Water : Soften hard water with either washing-soda or lye, taking care not to use too much. Turbid or milky water can be cleared to a degree with alum. Dissolve a tablespoonful in a pint of boiling water, and add a cupful to a tub. Ill-smelling water should be dashed with clear lime water—using likewise a cupful to the tub. A teaspoonful of carbolic acid to the tubful is also advisable with wash water under suspicion. Soap : Save money and strength by getting soap in boxfuls, piling it cobhouse

As to Floors—Scrubbing : Sweep clean, take out grease spots and smudges (see section Spots and Stains). Have a light knee pad, clean brush, a bucket of warm water with a clean, soft cloth in it, and plenty of either sand soap or a good soap powder at hand. Scrub well with a wet brush, putting soap or powder before it. Do not slop—too much water swells boards and warps them. Scrub a strip, rinse with a cloth moderately wet, then wipe with the cloth wrung as dry as possible. Wiping thus quickly ta

Equipment : These things will make house-work easier by saving strength and temper. Being neither costly nor cumbersome, the simplest home may well find room for them or such part of them as it needs. A Knee Pad : Make of stout cloth twenty inches by twelve, stuff two inches thick, tack in lines to hold flat, and sew oilcloth upon the under side. A Foot Pad : Make two feet square, stuff an inch and a half thick, and tack flat. Stand on it when ironing, washing, or preparing food. It saves streng

Washing Fine China : Never soak fine china, never wash it with scouring-soap, soap powder, nor yellow-resin soap. Unless very greasy clean with borax water. Wipe and scrape off as much soil as possible before washing. Have the water pleasantly warm—boiling water is ruinous. Rinse water should be a trifle hotter than the suds. Except in emergencies, never put on any sort of soap. Put only a few pieces at a time into the suds, wash, rinse, and stand to drain. Have a thick cloth on the draining-boa

Rickety Furniture : Scrape or file away old glue from loosened joins, cover with fresh glue very hot (see section Renovators). Tie fast together or put in a vise, protecting the jaws of it with thick paper, and let stand two days. Reinforce then underneath with iron—a light angle iron for corners, strap iron with holes punched along each edge for straight breaks. Small light metal hinges often answer admirably. Screw everything firmly in place, then scrape away oozing of glue outside, sandpaper,

Wherewithal to make of is the first requisite. Here follow some simple tests easily applicable and well worth while. Use upon samples, and buy accordingly. Things over-cheap, it may be said in passing, carry their condemnation in their price. Buying them is extravagance, since they cost as much in time, trouble, and often in money for making up as sound stuffs and make no adequate return in wear. Silk : Test silk three ways—by tearing, scraping with the thumb nail, and burning. Try to tear a raw

Grease Spots in Wood : Scour unpainted wood with clean sand after pouring strong lye upon the grease spot. If it is very obstinate, cover with a paste of prepared chalk, corn starch, and whiting wet with ammonia, let stand two days, and scour. Grease stays on varnished surfaces; wash it off with warm borax soapsuds and follow, after wiping dry, by a hard rubbing with alcohol and turpentine mixed. Machine oil must be taken out with either gasolene or alcohol, then scoured with cold suds—heat sets

Flour : Perfect flour has a slight yellow tinge and a faint, pleasant smell, especially after wetting. Dazzling whiteness indicates bleaching; a gray tinge or minute black specks, showing only under the microscope, grinding from spoiled grain. Test by gripping a handful—if it remains the shape of the hand and shows the lines of the palm, buy it. Gluten is a most desirable element. Test for it by wetting a pinch to a stiff dough, and washing the starch out of it in cold water. The greater and tou

Soil : Soil for pots and boxes must be very rich and light. Mix it of one-half well-rotted animal manure, one-quarter leaf mold or rotted sods, and one-quarter good loam. If the loam is heavy clay make it one-half clean sand. Heap and keep under cover, away from sun-baking and the leaching of rain. Sift for use. Sprinkle now and again to keep it moist. Pots : Use clean pots and sound. Break up cracked ones for drainage. Wash pots as soon as empty, stack, and stand in air. Wash again before using

Quicklime : Put big lumps in broad earthen platters, set on floors of cellars, outhouses, or barns, and slack with copperas water. Charcoal : Lay lumps in vegetable bins or on cellar shelves. Hang other lumps in bags of coarse net on cellar and pantry walls. Heat every month or so to maintain absorbent power. Borax : Sprinkle powdered borax freely over smelly places—under sinks, around plumbing, over pantry shelves, and on floors where cans are set. It is so safe, so wholesome, even spilling it

Dogs : Choose your dog, unless he chooses himself by adopting you, with regard for environment. Big dogs require space—big rooms and grounds outside. Small ones are “in drawing” with apartments or modest houses. Breed is a matter of chance or choice. Toy terriers, toy Pomeranians, spaniels, and pugs fit into restricted menages. St. Bernards, collies, greyhounds, wolf hounds, and hunting-dogs in general are miserable in confinement, also miserably out of place. Teach him obedience first of all, k

Chimney Blazes : Smother blazing chimneys by throwing salt, damp if possible, on the fire, and setting something flat against the chimney breast. Blazing Fat : Throw on salt, sand, or ashes; water makes the flame fiercer. Prevent draughts if possible; keep doors and windows shut tight. Turn out oil or gas flames underneath, and keep everything inflammable away from the blaze. Gas Leaks : Open doors and windows, let accumulations blow out, then hunt for the broken pipe—not with a lamp or candle—a