HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 337, 15 February 1911, Page 2

HOUSEHOLD HINTS.

FOR GENERAL USE. For Staw Hats. -A pennyworth of salts of lemon dissolved in hot water will clean all kinds of white straw hats. A little nail brush should be dipped in the solution and the straw gently seubbed. Afterwards rinse the hat with cold water and then let it dry. When the band is re-adjusted the hat looks new.

Saving Gas Mantles.--Put a hairpin or piece of wire through the loop at the top of the mantle and then suspend it into a jar of vinegar taking care that the mantle gets well soaked. Let it stand for a few minutes, and then place it over a empty jar to allow it to drip. When thoroughlydry place it on the burner and burn off the outer coating in the usual manner. Mantles treated in this way will last twice as long and will even withstand a draught from an open window.

To Clean Leather Cushions.- -Remove all grease and dirt from the leather by washing it in warm suds; then let it dry. To renovate the worn discoloured parts melt a pennyworth of Bismarck brown in about four fluid ounces of petroleum and apply the liquid with a camel's hair brush to the discoloured places. When this is dry coat it with a little clear liquid gum. Finally apply furniture polish and rub with a woollen cloth. Show-off children. When parents arc the proud possessors of a very bright and clever child there is always the risk that they maymake of their offspring a self-conscious and priggish little person. It is natural enough that Tommy or Katie, as the case may be shoulci be inclined to "show off" when their attainments arc made the subject of conversation. It is extremely bad for children, converting them into self-conscious little men and women instead of just natural "rough and tumble" boys and girls with healthy liking fcr marbles or dolls. Many a child has been utterly ruined in disposition by a parents* openly shown pride, and the tendency to bring children forward unduly and to make them the centre of attraction before visitors is all too sadly on the increase. It is, of course very hard for the mother and father of a bright child to realise that the small genius is bound to be less interesting to other people than to themselves,, but that friends do not visit them for the Sule pleasrue of hearing Katie recite or Tommy sing the. latest popular song in his shrill treble. It may be amusing for a while, but "show-off' children are apt later on to show scant liking for the more solid attainments with the result that their slower, duller brothers and sisters leave them behind on the ladder of fame. Cultivate a child's talents by all means, but do not parade them in public before him. It may mean the ruin of a possibly fine career.

USEFUL RECIPES. Genoese Fingers.—First cream four ounces of butter, and the same quantity of sugar together, and beat for seven minutes; add three eggs four ounces of pastry flour, and a teaspoonful of baking powder. (The eggs should be added one at a time.) Divide this into two portions, one flavoured with stiong coffee and one with vanilla. Bake in a shallow tin in a moderate overi for seven or eight minutes. Form these into a sandwich with a little custard or Devonshire cream mixed with chopped nuts or almonds. Chicken Salad.—Arrange in a square salad dish a layer of broken lettuce leaves, upon this small and thinly-cut slices of the breast of a chicken. Over these some more broken lettuce, then more chicken, and screen with nicely washed mustard and cress. Surround the whole with tiny tufts of green watercress. Place upon the sides small slices of marinated beetroot edgeways. Inow make a hand.e with the whites of the. hard-boiled eggs over the whole the yolks being used for mayonnaise sauce. Cherry Jam.--Choose an equal quantity of ripe, sour and sweet cherries, aleni and stone them with care and to one quart of pulp and juice add one pound of brown sugar. Mix these well together, and put the result into a preserving pan. Set it in a warm place to heat slowly, and simmer it for one hour and a hall.', then put it into jars which should be made thoroughly air-tight. Mulberries and Walnuts.—lf the mulberries are gathered fresh from the trees they are delicious. Place them lightly upon a glass dish, then surround them with newly-gathered and skinned split walnuts that have been soaked in sherry for an hour, then screen the whole with champagne jelly or white currant jelly.. Set in a cool place before sending to table.