Remove paint stains with benzene or turpentine, machine oil with cold water and Ivory soap, vaseline with turpentine.
Peroxide of hydrogen applied to blood stains while they are still moist causes them to disappear at once. Soaking in cold water till the stains turn brown, then washing in warm water with soap is the usual treatment. If the stain is on thick goods, make a paste of raw starch and apply several times.
Pencil marks on linen should be rubbed off with an eraser, as hot water sets them.
Soap and water is the best agent for removing stains from colored goods, provided the color is fast. Moisten the article, soap the stain, and after a few minutes wash alternately with oil of turpentine and water. If not satisfactorily removed make a mixture of yolk of egg and oil of turpentine, spread on the stain, allow to dry, scrape off, and wash thoroughly in hot water. Tampering with stains on garments which are not warranted "fast color" is very risky, and often leaves the second state of the garments worse than the first.
SOAKING AND WASHING
The prologue of sorting the clothes and removing the stains being at an end, we are ready for the real "business" of the wash day—the washing itself—unless the laundress prefers to soak the clothes overnight. If so, dampen, soap well, particularly the most soiled spots, roll up and pack in the bottom of the tub, pour over tepid water, and leave till morning. Only the bed and body linen need be subjected to this treatment, as the table linen is rarely sufficiently soiled to require it, and the colored clothes and the stockings must never, under any circumstances, be allowed to stay in water beyond the time necessary to wash and rinse them. The water, if only hard water be obtainable, may be softened by the addition of a little ammonia or borax. Water which has been discolored by soil after heavy rains or by the repairing of water pipes, should be strained through Canton flannel before use. After soaking, the linen should be put through the wringer, which will take away much of the soil with the water, and then washed. As to the way in which this should be done there are various opinions, most methods in use by experienced laundresses being reliable. Each, however, usually has her favorite method of procedure which it is perhaps as well to allow her to follow. Pity 'tis, 'tis true, that many housekeepers are so ignorant of how the wash-day programme should really be conducted that they are incapable of directing the incompetent laundress. The mistress of the house needs also to be mistress of the laundry, guiding operations there as elsewhere, seeing to it that body and table linens are not washed together, flannels boiled, clothing rotted by overindulgence in sal soda, nor any other crimes committed against law and order in the laundry.
WASHING POWDERS AND SOAP
If bleaches of any kind are to be used—washing powders, sal soda, borax, and the like—it must be in either the soaking water or the boiler, and very sparingly. Indeed, the use of bleaches at any time is a custom more honored in the breach than the observance. Though there is no hard-and-fast rule as to the order of precedence, it is well to wash the woolens first, after shaking them free from lint and dust. Prepare two tubs of lukewarm suds, the second very light, adding a little borax dissolved in boiling water to each. Never apply soap directly to the flannel, nor rub on a board, which mats the wool, but rub with the hands, squeezing and dipping up and down in the first water till clean, rinse in the second water, which should be of about the same temperature as the first, put through the wringer, shake well, pull into shape, and hang in the shade to dry.
WASHING WOOLENS
Woolens must never hang in the sun nor near the fire, as the too-quick drying causes them to shrink and harden. When nearly dry, press on the wrong side with a moderately hot iron. The rinsing water may be used for the first cotton wash. If both colored and white flannels are to be washed, the former should be done first, thus avoiding the lint washed from the latter. Drying can be accelerated by pressing repeatedly between soft cloths. If the ordinary washing fails to remove any of the spots, spread on a smooth board and rub with a soft, wet, soapy brush.