The housekeeper's companion

water and soap, rinse it in cold water, wipe it, rub it well with a leather. Never suffer mercurial preparations to be used for silver. It is a really saving plan to boil it for half an hour in soft water, with whiting and yellow soap enough to make a lather. Rinse it with cold water, wipe with a soft towel, and rub with a leather. Gas blackens silver sadly, and the deep stain can only be removed by a plate-powder. Rouge (which is made by the precipitation of sulphate of iron by carbonate of potash), is most generally used, and does very well. In our own household the plate is cleaned bv first being nicely washed in warm water and wiped dry. Then a mixture is made of whiting and gin, or spirits of wine (which is in many respects better), and it is rubbed wet on the silver. A sponge is used to rub this mixture on, as it is soft It is let dry very thoroughly, so that it will rub off like powder with a piece of flannel; then it is polished with a chamois leather. Be sure that the whiting is reduced to the finest possible powder. It should be ground quite fine and even, then sifted through coarse book-muslin, as any rough bits will scratch. To Take Stains out of Silver. — Steep the plate in soap, let it lie for four hours, then cover it with whiting wet with vinegar, so that it may stick upon the silver, and dry it by the fire; after which rub off the whiting, rub it over with dry bran, and the spots will disappear, and the plate look bright. To Remove Ink Stains from Silver. — The tops and other portions of silver ink-stands frequently become deeply discolored with ink, which is difficult to remove by ordinary means. It may, however, be completely eradicated by making a little chloride of lime into a paste with water, and rubbing it upon the stains. An Old Family Recipe to Make Old Plate Look Like New. —Take of unslaked lime and alum a pound each; of aqua vitae and vinegar each a pint; and of beer grounds two quarts; boil the plate in these ingredients, and it will receive a beautiful polish from them. plate is best polished by the naked hand, but the operation gives some pain to the rubber. Jewelers thus polish plate, but it requires the thick-skinned, yet soft palm of a practiced hand to do it. Egg-spoons get discolored and tarnished by the sulphur in the egg uniting with the silver as soon as it is moistened by saliva. This tarnish is a sulphuret of silver, and may easily be removed by rubbing it with table salt or a little hartshorn. Let the plate in use be counted over every night — a card with a list being kept in the plate-basket — and the basket carried to the master's or lady's room. To Clean Britannia Metal. — Finely powdered whiting, two tablespoonfuls of sweet oil, and a little yellow soap melted to some thickness; mix, with a little spirits of wine. Rub this cream on with a sponge or soft flannel, wipe it off with a soft cloth, and polish with a leather. To Clean a Metal Teapot. — Pour into it a solution of common soda boiling hot; let it stand twelve hours near the fire; then pour it away, and wipe with a clean cloth. ■ To Clean Gilding. — Brush off dust with a feather brush. Never wipe with linen, it takes oft" and deadens the gilding.