To use it, wet a soft flannel cloth with it; rub grease and dirt-spots upon worsted garments or black silk, until the cloth is well impregnated with the cream. Then sponge off with clean hot water, and rub dry with a clean cloth.
To Clean Marble.
The pumice soap made by the Indexical Soap Manufacturing Co., Boston, Mass., is the best preparation I have ever used for removing dirt and stains from marble. I have even extracted ink-spots with it. Wet a soft flannel cloth, rub on the soap, then on the stain, and wash the whole surface of mantel or slab with the same, to take off dust, grease, etc. Wash off with fair water, and rub dry. The polish of the marble is rather improved than injured by the process. The same soap is invaluable in a family for removing ink, fruit-stains, and even paint from the hands. The makers of the pumice soap, Robinson & Co., are also the manufacturers of the “silver soap,” for cleaning plate which has nearly superseded all plate-powders, whiting, etc., formerly used for this purpose.
Pumpkin Flour.
I remind myself, comically, while jotting down these items of domestic practicalities, of the lucky chicken of the brood, who, not content with having secured her tit-bit of crumb, seed, or worm, noisily calls the attention of all her sisters to the fact. I never secure even a small prize in the housewifely line, but I am seized with the desire to spread the knowledge of the same.
About three months ago, my very courteous and intelligent grocer (I think sometimes, that nobody else was ever blessed with such merchants of almost every article needed for family use, as those with whom I deal) handed me, for inspection, a small box of what looked like yellow tooth-powder, and smelled like vanilla and orris-root. It was pumpkin flour, he explained—the genuine pumpkin, desiccated by the “Alden process,” and ground very fine. I took it home for the sake of the goodly smell, and because it looked “nice.”
The pies made from it were delicious beyond all my former experience in Thanksgiving desserts—a soft, smooth, luscious custard, procured without cost of stewing, straining, etc. And the flavor of them upon the tongue fully justified the promise of the odor that had bewitched me. It is seldom in a lifetime that one finds a thing which looks “nice,” smells nicer, and tastes nicest of all. If you, dearest and patientest of readers, who never quarrel with my digressions, and hearken indulgently to my rhodomontades, doubt now whether I am in very earnest, try my pumpkin flour, and bear witness with me to its excellence.[B]