236. For cleaning light Kid Gloves.—If the gloves are not so much soiled as to require wetting, they may be cleaned thus:—Scrape fine as much as a tea-spoonful of French chalk. Put on the gloves as for wear, taking care that the hands be not only clean, but cool and dry. Put some of the powdered chalk into the palm of one glove, and rub the hands and fingers together, just as if the chalk were soap employed in washing the hands. In this way rub in all the chalk. Then take off the gloves, without shaking them, and lay them aside for an hour or two, or a night, if it suit. Again put them on, and clap the hands together till all the chalk is shaken out. Fullers' earth, powdered and sifted, may be used in the same manner as French chalk, and will answer nearly as well. Or, gloves slightly soiled, may be cleaned by rubbing with a very clean and dry bit of India-rubber. White kid gloves, or very light stone-color, or lilac, (not darker than what is called a French white,) may be stained of a bright and delicate yellow, just the color of cowslips, by rubbing them with the petals of the common white rose. The roses must be fresh gathered for this purpose; and the best method of applying the leaves, is by putting the glove on its proper hand, and then rubbing. If not convenient to do the whole at one time, the effect is not injured by laying them aside, and taking up again. When done, they look quite equal to new, and keep clean longer than gloves of the same color stained in the ordinary way.
237. Another way to clean Kid Gloves.—First see that your hands are clean; then put on the gloves and wash them, as though you were washing your hands, in a basin of turpentine. Burning fluid will do equally well. Then hang them up in a warm place, or where there is a good current of air, which will carry off all smell of turpentine. This method was brought from Paris, and thousands of dollars have been made by it. The spirits of hartshorn may be substituted for the turpentine.
238. Washing Gloves.—If the gloves are so much soiled as to require washing, the best application is a strong lather made of curd soap with new milk; or water will do. A very small quantity of liquid will suffice. Before wetting the glove, run a strong thread through the opposite sides, close to the wrist binding. Leave it about a quarter of a yard long, and make a large knot at each end. This is to form a loop or handle by which to hang up the glove to dry, and hold it open. Having prepared the lather, put one glove on the hand, and apply the lather by means of a shaving brush or a piece of fine flannel, carrying the strokes downwards—that is, from the wrist or arm to the tips of the fingers. Continue this process till the dirt disappears, though the glove appears of a dingy, ill-looking color. Then take a clean soft towel, and dab it till the soap is removed. Take off the glove, blow into it to open all the fingers, and, by means of the aforesaid loop, hang it to dry in a shady but airy place. The loop should be fixed to two pegs, or by two pegs or strings, fastened to a line in such a manner as to keep the sides of the glove apart while drying. When dry, they will have regained their original color, and be smooth, glossy, soft, and shapable. Or, the gloves when cleaned as above, may be laid to dry on several folds of clean linen above and below. Limerick gloves should be washed clean with a strong lather of soap and water, applied with a brush as above. The lather must not be warmer than new milk. When dry from the lather, apply a solution of saffron, stronger or weaker, according to the color desired. A very small quantity of saffron will suffice. Pour boiling water to it, and let it steep at least twelve hours before using. Those who are frequently cleaning this kind of gloves, may steep a drachm of saffron in half-a-pint of boiling water, and when cold, put the whole into a bottle, without straining. Cork it close, and it will keep a long time for use as required.
239. To clean Straw Bonnets.—Put a chafing-dish, with some lighted charcoal, into a close room or large box; then strew on the coals an ounce or two of powdered brimstone, and let the bonnets hang in the room or box for some hours, when they remain to be blocked.
240. To bleach Straw Hats, &c.—Straw hats and bonnets are bleached by putting them, previously washed in pure water, into a box with burning sulphur; the fumes which arise, unite with the water on the bonnets, and the sulphurous acid thus formed, bleaches them.