Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-07-04
HOUSEHOLD DRuooERY.


Uas of PetroIeum In Laundry and Kitohea
Saves Much Labor.
Every day the virtues of mineral oil
become more widely known. until
there seems to be really no limit to the
service one may eventually expect
from it.
But it is in the household that the
uses of the oil have been most recently
discovered, and here its value is most
actively appreciated. Its special char
acteristic is that of cleansing agent,
and there really seems to be no object
of domestic service that is not benefited
by the application.
1t has, for example, robbed window
washing OF all its terror, and under its
mild and oleoginous regime the long
procession of pals, brushes, cloths, pa
pers and channels skins which followed
the housemaid about from spot to spot
all through window cleaning day have
vanished, never to return. Now all
she considers necessary is q cloth,
small basin of warm water, cup half
full of kerosene and one clean
channels.
She takes her small hair brush and
cleans away all the dust from about
the window lodges The cloth is
dipped into the water and rung out
nearly dry: about q teaspoonful of the
oil is poured upon it, and with this
the pane is rubbed clear and trans
lucent almost by a turn of the wrist.
The channels is used as q polish, and
not a single cloud or smear-such as IN
the old days the maid was constantly
being reprimanded for-mars the glis-
tening surface of the glass. Moreover,
windows washed by the new kerosene
method retain their brilliancys and
cleanliness nearly twice as long.
Mirrors have given up their cantan-
nervousness under the same treatment.
Tins in the kitchen feel the magic of
mineral Oil. and where long securing
was necessary to keep them bright and
shining in the past, to-day the up-to-
date cook dips her flannel cloth in
kerosene, then into powdered lime or
common whiting, and with these scours
her tins into likeness of the kerosene
cleaned mirrors, and all with only half
the labor. Of course they want thor
ough rinsing in hot suds afterward to
free them of all odor. but the real toll
of securing is what she breads, and not
the quick and easy rinsing.
If she has an oil-cloth on her floor
she adds a gill of kerosene to her scour-
ing water, dips a mop in a pail, passes
it quickly over the painted surface,
dries it with flannel cloth and with
this slight effort leaves it bright
and polished almost as new, and an oil
cloth treated in this manner will out
last one scrubbed up in the old way
twice over.
Perhaps, however. the most valuable
quality yet discovered in kerosene as a
household agent is its power of cleans
ing soiled clothes. A bar of soap should
be shaved up into a quart of warm
water and allowed to stand until it has
quite melted. Into this stir one table
spoonful of kerosene oil and set aside.
Take the most soiled of the white
clothes-colored ones are not benefited
by this process-lay them in soak with
just enough water to cover them. Soap
them well with the soft soap in which
the kerosene oil has been mixed. Leave
them over night. In the morning add
more hot water and rub them out
they will require very little of this, no
matter how soiled they may have been
and they can then be rinsed in clear
water, starched and blued and hung
out to dry.-BoStOn Globe.