It is the greatest advantage to all housemaids to be able to get up fine linen, and to have a knowledge of clear starching: besides making a servant doubly useful to her mistress, it may be the means at any time when out of a situation, of her gaining a respectable maintenance. One who gets up muslins and laces in a superior manner, is sure to find employment, and it may also lead to her filling one day, the superior situation of lady’s-maid. Her excellence in this department, is not only valuable as adding to the elegant appearance of her mistress, but is productive of great saving in expense. A fine worked collar, with expensive lace, may be torn or frayed, the very first time it is done up, by improper management, and it is seldom that fine muslins or lace have the elegant appearance they should have, or last the proper time, from ignorance, or the want of due attention in getting them up. Nothing spoils the appearance of dress more than torn lace, battered and stiff, and fine muslin with the starch clouded upon it or frayed and ironed awry. It will require considerable practice to attain perfection in this department, and the best way to learn is to see others do it: still a few instructions may be useful. Muslin or lace should never be rubbed in washing. Take white soap, in proportion to the muslins you have to wash, shave it down, and boil it with soft water till it dissolves. When cold, it should be as thick as jelly; mix a part of this jelly with soft tepid water, so as to be strong of the soap; let the muslins lie in this for a night, then add boiling water; move them up and down in the water, repeatedly squeezing them through the hands, so as to wash them, but do not rub them. Having steeped them well in soap and water before, makes rubbing quite unnecessary; tie them loosely up in a pillow-case, and with soft water, and the rest of the boiled soap, boil them for a couple of hours; if in the country, they should be laid out on the grass to bleach (without the soap being washed out), and watered when necessary, so as to keep them moist. If in town, where no bleaching on the grass can be procured, put them into a washing-tub, and having poured boiling water over them, leave them in the back court in the air for the rest of the day, and during the night in the water; this has a great effect in whitening them; in either case, after being bleached, rinse them twice through cold water, to clear them completely from the soap, and hang them up to dry before being starched. A piece of lace, or any small article can be very well bleached by being put outside the window in the sun, in a crystal bottle of water, having been previously washed, and the soap left in it.