Household Hints
Just For Fun
Here are some household hints from my great-grandmother's book Mrs. Owen's Cook Book and Useful Household Hints published in 1883.
TO PRESERVE BOOT AND SHOE SOLES
Warm the soles and apply a heavy coat of warm coal tar. Dry it in, and apply two more coats before wearing them at all. Smear the edges as long as they will absorb the tar. They will wear like horn, and once giving it a trial will convince the most skeptical of its value. The tar costs but a few cents at gas works. Warm it on the stove in a tin dish.
TO REMOVE GREASE FROM WALL PAPER
Pulverize a common clay pipe, mix it with water into a stiff paste, lay it on very carefully, letting it remain over night. Thin lightly brush it off.
INK STAINS
Can be removed from a carpet by freely pouring milk on the place, and leaving it to soak in for a time, then rub it so as to remove all ink, and scoop up remaining milk with a spoon; repeat the process with more milk, if necessary; then wash it off completely with clean cold water, and wipe it dry with cloths. If this is done when the ink is wet, the milk takes all stain out of woolen material instantly; but when it has dried, a little time is required.
TO CLEAN WILLOW FURNITURE
Take a coarse brush dipped in salt and water and wash the furniture well, and then dry; the salt keeps it from turning yellow.
TO CLEAN WHITE FUR
Take a clean piece of flannel, and with some heated bran rub the fur well, when it will be quite renewed. The bran should be heated in a moderate oven, for a hot oven will scorch and brown the fur. Oatmeal with no husks if preferable to bran. Dried flour will also answer.
TO BEAUTIFY TEETH
Dissolve two ounces of borax in three pints of boiling water. Before it is cold add one teaspoon of spirits of camphor. A tablespoon of this with an equal amount of tepid water will cleanse the teeth from all inpurities. It is also a very excellent wash for the hair.
TO REMOVE MILDEW OR TO BLEACH
Dissolve a heaping tablespoon of chloride of lime in a pail of water. Dip in the goods and sprread out to dry in the hot sun, without wringing. When dry repeat the process. This will take out the worst case of mildew and many other stains. The lime must be well dissolved.
TO WASH LINEN SUITS
Fill a pail with old, dry hay; put scalding water on it and let it stand until the water is colored; then wash the linen in it, and it will look as nice as new.
TO REMOVE MOLES
Apply nitric acid with a pointed stick three times, letting a day elapse after each application. Then let it heal, and if not entirely gone try once more and success is assured.
HOW TO CURE FROZEN FEET
Get some lumps of fresh lime and make a foot-tub full of strong whitewash mixture, and immerse the feet in it as hot as may be borne. This remedy is to cure that disagreeable itching that troubles one after having frozen the feet. This itching will come on night after night and season after season. The relief will be instantaneous. Let them remain half an hour in the whitewash. They will be shriveled up, but free from pain. Rub them briskly and great rolls of dead cuticle will peel off. Anoint with mutton talloww, put on some cotton stockings and go to bed. Repeat the application if necessary, but it will not require but two or three to effect a cure.
OTHER HINTS
If a canary-bird loses its voice, hand a small piece of salt pork in the cage, first soaking it in warm water and sprinkling it with cayenne pepper.
Do not put salt on meat, to keep it. It destroys all tenderness. Put on pepper instead.
To keep ink from getting thick, put two or three cloves in a bottle. Sure.
The practice of inserting cotton in an affected ear is a very pernicious one. A well known army surgeon in a western city suffered much while in the army from earache, and kept putting cotton to exclude the air. He finally became deaf and suffered from various nervous ailments for years. A friend, also a physician, finally examined his ear, and took out over half a finger length of thick wads of cotton. His deafness disappeared and his nervous system was restored to health. This case is perfectly auth......... A high medical authority said that nothing ...... than the elbow should be put into the ear.
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Terri's Country CornerLast Updated September 8, 1998 by Terri
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