The bath-brick with which people clean knives will also clean brass.
An old coloured woman, who lived with me once, polished the andirons with salt and vinegar.
These things are not as quick or as easy to use as many patent brass cleaners which one can buy nowadays. It is just as well, however, to know what one could do if separated from modern conveniences.
Tiles.—Glazed tiles may be wiped with a cloth wrung out of warm soapsuds, but water should not be put directly upon them. It tends to soften the cement in which they are laid. Unglazed tiles are restored to colour and cleanliness by a rubbing with linseed oil.
Lamps.—Lamps used every night need care every day. They should be kept full of oil for two reasons. One is, that if we then happen to use them for an unusually long time they will not burn out; the other, is, that if a lamp is full of oil no space is left for vapours rising from the oil, which otherwise may become compressed in the bowl and ignite when a match is applied to the wick. If there is a little screw-topped opening in the lamp where it can be filled without unscrewing the burner, use that opening for filling it. The burner should not be unscrewed unless it must be. Great care should be taken not to fill lamps too full; the level of the oil should be just below the lower side of the little opening, otherwise the oil will ooze out on the lamp and catch dust and give off a disagreeable odour.
It is better to rub off the hard burned crust of a wick than to cut it off. This leaves the wick more even and wastes it less. When it has been rubbed smooth and soft, see that it turns up and down easily and, if a round wick, that it is even. A flat wick should be slightly rounded, the middle being the highest point, like this diacritic
, not this