The century cook book

The Care of the House 5 59 cloth. Brass treated generally with the latter, and occasionally with the former mode of cleaning, will look most beautiful; or a very good general polish for brass may be made of ^ lb. of rottenstone and i oz. of oxalic acid, with as much water as will make it into a stiff paste. Set this paste on a plate in a cool oven to dry, pound it very fine, and apply a little of the powder, moistened with sweet oil, to the brass with a piece of leather, polishing with another leather or an old silk handkerchief. This powder should also be labeled "poison." To Clean and Polish Old Furniture. Make a mixture of a quart of old beer or vinegar, with a handful of common salt and a tablespoonful of muriatic acid, and boil it for fifteen minutes; put it in a bottle and warm it when wanted for use. Wash the furniture you wish to clean with soft hot water, so as to remove all the dirt, then afterward wash it with the mixture in the bottle; then polish with a soft flannel rag. Glue Paint for Kitchen Floors. To three pounds of spruce yellow add one pound, or two pounds if desired, of dry white lead, and mix well together. Dissolve two ounces of glue in one quart of water, stirring often until smooth and nearly boiling. Thicken the glue water after the manner of mush, until it will spread smoothly upon the floor. Use a common paintbrush and apply hot. This will fill all crevices of a rough floor. It will dry soon, and when dry apply boiled linseed oil with a clean brush. In a few hours it will be found dry enough to use by laying papers or mats to step on for a few days. When it needs cleaning, use hot suds. Treasury Department Whitewash. This receipt for whitewashing is sent out by the Lighthouse Board of the Treasury Department, and will answer on wood, brick, or stone nearly as well as oil paint, and is quite cheap: 26o The Care of the House Slack one-half bushel of unslacked lime with boiling water keeping it covered during the process; strain it and add a peck of salt dissolved in warm water; three pounds ground rice, put in, boiling water and boiled to a thin paste; one-half pound powdered Spanish whiting and a pound of clear glue dissolved in hot water; mix these well together and let the mixture stand for several days. Keep the wash thus prepared in a kettle or portable furnace, and when used put it on as hot as possible with painter's or whitewash brushes. To Paper Whitewashed Walls. Make a flour starch as you would for starching calico clothes, and with a whitewash brush wet with the starch the wall you wish to paper. Let it dry; then, when it is wanted to apply the paper wet both the wall and paper with the starch, and apply the paper in the ordinary way. To Clean Wall Paper. The following is a most excellent and simple method of cleaning wall paper and can be used with confidence in every house: Take one quart of flour and stir in five cents' worth of ammonia and enough water to make a stiff dough; work and knead until smooth, then wipe the paper with this batch of dough, working it so that a clean surface will be presented with every stroke. Go over the paper in this way and your wall paper will be clean.