In view of the fact that most persons are heedless, the housekeeper should protect herself and others against risks. One of the simplest helps to this is the use of washing-soda--a chemical which is absolutely ruinous to clothing when used as a detergent in laundry-work, but is admirable for cutting grease or fat which has accumulated in waste-pipes and for eating away other foreign particles which have gathered there. I hasten to add that it will not disintegrate strands of hair or bone buttons--both of which are often found by plumbers in the joints of choked pipes they have been called in to open! Another aid to keeping the pipes clean and free is household ammonia. This does not need to be poured clear into the pipes, but when it has been employed in rinsing greasy dishes or in cleansing the sink, or in brightening glass or silver, the hot water to which it has been added is of distinct benefit to the waste-pipes. It may be suggested, by the way, that one of the best methods for using the washing-soda is to lay a good-sized lump of it over the drain-pipe from the sink so that the water which goes down carries particles of the soda with it on their cleansing errand. Either ammonia or a solution of washing-soda should be used in rinsing out the set-tubs after laundry-work has been done. When one thinks of the human waste from the skin which adheres to the clothing and is washed off from it in these tubs, there is a degree of foulness in the notion of letting the tubs pass with no more cleansing than the rinsing they get from the second or third water through which the clothes are passed. Other cleansing preparations come which are perhaps less severe in their effect on the hands than the common washing-soda. Many of those on the market are known to be excellent by the proof they have given housekeepers. The names of several of these will at once suggest themselves to any one who keeps up with the times in the line of domestic helps. Whatever the chosen cleaning medium may be, a bottle or box of it should always stand in the bath-room, not only for rinsing out pipes and keeping them clear, but also for preserving the purity of basin and tub and toilet-bowl. I have often been impressed by the carelessness of housekeepers in this detail, especially in homes where there are several children. Evidently these have never been taught the niceties of rinsing out the tub after bathing, or the basin after washing the hands. Around each vessel runs a high-tide mark of soap or dirt, the mere sight of which is enough to deter the observer from using bowl or bath. The touch of the hand to the inside of either will almost always discover a sediment or accretion of grease or dirt or both. This accumulation is readily removed by a soap-rubbed cloth or by one dipped in ammonia or other detersive. Such care may seem a trifling detail, but it is one which should never be neglected.