The Ladies Book of Useful Information, Anonymous [rocket ebook reader txt] 📗

cement, copal varnish, designs, a duck-quill sable, and a flat camel's-hair brush.

Cut your designs neatly with a small pair of scissors, apply the cement by means of the sable to the article to be decorated, place on your design and press equally over its entire surface to exclude the air; dampen it a little and keep pressing equally so that the design may adhere firmly in every part. When the cement is sufficiently dry dampen again with water (a little more freely) and remove the paper. Be careful in manipulating this process, or you will remove some of the colored part with it. If such should occur, instantly replace it as well as you are able, or, if you have a knowledge of Oriental painting, your panacea will be in that. You can retouch with these colors and bring it back nearly to its original beauty. In case you have no knowledge of Oriental painting, match the colors as nearly as possible with water-color paints, allow time to dry, and varnish with copal.

Sometimes the cement becomes too thick for use. It may be restored to its proper flowing consistency by placing the bottle in a bed of warm sand, and can then be applied while warm. If you apply your design to a dark groundwork, it would be desirable to give your picture a coating of Winsor and Newton's Chinese white. The reason for this is that some parts of the picture are semi-transparent, and these would lose their brilliancy if transferred directly upon a dark background without first painting.

TO TRANSFER ON WOOD.

Dissolve some salt in soft water, float your engraving on the surface—picture side uppermost—and let it remain about an hour. The screen, box or table on which you wish to transfer the design should be of bird's-eye maple or other light-colored hardwood, varnished with the best copal or transfer varnish.

Take the picture from the water, dry a little between blotters, place the engraving—picture side downwards—on the varnished wood and smooth it nicely. If the picture entirely covers the wood after the margin has been cut off so that no varnish is exposed, lay over it a thin board, on which place a heavy weight, and leave it for twenty-four hours. If you wish but a small picture in the center of the surface of the wood, apply the varnish only to a space the size of the picture. Dip your finger in the solution of salt and water and commence rubbing off the paper; the nearer you come to the engraving the more careful you must be, as a hole in it will spoil your work. Rub slowly and patiently until you have taken off every bit of the paper and left only the black lines and touches of your picture on the wood, in an inverted direction. Finish up with two or three coats of copal varnish.

TO TRANSFER ON SILK.

Apply a coating of mastic varnish to the design and allow it to dry; then with a brush wash the paper surrounding the design carefully; this removes from the paper the preparation, which would otherwise soil the silk. Apply a second coating of the same varnish, and when this is slightly dried place the design upon the silk or other fabric to be decorated, and with the roller press it well down. With the brush wet the back of the paper covering the design, when the paper may be at once lifted off. Another method is to cut out the design carefully and cover it with a thin coating of mastic varnish, and lay it upon the silk or other fabric (which should be dampened) and roll thoroughly with a rubber roller; dampen the back of the paper with the brush and lift it off as previously directed.

TO MAKE WAX FLOWERS.

The following articles will be required to commence waxwork: Two pounds white wax, one quarter pound hair wire, one bottle carmine, one bottle ultramarine blue, one bottle chrome yellow, two bottles chrome green No. 1, one bottle each of rose pink, royal purple, scarlet powder, and balsam fir; two dozen sheets white wax. This will do to begin with. Now have a clean tin dish, and pour therein a quart or two of water; then put in about one pound of the white wax and let it boil. When cool enough so the bubbles will not form on top it is ready to sheet, which is done as follows: Take half of a window pane, 7 × 9, and, after having washed it clean, dip into a dish containing weak soapsuds; then dip into the wax, and draw it out steadily and plunge it into the suds, when the sheet will readily come off. Lay it on a cloth or clean paper to dry. Proceed in like manner until you have enough of the white; then add enough of the green powder to make a bright color, and heat and stir thoroughly until the color is evenly distributed, then proceed as for sheeting white wax. The other colors are rubbed into the leaves after they are cut out, rubbing light or heavy according to shade.

For patterns you can use any natural leaf, forming the creases in wax with the thumb nail or a needle. To put the flowers together, or the leaves on to the stem, hold in the hand until warm enough to stick. If the sheeted wax is to be used in summer, put in a little balsam of fir to make it hard. If for winter, none will be required.

You can make many flowers without a teacher, but one to assist in the commencement would be a great help, though the most particular thing about it is to get the wax sheeted. The materials I have suggested can be procured at any drug store, and will cost from $3.00 to $4.50.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Dear lady subscriber, if you are a housekeeper, or ever intend to be one, this chapter will more than repay you for what you have given for this book. It will tell you how to save a large percentage of your household expenses, and also how to have a great many of the articles you use in your daily household work of a superior quality—vastly better than the ones you are using at the present time.

It is a fact not generally known that a great many of the articles used in daily household work cost little more than one-tenth of the price the consumer pays for them. We propose to show the ladies of our great Continent how to have, in most instances, better articles than those they are in the habit of purchasing, and at a small percentage of the cost. To do this, we have, by our own personal investigation, gathered a number of valuable recipes together, and have paid for the privilege of using them. Remember, these are not common recipes, but a full explanation of the manufacture of different articles needed in every household; and they combine the embodied wisdom of practical and successful men and women of the past and present.

We give in this chapter a number of recipes which have never before been published, and which, once possessing, you will never wish to be without, as they are truly marvelous discoveries. The first three every mother should have; the remainder no housekeeper should be without.

No. 1 is

HEALING SALVE.

This salve heals all sores, chaps, cuts, bruises, sore lips, chafed limbs, roughness, etc. It is invaluable as a healing ointment and may be applied to the tenderest skin without injury, and yet it will heal the most painful sores. A three-ounce box will only cost you ten cents, and the directions are so plain that a child can follow them.

Recipe: Take one ounce of sweet oil, one-half ounce of camphor gum, and one-half ounce of mutton tallow. Melt all together over a slow fire, and stir continually until cold.

To use: Rub on part affected at night; wash off in the morning with warm water and castile soap.

No. 2 is

MAGNETIC CROUP CURE.

This is the best remedy for croup ever discovered. It will save parents much trouble and anxiety. With this remedy all that is necessary is (if you have any fear of croup on putting your child to bed) to take a piece of brown paper large enough to cover the throat and chest and spread it with the ointment and put across the throat and lungs; place over that several thicknesses of flannel so as to keep the stomach warm, and keep in place with a string or bandage. Put the child to bed, and you need have no fear of croup that night. This ointment is also excellent for cuts, bruises or sores. Twelve cents will make enough to last a year, even if you use it frequently.

Recipe: One-half pound of lard, quarter of a pound of raisins, quarter pound of fine cut chewing tobacco. In the morning place the tobacco in a tin can and cover it with water; set it on the stove and let it cook and boil all day, replacing the water when it is necessary; then squeeze all the juice from the tobacco. The next morning chop your raisins, put them in the tobacco water and cook well till noon; then again squeeze the raisins out of this water. Now to this water add the lard and let them simmer together until the water is evaporated. Now the croup remedy is ready for use. On putting the child to bed, if you fear an attack, take a piece of brown paper large enough to cover the throat and chest and spread it over with the ointment and put it across the throat and lungs. Place over that and tie several thicknesses of flannel; put the child to bed, cover up warmly, and you need have no fear of croup that night.

If taken with croup unexpectedly, on hearing the cough, spread a piece of brown paper with the ointment and lay it across the throat and chest; then heat flannel as hot as can be borne and lay over the paper; change in about ten minutes for another hot cloth. If no fire is on while waiting for it, heat cloths on a lamp chimney. As soon as you get the stomach covered and warm, give a teaspoonful of melted butter; repeat the dose in five minutes.

No. 3 is

WORM ELIXIR.

The best remedy for worms known. No mother should be without it. Also, if given occasionally it is a splendid preventive. Children will never be troubled with worms who are given a dose of this once a month, or fortnight.

Recipe: Take gum myrrh and aloes, of each one ounce; saffron, sage leaves, and tansy leaves, of each half an ounce; tincture in a pint of brandy two weeks, and give to children a teaspoonful once a week to once a month as a preventive. They will never be troubled with worms as long as you do this.

WORM VERMIFUGE.

Make a strong decoction of sage, two parts; wormseed, one part; strain, and add sugar enough to make into candy, and let the child eat of it. Infallible.

No. 4 is

BRILLIANT SELF-SHINING STOVE POLISH.

This is one of the greatest inventions of the age. It has been the result of a large amount of study on the part of the inventor to perfect a polish that would work easily and satisfactorily in a perfectly dry state, thereby obviating the disagreeable task of mixing and preparing. A good stove polish is an absolute necessity in every family. To be assured that this is the best you need give it only one trial. Now, remember, first, that this polish requires no water or mixing like the various cake and powder polishes; second, that it is self-shining and no labor is required; and third, that it has no equal in the world.

Below are the recipe and directions