TO WHITEN WALLS.

To whiten walls, scrape off all the old whitewash, and wash the walls with a solution of two ounces of white vitriol to four gallons of water.  Soak a quarter of a pound of white glue in water for twelve hours; strain and place in a tin pail in a kettle of boiling water.  When melted, stir in the glue eight pounds of whiting and water enough to make it as thick as common whitewash.  Apply evenly with a good brush.  If the walls are very yellow, blue the water slightly by squeezing in it a flannel blue-bag.

Before kalsomining a wall all cracks should be plastered over.  Use plaster of Paris.  Kalsomine may be colored easily by mixing with it yellow ochre, Spanish brown, indigo; squeeze through a bag into the water, etc.

PAPER-HANGERS’ PASTE.

To make paper-hangers’ paste, beat up four pounds of good, white wheat flour (well sifted previously) in sufficient cold water to form a stiff batter.  Beat it well in order to take out all lumps, and then add enough cold water to make the mixture of the consistency of pudding batter.  To this add about two ounces of well-pounded alum.  Pour gently and quickly over the batter boiling water, stirring rapidly at the same time, and when it is seen to lose the white color of the flour, it is cooked and ready.  Do not use it, however, while hot, but allow it to cool.  Pour about a pint of cold water over the top to prevent a skin from forming.  Before using, the paste should be thinned by the addition of cold water.

TO WASH COLORED GARMENTS.

Delicately colored socks and stockings are apt to fade in washing.  If they are soaked for a night in a pail of tepid water containing a half pint of turpentine, then wrung out and dried, the colors will “set,” and they can afterwards be washed without fading.

For calicoes that fade, put a teaspoonful of sugar of lead into a pailful of water and soak the garment fifteen minutes before washing.

THE MARKING SYSTEM.

Mark all your own personal wardrobe which has to be washed.  If this were invariably done, a great deal of property would be saved and a great deal of trouble would be spared.  For the sake of saving trouble to others, if for no other reason, all of one’s handkerchiefs, collars and underclothing should be plainly and permanently marked.  A bottle of indelible ink is cheap, a clean pen still cheaper, and a bright, sunny day or a hot flat-iron will complete the business.  Always keep on hand a stick of linen tape, written over its whole length with your name, or the names of your family, ready to be cut off and sewed on to stockings and such other articles as do not afford a good surface on which to mark.