearly bought.
Soda, potash, borax and ammonia are
the chief of our chemical allies in the fight
with dirt. The two first are used chiefly
in she form of soap. BoraX Is used to
some e1tent as a component of soap, but
more largely in the form of powders.
Ammonia is used in a liquid state, and is
certainly a most valuable detergent.
1t is impossible to make clothes thor
oughly cleanywith soap and hard water,
since the lime Sf the water combines with
the aIkali Of the soap, throwing down
hard, powdery precipitate, and setting
free greasy, gray-white mud to float on
top of the suds and smear whatever is
in them. When hard water must be
used for washing, first soften it with I've,
using a cup full moderately strong
to a large tub of water. Lye from wood
ashes is best and can be made in country
kitchens, a months supply at a time
and bottled for use. Dissolved pearl ash
or even washing soda is generally used
in city kitchens. Never put in soda or
pearl ash in Jumps or powder. The TIM
est feck remaining undissolved may mean
disaster to every garment you wish most
to keep whole and sound. Dissolve an
hour before use-oyer night is better and
safer.
The perfect laundress is a compound of
mind and muscle.
She can rub as hard as fate when it is
really necessary-yet in general she saves
her energy and her garments SO wasteful
an expenditure. She knows that what is
saved in soap is more than lost in time
also that you cannot gather clean clothes
from dirty suds no matter how white and
strong the foam on top OF them.
Her tub is as full of suds as 1t will hold
without too much splashing over, yet is
not so full of garments that she cannot
freely souse and lave each piece.
She knows, TOO, that the dryer they are
Wrung the less dirt goes with them into
the boiler or the next tub.
She takes up nothing at haphazard-
Juggling now at a sleeve, now at neck
band, now cropping biindly for 1.-the dirty
place on the sheet" Instead she folds
the dirty spots on the outside before
water touches the garment, and when
they have been sufficiently soaped and
soused and rubbed, she gives the garment
vigorous plunging aud treating in ex
tense. She keeps her larher full strength.
Changes it often.
She knows that the quicker colored
things are washed and dried the brighter
they will be.
Above all-the crown and cap-sheaf Of
her practice-is her belief that thorough
rinsing is the secret OF fresh, clean-smell-
ing garments.
MARTHA McCUILocH WILLIAMS.