HINTS THAT WILL HELP YOU.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2353, 10 November 1921, Page 4

HINTS THAT WILL HELP YOU.

Discoloured piano keys can be cleaned by being rubbed with lemon juice of salt. Use carefully and spa ringlv. To make lace curtains appear stiff when hung, add two or three leaspoonfuls of Hour to the starch. When cleaning brass with metal polish, a more brilliant polish will result if the polishing (doth is sprinkled with dry whiling. Turpentine is useful for removing paint stains. Apply the turpentine with a piece of rag, and if the stain is obstinate, use a small quantity of ammonia as well. Polish for leather. —Take two parts of linseed oil and one of vinegar, apply a little on a rag, and then polish. This will clean (he leather as well as soften and preserve it.

White candles which have been painted over with ordinary watercolours in order to lint them, are not so likely to drip as ordinary coloured candles. Varnishing the outside has the same effect.

To make your own smelling salts, procure an ounce of rock volatile, and break it into small pieces. Put it into a bottle, and cover with can de Cologne. It will be ready for use in a few days. <

When polishing furniture, always wash it over beforehand with a. weak solution of ammonia and warm water. This will remove all grease and finger marks, and the article will be much easier to polish. To tighen a loose knife handle, take tjie handle out, and nearly fill the cavity with paste made of three parts of resin and one of powdered bath brick. Make the prong of the knife almost red hot, insert it into the paste, press it firmly, and leave on one side until cold. Free movement of the limbs is as much a necessity to a baby as exercise for an adult to 'develop its muscles. Therefore light, warm clothing, which will not hamper its movements in any way, and will allow it plenty of room to kick about is advisable. Black silk which has become dull and shabby is greatly improved by the following process: Brush and wipe the silk well, then stretch it on a flat table, and sponge it with hot coffee which has been strained through a piece of muslin. Sponge on the wrong side, and when almost dry iron on the wrong side. For paint-work and varnished woodwork, bran is invaluable. Coloured goods usually fade when washed, but if washed in bruu

water they will not lose their colour. It is excellent also as a scalp cleanser, making the hair glossy. Used instead of soap, it softens .and whitens the hands. To prepare bran water, fill a small bag with bran, place in a bowl, and cover with boiling water. To clean chamois leather. —Chamois leather may be cleaned by rubbing it with plenty of soft soap, and then lying it for two hours in a weak solution of soda and warm water. At the end of this time rub it until it. is quite clean, rinsing it in clean, warm water, in which soda and yellow soap have been dissolved. It should then be wrung with a rough towel, pulled and brushed. This process makes the leather soft and pliable. Few housewives realise that the best time to rake out a fire is when (he grate is hot, as all dust then goes straight up the chimney, instead of living out into the room. If possible, the ashes should be raked through the bars at night, leaving only the cinders in tin l grate. When this cannot be done, it- is a good thing to hold a paper in front of the grate while the ashes are raked through, covering it as much as possible. The draught will drive a good deal of dust up the chimney.