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Eidies’ If Loral iiaaliiiiet niicl ^iciorioi BBEame ^OHijictaion. 
FLOORS AND CARPETS. 
There is a strong protest offered, in different ways 
and from various sources, against our loug-establislied 
practice of making poor floors, with the design of 
keeping them covered with carpets stretched and 
fitted to every part and carefully tacked down. Car¬ 
pets in daily use cannot be kept clean except by very 
frequent shaking and beating, and they do much to¬ 
ward corrupting the air by retaining impure gases, 
hiding the finest, most penetrating dust in their 
meshes and underneath them, and by giving off par¬ 
ticles of fine wool into the atmosphere, with other 
dust, as they are swept or walked upon. There is .a. 
demand for better floors, not necessarily inlaid or 
mosaics of different kinds of precious wood, but made 
double, of strong seasoned wood, that will not shrink 
or warp (spruce, however well seasoned, is almost 
sure to warp), and then carefully finished so as to be 
durable and easily cleaned. Carpeted floors seem a 
relief to the housekeeper, when once the carpets are 
procured and fitted to the rooms and tacked down, 
because they do not show the dirt as the bare floors 
do. But oh ! when they do get full of dust! And 
when house-cleaning time comes and they must be 
taken up and shaken and whipped, as they well de¬ 
serve! With warmly-made floors and large, warm 
rugs, couldn’t we do without these abominations even 
in winter. Certainly our rooms would be cooler and 
sweeter without them in summer. But in that case 
we must take more pains with our floors, and we 
must have something better than the common un¬ 
painted ones .—American Agriculturist. 
PATENT BRILLIANT GELATINE. 
Among “ things uot generally knowm,” but that 
every prudent house-wife ought to know, is how to 
make good jelly. It is a compound in constant re¬ 
quest in the house, as a luxury and necessary, both. 
No dinner or supper-table is considered complete 
without the brilliantly transparent lemon or orange 
jelly, and few sick rooms but—during the tedious 
days of the invalid’s convalescence—are found sup¬ 
plied with the same palatable and nutritious luxuiy. 
It is a matter, then, of some consideration to know' 
how to produce these delicious compounds w ith fa¬ 
cility and economy. A preparation known as “ Pa¬ 
tent Brilliant Gelatine,” made by Nelson, Dale &. 
Co., of London, secures both these advantages in the 
making of jellies, which in regard to purity and 
nutritious qualities equal those made from calves’ 
feet or the best Russian isinglass. This “ Brilliant 
Gelatine” has been admitted by high scientific 
Authority to be far superior to the best French 
gelatine, and equal to the finest Russian isinglass 
in nutritive value, more economical in use, and 
adapted to every purpose for which isinglass is 
used. Moreover, it is entirely free from those acids 
usually found in similar French preparations. One 
packet of an < u ice and a half will make three pints 
of excellent blanc-mange or jelly, which, flavored 
with the juice of three or four lemons, or the same 
number of oranges, makes a highly nutritious and 
delicious compound. 
THE VIRTUES OF BORAX. 
The washerwomen of Holland and Belgium, so 
proverbially clean, and who get up their linen so 
beautifully white, use refined borax as washing pow¬ 
der instead of soda, in the proportion of one large 
handful of borax powder to about ten gallons of boil¬ 
ing water ; they save in soap nearly half. All of the 
large wasliing establishments adopt the same mode. 
For laces, cambrics, etc., an extra quantity of the 
powder is used, and for crinolines (requiring to be 
made stiff), a strong solution is necessary. Borax 
being a neutral salt, does not in the slightest degree 
injure the texture of the linen ; its effect is to soften 
the hardest water, and therefore it should bo kept on 
every toilet-table. To the tasto it is rather sweet, is 
used for cleaning the hair, is an excellent dentrifiee, 
and in hot countries is used in combination with tar¬ 
taric acid and bicarbonate of soda as a cooling 
beverage. Good tea cannot bo made w r ith hard water; 
all water may be made soft by adding a teaspoonful 
of borax powder to an ordinary-sized kettle of water, 
in which it should boil. The saving in the quantity 
of tea used will be at least one-fifth. 
HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. 
LEAVES IN COOKERY. 
An English writer, speaking of the culinary uses 
for leaves, says that one of the most useful and 
harmless of all leaves for flavoring is that of the 
common syringa. When cucumbers are scarce 
these are a perfect substitute in salads where that 
flavor is desired. Again, the young leaves of the 
cucumber itself have a wonderful similarity in taste 
to that fruit. Carrot-tops may be used, and a pro¬ 
digious waste is suffered in not using the external 
leaves and blanched footstalks of the celery plant. 
The young leaves of the gooseberry added to bottled 
fruit give a fresher flavor and a greener color to pies 
and tarts. The leaves of the flowering currant give 
a sort of intermediate flavor between black currants 
and red. Orange, citron, and lemon leaves impart a 
flavoring equal to that of the fruit and rind combin¬ 
ed, and somewhat different from both. A few leaves 
added to pies, or boiled in the milk used to bake 
! with rice, or formed into crusts or paste, impart an 
admirable “ bouquet.” An infusion can be made of 
either the green or dry leaves, and a tea or table¬ 
spoonful used. 
BEEF-TEA FOR INVALIDS. 
Miss Dods, of the Edinburgh school, recommends 
the following as useful in the treatment of those who 
are invalids. She seems so well able to take care of 
the healthy that w r e have some confidence that her re¬ 
commendations for those who are notmay be of value : 
Quick Beef-Tea .—Beef taken from the round is 
best for beef-tea, because it is almost free from fat, 
1 and it contains more juice than any other p 
art of 
the meat. After removing every particle of fat cut 
! the steak into small pieces, across the grain. This 
breaks the fibre and allows the juice to escape. 
Place the heated meat in a dry, closed sauce-pan 
and sw r eat for five minutes. Sweating is simply 
heating the meat, not too hot, and stirring it occa¬ 
sionally to prevent its sticking. At the end of five 
minutes the pan will be found to contain a gravy, or 
the essence of the meat, which of itself is good for 
very feeble patients. At this stage pour over the 
meat its weight in solid water (the gauge being a 
pint of water to each pound of meat); stir until the 
water boils, and then simmer for five minutes. Do 
not add salt, unless the doctor permits it. In many 
diseases salt cannot bo used without doing much 
harm. Strain the tea while hot, then skim the fat 
from the surface, and it is ready for use. 
HOW' TO MAKE COLOGNE-WATER. 
With no trouble at all (says the Chemist ) any one 
can make in her own store-room a better article of 
cologne than that which' is usually bought, by tho¬ 
roughly dissolving a fluid drachm of the oils of ber¬ 
gamot, orange, and rosemary, each with half a 
drachm of neroli and a pint of rectified spirits. As 
good as can be made out of cologne itself, however, 
is also prepared simply by mixing with one pint of 
rectified spirits two fluid drachms each of the oils of 
bergamot and lemon, one of the oil of orange, and 
half as much as that of rosemary, ■ together with 
three-quarters of a drachm of neroli and four drops 
each of the essences of ambergris and musk. 
If this is subsequently distilled it makes what may 
be called a perfect cologne, but it becomes exceed¬ 
ingly fine by being kept tightly stoppered for two or 
three months to ripen and mellow before use. 
THE LOVE OF FLOWERS. 
Of the many touching tribu tes paid flowers there 
is one associated with the closing hours of Henry 
Heine, the poet, which appears to us very beautiful. 
He was dying in Paris. The doctor was paying his 
usual visit when Heine pressed his hand and said : 
“ Doctor, you are my friend—I ask a last favor. Toll 
me the truth—the end is approaching, is it not?” 
The doctor was silent. 
“ Thank you,” said Heine calmly. 
“ Have you any request to make ?” asked the 
doctor, moved to tearg. 
“Yes,” replied the poet; “my wife sleeps—do 
not disturb her. Take from the table tiie fragrant 
flowers she brought me this morning. I love flowers 
! so dearly ! Thanks; place them upon my breast.” 
He paused as he inhaled their perfume. His eyes 
! closed, and he murmured : “ Flowers, flowers ! IIow 
! beautiful is nature !” These were his last words as 
his spirit took its flight into eternity. 
ICE IN THE SICK-ROOM. 
Mention is made in a foreign paper of a plan pur¬ 
sued by an ingenious physician for ensuring a supply 
of ice for use in sick-rooms during the hottest nights, 
and without disturbing the patient. This plan is to 
; cut a piece of flannel about nine inches square, and 
secure it by a ligature round the mouth of an ordi¬ 
nary tumbler, so as to leave a cup-shaped depression 
of flannel within the tumbler to about half its depth. 
In the flannel cup so formed pieces of ice may be 
preserved many hours—all the longer if a piece of 
flannel from four to five inches square be used as a 
; loose cover to the ice-cup. 
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