Page:The White House Cook Book.djvu/609

 FACTS WORTH KNOWING. 567

one of spirits of wine. Dissolve the soap in two quarts of soft water, add the other ingredients. Apply with a soft sponge and rub out. Very good for cleaning silks.

To Remove the Odor of Onion from fish-kettle and saucepans in which they have been cooked, put wood-ashes or sal soda, potash or lye; fill with water and let it stand on the stove until it boils; then wash in hot suds, and rinse well.

To Clean Marble Busts .-'First free them from all dust, then wash them with very weak hydrochloric acid. Soap injures the color of marble.

To Remove old Putty from (Window Frames, pass a red hot poker slowly over it and it will come off easily.

Hanging Pictures: The most safe material and also the best, is copper wire, of the size proportioned to the weight of the picture. When hung the wire is scarcely visible, and its strength is far su- perior to cord.

To Keep Milk Sweet: Put into a panful a spoonful of grated horse-radish, it will keep it sweet for days.

To Take Rust from Steel Implements or Knives: "Rub them well with kerosene oil, leaving them covered with it a day or so ; then rub them hard and well with finely powdered unslaked lime.

Poison Water: Water boiled in galvanized iron becomes poison- ous, and cold water passed through zinc-lined iron pipes should never be used for cooking or drinking. Hot water for cooking should never be taken from hot water pipes ; keep a supply heated in kettles.

Scouring Soap for Cotton and Silk Goods: Mix one pound of common soap, half a pound of beef-gall and one ounce and a half of Venetian turpentine.

A Paint for Wood or Stone that Resists all Moisture: Melt twelve ounces of resin ; mix with it, thoroughly, six gallons of fish oil and one pound of melted sulphur. Rub up some ochre or any other coloring substance with a little linseed oil, enough to give it the right color and thickness. Apply several coats of the hot composition with a brush. The first coat should be very thin.

To Ventilate a Room: Place a pitcher of cold water on a table in room and it will absorb all the gases with which the room is filled

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