Household Hints.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 138, 11 March 1909, Page 4

Household Hints.

How to VVa?h Kiderdown?. Make a po<xi lather of tepid water and soap powder or jelly. add to this a tablespoonful of vinegar to keep the colours in the colouring from running. Place the eiderdown in the tub; and sqeeze the dirt out gently with tno hands. The eiiderdown must not on any account be rubbed or it will become lumpy. Probably morethan one lot of .suds will, be required. When quite clean rinse in clear tepid water. Squeeze as dry as possible with the hands, and >haog on the line to dry. A bright windy day should be chosen for the washing. Be careful to turn and gently shake the eiderdown while drying. This will prevent the down settling in one place and distribute it equally all civqr 'the quilt.

Cotton Blouses. —All blouses should be soaked in cold water the night before washing them. Silk ones, if white, may be treated the same way, but if coloured, they may be placed' in cold water with enough salt to taste the water, or a lump of alum, the size of a walnut, added to every two quarts of water.

Silk Blouses. - -Squeeze them from the soaking water and put into hot lathery water, then rob carefully all over, giving an extra rub, to the -soiled parts. No soap must ever be rubbed upon any silk garment. For ironing, unroll the blotiFi-. and first iron the sleeves, and if there is a cuff of lace and silk iron the whole of the lace on the wrong side, without touching the silk- a small iron should be used —then turn and iron silk smoothly. First iron the sleeves, and the the ollar and band then the yolk, if there be one. Iron the fronts, left sides first, holding the neck in the left hand, and ironing upwards from the waist to the neck. When done place the back upon the board flat, and iron from waist to yolk or neck, without leaving a single crease; again place the blouse upon the board n rong side down, and iron carefully the under seam from back to front, without leaving a crease. Hang up by the shoulders to air, or before the fire.

Lace Blouses. I .ace blouses may be washed and stiffened in the same manner, but if white no alum or salt need be used. Tnen roll in a dry. clean cloth, and set aside for an hour or two. The whole of a lace blouse should be ironed on the wrong side, then carefully turned and smoothed over with a cool iron. Hang up to air, or before the fire.

Embroidered Blouses. Put the blouses into cool water to soak for th** night. Then squeeze out, and wash out in the hot water. Soap may be rubbed on white blouses. When washed put into the ropper ami give them one boil, turn out, and throw into cold water slightly blued. Squeeze out and pass through a thinly made starch just of the consistency to prevent limpnes?,then partly dry, and roll up in a dry cloth. It may be ironed in an hour's time, or left for a day.

Ham Croquettes. Mix two ounces of grated ham with a pound of mashed potatoes, two hard boiled egg* chopped finely, butter, peeper, and salt. Make into croquettes, dip in egg and boil bread crumb?, and fry in boiling fat till brown.

Apple Custard Pic.—Take some good tart apple?, stew till soft, and mash till you have three quarters of a pint. Taks four eggs and one pint of milk, a strip of lemon peel, a pinch of salt, and sugar to taste. Beat all together, line a pic dish with good, thin, short paste, fill v/ith the custard and bake in a steady oven till the custard is -<et and the pastry is done.

Rice Pudding without Eggs. - Take one quart of milk, half a cup of sugar, one teaspoonful of vanilla extract, the same of butter, and half a cup of rice. Wash the rice, add to the other ingredients, place in a dish, put in oven, occasionally stirring it for the first four minutes. It will be of the consistency of cream, and very delicate. Bake until a light brown. Pancakes.— Beat the yolks of two eggs, add to them one gill of milk, a quarter teaspooful of salt, a teaspoonof melted butter, and about two-thirds of a cup of flour; beat well and add the whites of two eggs., well beaten. Put a teaspoonful of butter in a frying pan; when hot pouring a very thin layer of tbebatter, brown on the one side, turn, and brown the other. Spread quickly with jam, roll, dust with powdered sugar, and serve. The batter must be tbin.

Chocolates Pilling. - Half a cup of ful of grated chocolate, quarter cupful of milk, one cupful of brown sugar, two teaspoonsful of vanilla, half teaspoonful of butter. Place the milk and chocolate together in a saucepan on the fire, and stir until the whole is thick and creamy; then add the sugar stir until smooth, and cook two minutes. Add the butter, remove from the fire, and add the vanilla. Use whsn slightly cooled.

Children suffer from the earache from the tenderest age, quite tiny inj fants often being attacked by it. Little [ babies sometimes scream for hours ' from the intense pain of earache, and I it should be suspected when a child [ cries cont'n louslv, and puts its hand fto its ear with unusual frequaency. I Screaming, restlessness, especially moving of the head from side to side, t covering of the ear with the hand, uneasy sleep with frequent awakening, are all signs of earache. If the child cries and draw* away when the ear is touched the suspicion becomes a certainty. The usual cause of earache in children is the inflammation of the middle eat, the fluid generated by which presses on the membarne known as the drum of the ear. This membrane, being tightly stretched, and extremely sensitive, becomes the source of great pain under the pressure, and in severe cases the membrane even becomes perforated, allowing of the escape of the fluid into the external ear. The perforation thus caused may in some cases close up again in the period up to several weeks, but in unhealthy children and feeble children it may never properly close, the hoarinp ( power in such cases being usually, ! but not inevitably, affected.