Fruit Stains

First rub the spot on each side with hard soap, and then lay on a thick mixture of starch and cold water. Rub this mixture of starch well into the spot, and afterward expose it to the sun and air. If the stain has not disappeared at the end of three or four days, repeat the process.

Grease Spots

Dissolve one ounce of pearlash in one pint of water, and to this solution add a lemon cut into thin slices. Mix well, and keep the mixture in a warm state for two days, then strain and bottle the clear liquid for use. A small quantity of this mixture poured on stains occasioned by either grease, oil, or pitch, will speedily remove them. Afterward wash in clear water.

Ink Stains

Strain the linen tightly over a basin containing boiling water, and wet the stain with water. Then carefully let fall on the spot a few drops of salts of lemon, or diluted spirits of salt; use for this purpose a feather, or small camel's-hair pencil. When the stain has been removed, wash carefully in cold water.

Iron-mold stains may also be removed by this method.

How To Wash Lace

Cover an ordinary wine bottle with fine flannel, stitching it firmly round the bottle. Tack one end of the lace to the flannel, then roll it very smoothly round the bottle, and tack down the other end, then cover with a piece of very fine flannel or muslin. Now rub it gently with a strong soap liquor, and if the lace is very much discolored or dirty, fill the bottle with hot water, and place it in a kettle or saucepan of suds and boil it for a few minutes, then place the bottle under a tap of running water to rinse out the soap. Make some strong starch, and melt in it a piece of white wax and a little loaf sugar. Plunge the bottle two or three times into this and squeeze out the superfluous starch with the hands; then dip the bottle in cold water, remove the outer covering from the lace, fill the bottle with hot water, and stand it in the sun to dry the lace. When nearly dry take it very carefully off the bottle, and pick it out with the fingers. Then lay it in a cool place to dry thoroughly.

Reviving Furs

Thoroughly sprinkle every part with hot flour and sand, and brush well with a hard brush. Then beat with a cane, comb it smooth with a wet comb, and press carefully with a warm iron. For ermine use plaster-of-Paris instead of flour and sand, and treat in the same way.

How To Renovate Silk

Potato-water is good to clean all colors and kinds; grate the potatoes into cold spring water, say a large potato to every quart of water, of which five or six will do for a couple of dresses. If for very light silk, pare the potatoes; if for dark, merely wash them clean. The pan of water must not be stirred in the least for forty-eight hours; then, very slowly and steadily pour off the clear liquor, but not a particle of the sediment, into a large open vessel, dip the pieces of silk into this liquid up and down a few times, without creasing them; then wipe them on a flat table with a clean towel, first one side, then the other. It is as well to hang each one as dipped upon a line to allow the drops to drain off a little before wiping. Have a damp cloth to cover them in till all is done; then iron one way, on the soiled side.