Just here it is well to make a slight digression on this subject. I have already spoken of the injurious effects of washing-soda in laundry-work. It cuts and perforates the linen on which it is used, but it is so potent in taking out dirt that I have known laundresses to bring it with them in their pockets when its use was forbidden by a housekeeper. Washing-soda is possibly the most destructive of these agencies, but there are others on the market, sold as patented preparations, which are hardly less harmful. Of a number of them it is true that they are helpful if used in moderation. The trouble is that the unskilled worker is likely to imagine that where a little is good much would be better, and to apply the powder or fluid with a liberality that has disastrous results. Even when borax or ammonia--probably the least deleterious of all detersives--is used, it should be in small quantities when the clothing is to be left with it for any length of time. Therefore there should be very little put in the tub in which the raiment is to be soaked. Woolens, cotton and wool, or silk and wool, colored clothes, and stockings are not given this soaking, but left to one side until the next morning. When the actual washing begins flannels should have the first attention. They should be given especial care, since upon this depends their coming from the wash smooth and soft instead of thickened and rough. Soap should not be rubbed upon them unless there are badly soiled spots, and then these should be soaped without applying soap to the rest of the garment. A little ammonia should be added to the water in which they are washed, and this should be lukewarm and made into suds by the addition of shaved soap before the flannels are put in. They should not be rubbed on the board but between the hands, with frequent dipping up and down in the water until they look clean. The flannels are then squeezed between the hands until as much water as possible is gone from them, when they are thrown for rinsing into water of the same temperature as that from which they were taken. This is essential. Water which is either colder or hotter will thicken and shrink the flannels. After a thorough rinsing they are again wrung out and hung to dry at once, in the shade, if an outdoor drying-place is used. They look better if they are ironed while still slightly damp. When both colored and white flannels are to be washed the latter should come second, that specks of lint from them may not disfigure the colored articles. The second water from the flannels will answer very well for the first washing of the other clothes. It is not necessary to practise this economy in a flat furnished with hot water from the cellar, but the fact is worth recalling when the supply of warm water is insufficient.