Twentieth century home cook book

Mrs. Annie R. White, for many years literary and household editor of the Western Rural, discourses as follows about the way to paper rooms: Don't try to paper with a carpet down. Make paste, cut bordering and the paper the day before. If the wall has been whitewashed, it must be washed in vinegar to neutralize the alkali in the lime. If papered before, and you wish the paper removed, sop with water and it will peel off. If convenient, provide a long board, wide as the paper, though a table or two will do. The paper must be measured, placed right side down on the board; then with a brush proceed to lay on the paste, not too thickly, but over everj^ part, and be careful that the edges receive their share. When completed, double within three inches of the top, the paste sides being together; carry to the wall, mount your chair, and stick your three inches of pasted paper on the wall at the top. That holds it; now strip down the other end, and see that it fits just right; if not, peel down, make right, then press to the wall from the center right and left. Leave no air under, or when warm it will expand, bursting the paper. Of course the paper must be matched; it will not do to measure by lines unless the walls are perfectly plumb. Small figures make less waste, and make a small room look larger. Stripes make a low room look higher, and if there are no figures between, or in the stripe to match, there is no waste, and no trouble in putting on If a narrow border is the style, let it be bright, if the paper be neutral; but if that be bright, the border had better be dark and neutral. If the paste be made too thick, the paper will be apt to crack and peel off; if too thin, it will saturate the paper too quickly, and make it tender in putting it on. If a narrow border(Brussels brush) is nice to brush the paper to the wall. White clean cloths will do, but it will not do to rub the paper with this; being damp, the paint or color rubs off the paper. The tables must be dried each time after pasting, for the same reason. Paste under paper must not freeze, nor be dried too quickly. If whitewashing is done after papering, tack double strips of newspaper wider than the border all around the room, to prevent its soiling the paper, Papering Whitewashed Walls. — If the walls are covered with thick, scaly whitewash, the result of years of additions, they must be scraped with a thin steel scraper — a hoe will do if carefully used. This will smooth them. Then wash them in weak lye and sweep off thoroughly when dry. Size the walls with glue water, one pound of glue to a pail of water, and the paper will stick and not peel off. The paste should be smooth rye Hour paste, rather thin, but perfectly smooth. Starch paste is the next best. — Painter-turned-Farmer, Lincoln, Neb. XIX. Kalsomining, There are as many ways to kalsomine as there are to whitewash. The simplest mode we know of is to take ten pounds of Paris white, and soak it in cold water — just enough water to dissolve it well. Take one-eighth of a pound best white glue, soaked in cold water enough to cover. Let it soak three to four hours; or till well swelled. If there is much liquid by the time the glue is well swollen, take the glue out and put it in a saucepan over the fire, with a little water to keep it from burning. Mix the dissolved whitening thoroughly with the hand. Then add the melted glue, mixing well. This mixing needs to be done in a large vessel. Then pour into these ingredients a quarter of a pint of linseed oil, and on top of oil pour sufEcient muriatic acid (perhaps ten cents' worth) to cut the oil, stirring it the while. After this is done, add cold water enough to the whole to thin it down to about a pailful of the liquid.