How TO Use Lamps. — To have your light safe, clear and beautiful — in the first place buy tested kerosene from a reliable dealer, and beware of the cheap oils that agents peddle around. They are nearly all benzine, gasoline or naphtha, and are dangerous as gunpowder. The best kerosene is clear as water, and will not flash when a match is applied to it. Fill and trim your lamps every day. When a half- empty lamp is lighted, the gas in the space above the oil expands with the heat and an explosion often follows. Wash chimneys and lamp bowls in warm soap-suds, and wipe clear with old fine muslin cloths (worn-out pillow-cases do nicely). Trim all the cinders off the wick, rounding the corners a little with an old pair of scissors kept 570 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. for that purpose. Have a place for cloths, scissors, etc., and always put them there. Your wiping cloths must be perfectly clean and dry if you want your chimneys to look nice. If the chimneys are not smoky or smeared, simply breathing on them or holding them over steam and polishing is sufficient. Handle carefully by top or bottom, so that there will be no finger tracks. Flat chimneys are best. About once a month, or whenever sediment begins to collect in the bowls, empty and strain the oil, wash out the bowls thoroughly with hot soap-suds, wipe clear and bright with a long strip of rag pushed in with a stick ; wash the burners clean ; if burnt black, scour with ashes ; put in fresh wicks ; fill with clean oil, and your lamps will be a joy forever. If the dirty wicks are long enough to save, wash, rinse and dry for future use. Canton flannel folded three times width-ways, and stitched on either edge with the machine, makes excellent wicks, the cost being next to nothing. If your oil-can is empty, and you live far from town, raise the oil in your lamps with water. Of course you have to keep on filling with water till the oil is all gone. Five minutes' work on a lamp every day will make it shining clean, then put it out of the way of dust and flies. If the busy house-mother cannot find the time, any child ten years old can be taught to take care of the lamps neatly and carefully. A small lamp is better than a candle to carry around, there being no danger from sparks, or curtains and clothing coming in contact with the flame. Where there is a family of small children, bracket and hang- ing lamps are safest. Never turn the lamp down and leave it burn- ing. It will fill a room with poisonous gas in a few minutes. It must either be high and bright or extinguished. Where a very dim light is necessary, put a tube of stiff paper over the lamp. To prevent lamp-chimneys and glassware from cracking put them into a pot filled with cold water, to which some common table salt has been added. The water is well boiled over a fire, and then allowed to cool slowly. Common Soda is the best thing for cleaning tinware. Dampen a cloth and dip in soda, and rub the ware briskly, after which wipe dry, and it will look equal to new. MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD RECIPES. t^^l Sugar-barrels and boxes can be freed from ants by drawing a chalk-mark just around the edge of the top of them. The mark must be half an inch wide and unbroken. A continuous mark will entirely deter them.

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How TO Use Lamps. — To have your light safe, clear and beautiful — in the first place buy tested kerosene from a reliable dealer, and beware of the cheap oils that agents peddle around. They are nearly all benzine, gasoline or naphtha, and are dangerous as gunpowder. The best kerosene is clear as water, and will not flash when a match is applied to it. Fill and trim your lamps every day. When a half-empty lamp is lighted, the gas in the space above the oil expands with the heat and an explosion often follows. Wash chimneys and lamp bowls in warm soap-suds, and wipe clear with old fine muslin cloths (worn-out pillow-cases do nicely). Trim all the cinders off the wick, rounding the corners a little with an old pair of scissors kept 570 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. for that purpose. Have a place for cloths, scissors, etc., and always put them there. Your wiping cloths must be perfectly clean and dry if you want your chimneys to look nice. If the chimneys are not smoky or smeared, simply breathing on them or holding them over steam and polishing is sufficient. Handle carefully by top or bottom, so that there will be no finger tracks. Flat chimneys are best. About once a month, or whenever sediment begins to collect in the bowls, empty and strain the oil, wash out the bowls thoroughly with hot soap-suds, wipe clear and bright with a long strip of rag pushed in with a stick ; wash the burners clean ; if burnt black, scour with ashes ; put in fresh wicks ; fill with clean oil, and your lamps will be a joy forever. If the dirty wicks are long enough to save, wash, rinse and dry for future use. Canton flannel folded three times width-ways, and stitched on either edge with the machine, makes excellent wicks, the cost being next to nothing. If your oil-can is empty, and you live far from town, raise the oil in your lamps with water. Of course you have to keep on filling with water till the oil is all gone. Five minutes' work on a lamp every day will make it shining clean, then put it out of the way of dust and flies. If the busy house-mother cannot find the time, any child ten years old can be taught to take care of the lamps neatly and carefully. A small lamp is better than a candle to carry around, there being no danger from sparks, or curtains and clothing coming in contact with the flame. Where there is a family of small children, bracket and hanging lamps are safest. Never turn the lamp down and leave it burning. It will fill a room with poisonous gas in a few minutes. It must either be high and bright or extinguished. Where a very dim light is necessary, put a tube of stiff paper over the lamp. To prevent lamp-chimneys and glassware from cracking put them into a pot filled with cold water, to which some common table salt has been added. The water is well boiled over a fire, and then allowed to cool slowly. Common Soda is the best thing for cleaning tinware. Dampen a cloth and dip in soda, and rub the ware briskly, after which wipe dry, and it will look equal to new. Sugar-barrels and boxes can be freed from ants by drawing a chalk-mark just around the edge of the top of them. The mark must be half an inch wide and unbroken. A continuous mark will entirely deter them.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home