Household Hints.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 8 May 1914, Page 2

Household Hints.

Mackintosh coats which have become hard and . rigid may be easily cle.med with lime and water, and made to look as good as new. A handful of the best grey lime should be dissolved in half a bucketful of water, and the mixture applied to the stiffened parts by means of a small sponge. This should be repeated at the end of three or four hours. To remove scorch from linen, usg the juice of an onion. Bake a Jorge onion and squeeze out the juice through a piece of muslin ; mix with an ounce of fuller's earth, a little' finely shredded aoap, and a wineglassful of vinegar. Boil together till the soap has dissolved, leave till cold, and then apply the preparation to the scorched linen. Let it dry, and then wash in the usual way. Never throw away pieces of lemon after they have been squeezed with the lemon-squeezer, for they come in handy for removing stains from the hands and elsewhere. Dipped into salt they will scour copper kettles nicety and remove stains from brasswork. Lemon like this will take stains, dirt, and odour from pans and kettles as nothing else will. -The cdours of fish and onions can thus be easily removed. To wax old floors that were never polished, the following method is good. The floors should first be washed thoroughly, and then, when dry, coated with some floor pil, such as linseed oil. This should be at once rubbed with sawdust, which removes all surplus oil and polishes the floor. After this any wax may be used according to its directions, and then, after a weighted brush is used, the old floors will be as smooth as new oaken ones. Large holes in the heels and knees of socks and stockings, if mended as follows, will be found to wear longerlook neater, and be more comfortable than if mended in the usual way. Take some strong black net, rub out any stiffness with the hand, cut slightly larger than the hole, and tack neatly on the wrong side ; then darn out and into the net on the right side until the hole is well covered. The darning will hardly be seen, and you will be delighted with the results. A teaspoonful of ammonia to a cupful of water will clean gold or silver jewellery. A few drops on the under side of a diamond will clean it immediately, making it very brilliant. When the frying-pan is the cause of a grea.sy range, rub the marks with a pad of newspaper dipped in soot before applying the blacklead. This greatly facilitates the shining process.

If you want to utilise left-over boiled potatoes, cut them up, add. a slice of bread cut into dice, and fry all together. The resulting dish is delicious, and helps to make a few potatoes "go around."

Velvet that has been spotted with the rain should not be brushed dry. Shake the velvet and leave it. The water will evaporate and show no mark, unless the velvet was dusty before getting wet. In that case, wipe the velvet while still dam,p with a clean damp cloth. This will remove the dust. Then shake well amd. leave to dry.