Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-12-09
THE BRIDES
OWN STORY
The Rites of silver Cleaning Day.

The Rites OF SILVER tlehnlng Dhy.
One afternoon each week is conse-
Grated to the holy cause of silver
cleaning in aunts establishment.
Then we gather together not only all
! the silver pieces but also all the brass
and copper bits, of which aunt has
| goodly number. She has an espe-
cially lovely copper percolator which
| she uses with u set of yellow tea
things, and I've coveted it long. Yea,
even the fact that the said beauteous
bit of copper requires much elbow
grease in the cleaning thereof doesn't
| daunt me in my intention to annex
| duplicate by some means.
Silver cleaning isn't nearly so
dainty job as it might sound, ami,
| indeed, l think it requires more
! downright hard physical labor than
| anything else in the house, although
| aunt uses many ways of tightening 1t.
For thorough cleaning of her solid
silver she uses a wonderful magic
pan-for it seemed almost magical
to me to watch it. OF course, it's
perfectly simple il you understand
the chemistry of it. The pan itself
is made of zinc, and into 1t You pour
this special solution for cleansing,
which is nothing but salt and baking
sodai But the combination of these
three chemicals quickly removes
every last vestige of tarnish from the
solid silver.
Then aunt showed me another way
of cleaning silver-simply to boil the
fiatware in a kettle of aluminium. We
don't have to use any kind of chemical
solution at all-simply good hot water
and white soap.
I've a better idea for keeping sill
yer bright" / suggested to Aunt
Juliette, land that is not to let it
tarnish in the first place. You know,
prevention instead of cure"
Very good she remarked in re-
ply, 'if you'll tell me how to do it?''
Upon which / had ANONYMOUSLY to
admit that I had the idea and not
the solution.
"As a matter of fact" aunt then
generously informed me, you can
avoid a great deal of this ugly tarnish
if you treat your silver right. Many
houselSeepers fail to realize that silver
is often furnished by the bleached
flannel or wooden cloth in which 1t is
kept You see, the cloth is bleached
with sulphur, and even the tiny
amount used is enough to tarnish the
silver around. which it is wrapped.
A rubber band in the silver drawer
will tarnish the silver just as much.
So you really can prevent lot of
lllSil ny NidppiiiS yOhi
either in unbleached Canton flannel
or otherwise just in tissue paper
Another easy way / learned of
cleaning silver, and brass and copper
as WE'LL is to use one of the specially
prepared cloths which are sold by
the stores, plus plenty of arm muscle.
These cloths are rather oily with
some special chemical preparation.
and they have the effect of coating
the article with oil, which makes it
very possible thoroughly to rub and
clean the metal without injuring it
in any way.
For the corners and crevices of
things that escape ordinary treat
ment. we use the old-fashioned
whiting mixed to a paste with am-
monia.
OF course. aunt doesn't use all
these methods. She just tells me
about them. so that / can choose the
best one for myself. With the pan
and the special impregnated cloth
she has all the silver and brass
cleaning finished in a few hours dur
ing the afternoon. It's never an all
day Job with her.