Enquire Within Upon Everything Part 174

Clean boot tops with one ounce of white vitriol, and one ounce of oxalic acid dissolved in a quart of warm water. Apply with a clean sponge. Or, sour milk, one pint; gum arabic, half an ounce; juice of a lemon, white of an egg, and one ounce of vitriol, well mixed.

2249. Boot-top Liquid (2).

Oxalic acid and white vitriol, of each one ounce; water, one pint and a half. To be applied with a sponge to the leather, previously washed, and then wiped off again. This preparation is poisonous.

2250. Care of Gloves.

Nothing looks worse than shabby gloves; and, as they are expensive articles in dress, they require a little management. A good glove will outlast six cheap ones with care. Do not wear your best gloves at night, the heat of the gas, &c., gives a moisture to the hands, that spoils the gloves; do not wear them in very wet weather; as carrying umbrellas, and drops of rain, spoil them.

2251. To Clean Kid Gloves (1).

Make a strong lather with curd soap and warm water, in which steep a small piece of new flannel. Place the glove on a flat, clean, and unyielding surface--such as the bottom of a dish, and having thoroughly soaped the flannel (when squeezed from the lather), rub the kid till all dirt be removed, cleaning and re-soaping the flannel from time to time. Care must be taken to omit no part of the glove, by turning the fingers, &c. The glove must be dried in the sun, or before a moderate fire, and will present the appearance of old parchment.

When quite dry, they must be gradually "pulled out," and will look new.

2252. To Clean French Kid Gloves (2).

Put the gloves on your hand and wash them, as if you were was.h.i.+ng your hands, in some spirits of turpentine, until quite clean; then hang them up in a warm place, or where there is a current of air, and all smell of the turpentine will be removed.

2253. How to Wash Kid Gloves (3).

Have ready a little new milk in one saucer, and a piece of brown soap in another, and a clean cloth or towel folded three or four times. On the cloth, spread out the glove smooth and neat. Take a piece of flannel, dip it in the milk, then rub off a good quant.i.ty of soap to the wetted flannel, and commence to rub the glove downwards towards the fingers, holding it firmly with the left hand. Continue this process until the glove, if white, looks of a dingy yellow, though clean; if coloured, till it looks dark and spoiled. Lay it to dry; and old gloves will soon look nearly new. They will be soft, glossy, smooth, well-shaped, and elastic.

2254. Preserving the Colour of Dresses.

The colours of merinos, mousseline-de-laines, ginghams, chintzes, printed lawns, &c., may be preserved by using water that is only milk warm; making a lather with white soap, _before_ you put in the dress, instead of rubbing it on the material; and stirring into a first and second tub of water a large tablespoonful of oxgall. The gall can be obtained from the butcher, and a bottle of it should always be kept in every house. No coloured articles should be allowed to remain long in the water. They must be washed fast, and then rinsed through two cold waters. In each, rinsing water stir a teaspoonful of vinegar, which will help to brighten the colours; and after rinsing, hang them out immediately. When _ironing-dry_ (or still a little damp), bring them in; have irons ready heated, and iron them at once--as it injures the colours to allow them to remain damp too long--or sprinkle and roll them up in a cover for ironing next day. If they cannot be conveniently ironed immediately, let them hang till they are _quite_ dry, and then damp and fold them on the, _following day,_ a quarter of an hour before ironing.

It is better not to do coloured dresses on the day of the general wash, but to give them a morning by themselves. They should only be undertaken in clear bright weather. If allowed to freeze, the colours will be irreparably injured. We need scarcely say that no coloured articles should ever be boiled or scalded. If you get from a shop a slip for testing the durability of colours, give it a fair trial by was.h.i.+ng it as above; afterwards pinning it to the edge of a towel, and hanging it to dry. Some colours (especially pinks and light greens), though they may stand perfectly well in was.h.i.+ng, will change as soon as a warm iron is applied to them; the pink turning purplish, and the green bluish. No coloured article should be smoothed with a _hot_ iron.

[A GAMBLER AND A SWINDLER ARE NEAR NEIGHBOURS.]

2255. To Renovate Silks (1).

Sponge faded silks with warm water and soap, then rub them with a dry cloth on a flat board; afterwards iron them on the _inside_ with a smoothing iron. Old black silks may be improved by sponging with spirits; in this case, the ironing may be done on the right side, thin paper being spread over to prevent glazing.

2256. Black Silk Reviver (2).

Boil logwood in water for half an hour; then simmer the silk half an hour; take it out, and put into the dye a little blue vitriol, or green copperas; cool it, and simmer the silk for half an hour. Or, boil a handful of fig-leaves in two quarts of water until it is reduced to one pint; squeeze the leaves, and bottle the liquor for use. When wanted, sponge the silk with this preparation.

2257. Restoring Colour to Silk (3).

When the colour has been taken from silk by acids, it may be restored by applying to the spot a little hart's-horn, or sal volatile.

2258. To Remove Water Stains from Black c.r.a.pe.

When a drop of water falls on a black c.r.a.pe veil or collar, it leaves a conspicuous white mark. To obliterate this, spread the c.r.a.pe on a table (laying on it a large book or a paper-weight to keep it steady), and place underneath the stain a piece of old black silk. With a large camel's-hair brush dipped in common ink go over the stain, and then wipe off the ink with a small piece of old soft silk. It will dry at once, and the white mark will be seen no more.

2259. To Remove Stains from Mourning Dresses.

Boil a handful of fig-leaves in two quarts of water until reduced to a pint. Bombazines, c.r.a.pe, cloth, &c., need only be rubbed with a sponge dipped in this liquor, and the stains will be instantly removed.

2260. Wax.

Wax may be taken out of cloth by holding a red-hot iron within an inch or two of the marks, and afterwards rubbing them with a soft clean rag.

2261. Grease Spots from Silk.

Upon a deal table lay a piece of woollen cloth or baize, upon which lay smoothly the part stained, with the right side downwards. Having spread a piece of brown paper on the top, apply a flat iron just hot enough to scorch the paper. About five or eight seconds is usually sufficient. Then rub the stained part briskly with a piece of whity-brown paper.

2262. Liquid for Preserving Furs from Moth.

Warm water, one pint; corrosive sublimate, twelve grains. If washed with this, and afterwards dried, furs are safe from moth. Care should be taken to label the liquid--_Poison._

[ONE DOUBT MAY LEAD TO DISBELIEF.]

2263. Velvet.

When Velvet gets crushed from pressure, hold the parts over a basin of _hot_ water, with the lining of the article next the water; the pile will soon rise, and a.s.sume its original beauty.

2264. Stockings.

Worsted and Lambs'-Wool stockings should never be mended with worsted or lambs'-wool, because, the latter being new, it shrinks more than the stockings, and draws them up till the toes become short and narrow, and the heels have no shape left.

2265. Making Flannels.

All Flannels should be soaked before they are made up, first in cold, then in hot water, in order to shrink them.

2266. Was.h.i.+ng Flannel.

Flannel should always he washed with white soap, and in warm but not boiling water.