Household Hints.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 10, 6 March 1902, Page 29

Household Hints.

To keep the air in a sick room very pure wet a cloth in lime water and hang it in the room. Silver inkstands stained with ink may be cleaned by applying a little chloride of lime with water. After peeling apples drop them into cold water. " This will prevent them from becoming discolored. As a' cure for insomnia drink a breakfast cup of hot milk before retiring, and a peaceful night's rest will be obtained. When pickling, always use the strongest vinegar and have it scalding hot, as cold vinegar becomes ropy and will not keep. •To cure toothache, rub a little cayene pepper well on to the gum of the aching member. This treatment, though simple, proves very effective. To retain the gloss of silk blouses, etc., when washing, add a small quantity of methylated spirits to the water in which the article is washed. When making cocoa, if half a teaspoonful of sugar is added to the powder before boiling you will find it prevents the cocoa from being in little lumps. To clean and brighten shabby carpets take a teacupful of vinegar to a pail of warm water, rub with a cloth, and, if possible, do not tread on till dry. A reliable cure for indigestion is to take one or two teaspoonfuls of pure glycerine in about half a wineglass of cold water either before, with, or after food. To clean cream linen blinds stretch them on a table and rub them well with powdered bathbrick applied with a piece of flannel. Blinds will look new when cleaned in this manner . Smoke grimed glass globes should be soaked in warm soda water. Then add a few drops of ammonia and wash them well with a soapy flannel, rinse in clean water and dry with a soft linen cloth. When boiling old potatoes which are apt to go a very dark color, put a tablespoonful of milk into the water in which they are boiled and you will find they will be beautifully white when cooked. Blackberries are very beneficial in cases of dysentery. The berries are healthful eating. Tea made of the loot and leaves is very good. Syrup made from the berries is wonderfully good to the whole system. A simple deodoriser to use in a sick room is made by putting a little camphor or a few coffee beans into a tin plate and burning by stirring with a red-hot poker. The fumes of the coffee or camphor will scent the room pleasantly and quite overcome tho unpleasant odor.