AN EASY AND EXPEDITIOUS METHOD OF WASHING.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1594, 14 June 1887, Page 3

AN EASY AND EXPEDITIOUS METHOD OF WASHING.

Madam Elise, of the New Zealand Mail, writes : —At a friend’s house, I was asked the other day if I had heard of the efficacy of kerosene as a washing agent. Bather aghast at the proposition, I replied in the negative. “ Well,” said my interrogator, “ I know you like to help folks, so I will tell you just how to do it.” “Do you mean to say that you wash linen with kerosene I Why, it will smell awfully,” said I. “ Perhaps you will kindly see and smell my clothes before judging,” said my friend, and to this I consented, with the result that my keenly olfactory nerves were not offended, and my eyes were gratified by beholding snowy white articles. Now for the modus optrandt ; - First, boil about a pound, or two pounds of soap if for a very large wash, in a pot of water till dissolved ; add three tablespoonfuls of kerosene, and pour this into a tubful of cold water, and in it soak the soiled clothes, letting it remain all night, Next morning wring out and put the things into fresh cold water; if possible let the tap run over them for a little while till thoroughly rinsed. After, rinse through blue water, when you can wilng and hang out. Do you realise that this means no boiling, no bother with the laundry copper, no hot water, no soda, comparatively little soap,. and a vast diramnnition of trouble and time 1 Of course I determined that on the very next waging day the novel operation should be tried at home, to which end I took my 1 domestic assistant’ into my confidence. She, unlike many girls who mortally hate new-fangled ways and utterly reject new ideas, responded cordially, and the trial was accordingly made. Certainly the dirt came out of the clothes in magical fashion, and the things when dried retained no suspicion of kerosene, and they were pronounced white enough. A decidedly favorable verdict was recorded. Let me, however, confess to a prejudice in favor of the purifying action of a boil, and upon a further consultation we decided that the process, good as it ia, mfght be improved by every subjecting the linen to a few minutes’ bpbbling in t* l6 . poppej to keep then} in good color, and w}th the certainly that no germs of possible disease could hang about *hpm» Tb er o. is nothing like boiling WKttf to kill «aflh gofftlg

over, I sfrony : " ''•'"'mend my friends to try t i : s <v ay :i, li 1 '• '.leditioos method f- r I’it'ii o vefi. i f : - I bc'ieve, moio ' c.him tliao t ! ' f ' wh lo catalogue of ■poled* washing machine*.”