p. 13 | Household Helps

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 2, 1907

Household Helps

Buy flake camphor (five cents a pound), and to every pound add two bags common table salt, mix thoroughly and sprinkle thickly all over the floors where fleas are.

Bird seed is sure to attract mice. A deep ruffle tied tightly under the cage and held over the feed cups by an elastic will help appreciably. When a new box of seed is opened, it should be emptied into a clean tin box, and the seed poured into the cup through a large funnel. In this way none is wasted, and there is no invitation to four-footed partakers.

An effective implement for removing the burned crust from a cake so unfortunate as to require treatment is a flat grater. It is far better than a knife in that it does the work more evenly, and leaves a smoother surface for the all-enveloping mantle of the charitable icing.

Books with delicate bindings, which have become soiled through much handling, can be satisfactorily cleaned by rubbing with chamois skin dipped in powdered pumice stone.

As the leaves from the lawn are raked up, they should be put in a large wooden box; a layer of dirt, one of leaves and some well-rotted manure with a little sharp sand. In the spring the leaf mold will be ready and superior to that from nature’s own hand.

When the lace curtains are ready to be washed, baste a narrow strip of muslin along each outer edge, and let it remain until the washing and drying process is completed, and you will find your curtains are straight, and do not sag as usual.—Selected.