Wet the starch smooth in a little cold water in a large tin pan, pour on a quart of boiling water to two or three tablespoons of starch, stirring rapidly all the while; place on stove, stir until it boils and then occasionally. Boil from five to fifteen minutes, or until the starch is perfectly clear. Some add a little salt or butter or pure lard or stir with a sperm candle; others add a teaspoon of kerosene to one quart of starch. This prevents the stickiness sometimes so annoying in ironing.
Cold starch is made from starch dissolved in cold water, being careful not to have it too thick. Since it rots the clothes, it is not advisable to use it.
ENAMEL FOR SHIRT BOSOMS.
Melt together, with a gentle heat, one ounce white wax and two ounces spermaceti. Prepare in the usual way a sufficient quantity of starch for a dozen shirt bosoms, put into it a piece of this enamel the size of a hazelnut. This will give your clothes a beautiful polish.
TO CLEAN ARTICLES MADE OF WHITE ZEPHYR.
Rub in flour or magnesia, changing often. Shake off and hang in the open air a short time.
HOW TO CLEAN VELVET.
Invert a hot flatiron, place over it a single thickness of wet cotton cloth, lay on this the velvet (wrong side next the wet cloth), rub gently with a dry cloth until the pile is well raised, take off the iron, lay on a table, and brush it with a soft brush or cloth.
TO CLEAN RIBBONS.
Dissolve white soap in boiling water; when cool enough to bear the hand, pass the ribbons through it, rubbing gently, so as not to injure the texture; rinse through lukewarm water and pin on a board to dry. If the colors are bright yellow, maroon, crimson or scarlet, add a few drops of oil of vitriol to the rinse water; if the color is bright scarlet, add to the rinse water a few drops of muriate of tin.