The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-08-15
THE HOME,
Furniture Polish


very easily scratched Any polished sur
face will become clouded in time If the
polish is unbroken by scratches which
reach the surface of the wood, slft Oh
finely powdered pum1oe and rub hard
with a pieoo of thick felt wet with water.
Have the felt large enough to grip firm
ly. Go over the entire surface. little by
little. Then apply mixture of turpen-
tine and paraffine oil in equal parts. Do
not be afraid TO rub hard till the polish
comes. If there are deep scratches water
| must not be used. 1t will leave dark
lines, wherever it touches the wood. Uso
rottenstone and oil instead of water. and
polish till no track is left when q finger
| Is drawn across the surface.
In every house, no matter how great
care is exercised, the woodwork and fur
niture will become marred-brusss APP
pear In unknown ways and pieces chip
| off in slightly places. The housewife
may repair most of these in short time,
If the materials needed are at hand.
These include few of the common
colored earths, turpentine, shellac, oil.
alcohol and fine emery paper or steel
wool. When piece Of wood has been
| Clipped off, smooth the surface carefully
with bit of steel wool or emery paper.
Take piecs of cheese cloth about six
hard. Moisten the middle of this with
oil, then with shellac, and touch it to a
bit Of the earth required to give the de-
sired color. Apply this quickly to the
prepared wood. The shellao should be
thin, and must not BIZ rubbed hard. 1t
dries very quickly and the work must be
done speedily. If there is any grating
sound more oil is needed. Repeat the
processes till the original color is OBJ
tanned. 1t requires minute quantities
and delicate manipulation, but expert
| ence will soon train the judgment. The
colors most needed are raw UNI Der for
| light oak, burnt lumber for dark oak and
black walnut; burnt sienna for mahoga-
ny or CHI srry.
Dents and bruises, where the surface is
| unbroken, may be moistened with warm
water. When very deep, several folds of
wet cloth may be laid over the spot and
hot poker held on the upper surface.
The steam will cause the wood to swell
to nearly or quite it's original proper
tions. The heat may destroy the finish,
which should, then, be restored.
White spots made by heat or alcohol
may be rubbed with sweet oil. If deep
they can be sorapped over, and the color
restored in the same way as for ohipped
places. A bit of glue. drop of oil,
little practice with hammer and screw
driver may save much irritation, and
many bill of expense.
A few words of caution may not come
| amiss. Any cloths used with oil and
| turpentine should be kept in tin or
| stone, or carefully burned. If they are
laid away In mass, chemical action
may cause combustion. The little pads
used with shellao should not be saved
Alcohol dissolves shellac when allowed
to stand upon it or when hard rubbed.
When diluted it may be applied with a
| feather. Oiled surfaces may be treated
with oil and turpentine, while waxed
surfaces should have wax preparations
only.-From Miss Parloa's lecture.
Hints to Housekeepers.
It is not difficult to obtain lasting
and refreshing odor of sweet violets if
you will carefully observe the following
directions: Put half an ounce of orris
| root, broken In small pieces. in bottle
with two ounces of alcohol; cork it tight
and shake well. After four or five DAYS
few drops on handkerchief will reca Il
the delioately scented violet.
Empty pickle jars can be rsfilled with
piokled eggs. Boil dozen eggs twenty
minutes, then throw into cold water and
she'll them. Boil several red beets, slice
| them and put them In the jar with the
eggs. Heat enough vinegar to cover the
eggs, add salt, pepper and oil kinds of
spices and pour over the eggs. Keep
them tightly covered.
A tablespoonful of tomato ketchup or
any kind of prepared sauce is excellent
for flavoring stews.
If black hosiery crooks try boiling
| them In milk
| If you have a new iron kettle, fill 1t
full of clean potato parings the first
thing, add water and let them boil for
two hours. Then wash it with strong
suds, rinse we'll, wipe dry, rub it with
a little lard, and 1t is ready for USE. If
possible use 1t to boil pork in the first
time, for the grease Is good for it. Rub
| it with lard after each washing for sew
eral times, and it never rusts, or gives
any unpleasant taste to the food
To make an excellent lavender water.
take one quart of rectified spirits of
wine, two ounces of essential oil Of law
ender and five drains of essence of am
bergris. Put all the ingredients into a
bottle and shake till they mix.
Lims water will sweeten jars and Jugs
which soap and water fail to cleanse. It
| is admirable for correcting aoidity of the
stomach, and for cleansing milk vessels
A teacupful added to bread sponge will
preyent souriug