THE LADIES' FLORAL CABINET. 
Trill feel a satisfaction in cleaning if you know that there 
will be no more coal-dust to leave its traces for the bal¬ 
ance of the year. Tho demands for coal not being as 
great as in tho Fall, the prices are likely to lie quite as 
reasonable. Coal should be sprinkled as it is put into 
the cellar to avoid as much dirt as possible. 
When the coal is in, look over the accumulations of 
the cellar. Throw away everything that is no longer 
of use. Make your fat—which should have been tried 
out and melted into cakes—into soap. If your coal 
ashes have not been removed weekly, have them carried 
out. All empty boxes and barrels and all boards that 
you do not wish to save, have split into kindling wood. 
Then sweep the ceilings and walls thoroughly, and 
sprinkle the floor, if it is stoue or cement, before you 
sweep it. Examine the walls, and if any rat-holes are 
found fill them with pounded glass and cement them 
over. Cellars should be whitewashed every Spring. If 
plenty of cooking salt is put into the whitewash it 
will not rub off, and copperas added to it will repel all 
vermin. Six or eight pounds of copperas to a half¬ 
bushel of qnicklime will not be too much. When the 
cellar is finished, begin the attic or storeroom. Every¬ 
thing should be looked over and cleaned out. Every 
drawer, trunk, box, bag and bundle must come forth 
from its hiding-place and yield its contents to a more 
vigilant inspection than that of a custom-house 
officer. All woolen articles must be beaten and exposed 
to the sun and air before being consigned to Summer 
quarters. A furniture whip will be found useful, and 
can be obtained at a house-furnishing store for twenty 
cents. They are made of two or three pieces of rattan 
braided or twisted, the ends forming a handle. Woolen 
articles that are out of season should be put in bags 
made of brown paper or newspapers : if made of the lat¬ 
ter, the paper should be double for greater strength, 
and a soft paper should be chosen so it will not tear. 
The edges can be pasted together, and when the goods 
are in, the bags must be pasted up tightly. Unless 
moth-eggs were in the garments, you need have no 
fears for their safety if you put them away in boxes or 
drawers and scatter a little camphor and borax over 
them. The floor of the storeroom should be washed in 
hot alum water and all comers thoroughly cleaned as 
a protection against the eggs of moths and other in¬ 
sects. 
The wire window screens should be taken into the 
yard and the dust brushed out, and if the wire cloth 
looks rusty they should be repainted, This can easily 
be done by any careful person. A box of prepared 
green paint costs but twenty-five cents. You will need 
a little brush for the corners, which costs twelve cents, 
and a thin, flat brush two or three inches wide, such as 
are sometimes used for varnish, will answer, and a five- 
cent bottle of turpentine. Care must be taken to dip 
the brush only lightly into the paint, which must be 
thin. If too thick, thin with turpentine. Both sides of 
the wire must be painted, and it must be done evenly in 
regular strokes. You must 6ee that the paint does not 
fill up rhe meshes; if it does you have put it on too 
thick. If any paint has spattered on the frames, clean it 
off with turpentine ; use it also to clean your brushes. 
After the storeroom the spare rooms must bo put in 
order. If the ceiling is to bo kalsomined, all furnituro 
must be removed or covered. If there is smoke from a 
kerosene lamp, it must be washed in soda water. If it 
has been smoked from a stove, the black patches can bo 
covered with gum shellac, so they will not striko 
through the kalsomiuing. Paper walls should be care¬ 
fully dusted with a feather duster or brushed over by 
fastening a piece of clean cloth over a broom and 
sweeping the walls in regular strokes, so it will have an 
even appearance. Before the kalsomiuing is done, 
newspapers should be tacked along tho bordering to 
prevent any damage from the lime. Gas fixtures 
should be covered so as not to be spotted. If they are 
soiled, you can get a bottle of bronzing and rebronze 
them yourself. Painted walls should be cleansed with 
soda water; soap will make them spotted. Hot, sharp 
vinegar will remove mortar and paint from window 
glass. Glass is best cleaned with a soft paper moistened 
in alcohol and water, or soda water, or cold tea, to 
which has been added a little powdered borax. Rub tho 
glass carefully up and down and polish with dry paper. 
Grained wood should be washed with the preparation 
of cold tea, using for this a flannel cloth, and washing 
only a small surface at a time, so it will not dry before 
it is rubbed with a dry cloth. You can save your tea 
grounds for several days and boil them up in sufficient 
water, thus making a tea wash without expense. For 
ordinary woodwork rub the dirt off with whiting. Have 
a pail of warm water and a dish of whiting, moisten 
your flannel and dip it lightly in the whiting, rub the 
paint until the dirt disappears, then wash off with the 
warm water and wipe with a dry cloth. Skewers are 
very handy to use for comers and cleaning windows 
and woodwork. 
Carpets should be hung on a line and beaten thor¬ 
oughly on the wrong side first and then on the right. 
If they need cleaning, stretch them on a clean floor 
after they are beaten, and put a few tacks in to hold 
them firmly; then clean all the spots with the follow¬ 
ing preparation: Half a bar Colgate’s best soap, one 
ounce of saltpetre, one ounce of borax, four quarts of 
soft water ; dissolve all together over the fire ; when 
nearly cold add five ounces of ammonia. Apply with 
a brush and wash off in clear water. All parts of grates 
made of polished steel and to be stored should be rubbed 
with sweet oil and wrapped in brown paper, and you 
qeed have no fear that “ rust will corrupt.” Furniture 
needs cleaning as much as other wood, and may be 
wiped with warn soapsuds quickly, a little spot at a 
time, and wiped with a dry cloth, then rubbed with a 
little oil. 
If chromos need cleaning, moisten a cloth in a little 
cold tea and wipe them off with a bit of chamois skin, 
after which polish with a little olive oil. Gilt frames, 
when new, can be covered with a coat of white varnish, 
and then all specks can be wiped off without harm. 
To clean oil-cloth, wash with warm milk. Once in 
six months scour with hot soapsuds, diy thoroughly, 
and apply a coat of varnish. They will last as long 
again. 
“Thou cam’st not to thy place by accident; 
It is the very place God meant for thee; 
And shouldst thou there small scope for action see, 
Do not for tins give room for discontent.” 
