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From: "kevin and rika" <>
Subject: [NHROCKIN] Hints from Heloise, 1836 style
Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 20:13:05 -1000

I thought this would be of interest. Enjoy, Kevin
Household Tips
{from "The American Frugal Housewife" by Mrs. Child (1836), qouted in "The
Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800's" (Marc McCutcheon p.96)}

"Look frequently to the pails, to see that nothing is thrown to the pigs
which should have been in the grease pot.

An ox's gall will set any color-silk, cotton, or woollen. I have seen the
colors of calico, which faded at one washing, fixed by it. Where one lives
near a slaughterhouse.... the gall can be bought for a few cents.

Eggs will keep almost any lenght of time in lime-water properly prepared.
One pint of coarse salt, and one pint of unslacked lime, to a pailful of
water. If there be too much lime, it will eat the shells from the eggs; and
if there be a single egg cracked, it will spoil the whole. They should be
kept covered with lime-water, and in cold place.....I have seen eggs, thus
kept, perfectly sweet and fresh at the end of three years...

If feather-beds smell badly, or become heavy from want of proper
preservation of the feathers, or from old age, empty them, and wash the
feathers thoroughly in a tub of suds; spread them in your garret to dry, and
they will be as light and as good as new.

New England rum, constantly used to wash the hair, keeps it very clean, and
free from disease, and promotes its' growth a great deal more tham Macassar
oil.

Barley straw is the best for beds; dry corn husks, slit into shreds, are far
better than straw.

In winter, always set the handle of your pump as high as possible, before
you go to bed. Except in very frigid weather this keeps the handle from
freezing. When there is a reason to apprehend extreme cold, do not forget to
throw a rug or horse-blanket over your pump; a frozen pump is a comfortless
preperation for a winter's breakfeast.

Very hard and durable candles are made in the following manner: Melt
together ten ounces of mutton tallow, a quarter of an ounce of camphor, four
ounces of beeswax, and two ounces of alum. Candles made of these materials
burn with a very clear light.

Honey mixed with pure pulverized charcoal is said to excellent to cleanse
the teeth, and make them white. Limewater with a little Peruvian bark is
very good to be occasionally used by those who have defective teeth, or an
offensive breath".

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• [NHROCKIN] Hints from Heloise, 1836 style by "kevin and rika" <>