Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/588

 546 MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES.

A good way to brighten a carpet is to put half a tumbler of spirits of turpentine in a basin of water, and dip your broom in it and sweep over the carpet once or twice and it will restore the color and brighten it up until you would think it new. Another good way to clean old carpets is to rub them over with meal ; just dampen it a very little and rub the carpet with it and when perfectly dry, sweep over with meal. After a carpet is thoroughly swept, rub it with a cloth dipped in water and ammonia ; it will brighten the colors and make it look like new.

TO TAKE OUT MACHINE GREASE.

COLD water, a tablespoonful of ammonia and soap, will take out machine grease where other means would not answer on account of colors running, etc.

TO WASH FLANNELS.

THE first thing to consider in washing flannels so that they retain their size, is that the articles be washed and rinsed in water of the same temperature, that is, about as warm as the hands can bear, and not allowed to cool between. The water should be a strong suds. Rub through two soapy waters ; wring them out, and put into plenty of clear, clean, warm water to rinse. Then into another of the same temperature, blued a little. Wring, shake them well and hang up. Do not take out of this warm water and hang out in a freezing air, as that certainly tends to shrink them. It is better to dry them in the house, unless- the sun shines. They should dry quickly. Colored flan- nels should never be washed in the same water after white clothes, or they will be covered, when dry, with lint ; better be washed in a water for themselves. In washing worsteds, such as merino dress goods, pur- sue the same course, only do not wring them hard ; shake, hang them up and let drain. While a little damp, bring in and press smoothly on the wrong side with as hot an iron as can be used without scorch- ing the goods.

Flannels that have become yellow from being badly washed, may be nicely whitened by soaking them two or three hours in a lather made of one-quarter of a pound of soft soap, two tablespoonfuls of powdered borax and two tablespoonfuls of carbonate of ammonia, dis- solved in five or six gallons of water.

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