FEBRUARY 203 



broom with a wet cloth is the best way of cleaning under 

 beds, wardrobes, etc. anything to prevent the dust 

 flying. 



If every room is taken in turn and extra cleaned once 

 a week, the necessity for the complete 'turning -out' is 

 obviated. Most people will say, 'Everyone knows that ' ; 

 and yet it is astonishing how one has to remember to 

 tell the same things, over and over again, to each fresh 

 young servant that comes. And one often lives a long 

 life without knowing most commonplace things oneself. 

 I never knew till the other day that black -leading fire- 

 brick destroyed all its qualities for radiating heat and 

 made it like iron. It ought never to have been black- 

 leaded at all. 



Tin jugs are excellent for hot water, but they must 

 be cleaned inside with sand -paper, or they rust and 

 spoil. 



It is almost despairing how even excellent and ex- 

 perienced servants forget that no crockery can or will 

 stand boiling water being poured into it suddenly, espe- 

 cially in cold weather ; the quick expansion makes all 

 glass and china fly. But the same thing goes on, over 

 and over again, in every household, from expensive 

 dishes or dairy-pans to servants' jugs and tumblers, and 

 partly one is oneself to blame for not having explained 

 the simple fact to each new girl who comes. 



In the chapter on Furnishing, in my first book, I 

 recommended that young people should go to sales 

 instead of buying rubbish at wholesale furniture ware- 

 houses. Commenting on this, the excellent and amusing 

 writer of ' Pages from a Private Diary ' reproves me and 

 says: ' Why drive good taste into a mere fashion, and so 

 quadruple the price of pretty things for those who can 

 appreciate them ?' This was not my intention, though I 

 admit it may be a result of my advice. But I only wish 



