The complete servant: Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tablesAdams, Samuel, servant
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The complete servant: Being a practical guide to the peculiar duties and business of all descriptions of servants, from the housekeeper to the servant of all-work, and from the land steward to the foot-boy. With useful receipts and tables
Adams, Samuel, servant
Home economics; Household employees
Take a pint of skimmed milk, half an ounce of spirits of salt, half
an ounce of spirits of lavender, one ounce of gum Arabic, and the
juice of two lemons; mix them well together, and keep them in a
bottle closely corked; rub the tops with a sponge, but use no brick
dust; and when they are dry, polish them with a brush or piece of
flannel.
TO REMOVE UNPLEASANT ODOURS.
The unpleasant smell of new paint is best removed by time, and
atmospheric ventilation: but tubs of water placed in the apartment
will act more rapidly; with this inconvenience, however, that
the gloss of the paint will be destroyed. Unpleasant smells from
water-closets, or all articles of furniture connected with them, may
be modified by the application of quick-lime, to which may be added
the soap-suds that have been used in washing, which neutralize the
pungently offensive salts. A little quick-lime put into a night-chair
will destroy all disagreeable effluvia.
Aromatic pastiles of the following composition may be burned
with great success: take of camphor, flowers of benzoin, powdered
charcoal, powdered cascarilla bark, powdered Turkey myrrh, and
powdered nitre, each equal quantities; beat them with syrup
sufficient to form a mass, and divide into pastiles of conical
shape. They may be mixed up with spirit of turpentine, or any thing
inflammable.
TO CLEAN KNIVES AND FORKS.
Procure a smooth board, free from knots, or one covered with leather.
If the latter, melt a sufficient quantity of mutton suet, and put it
hot upon the leather with a piece of flannel; then take two pieces
of soft Flanders brick, and rub them one against the other over the
leather till it is covered with the powder, which rub in until no
grease comes through, when a knife is passed over the leather, which
may easily be known by the knife keeping its polish.
If only a plain board, rub the brick two or three times over it; for
if too much be put on at once it will make the blades of the knives
look rough and scratched. Let the board be of a proper height, and
set so that you may be in a sloping position while cleaning the
knives. Take a knife in each hand, holding them back to back; stand
opposite the middle of the board; lay the knives flat upon it, and
do not bear too hard upon them; by this method it will be easier to
clean two knives at a time than one, and they will be less liable to
be snapped or broken, when pressed on too heavily.
Be careful to keep a good edge on the knives. Carving knives in
particular ought to be kept sharp, which may easily be done by taking
one in each hand, back to back when cleaning, scarcely letting them
touch the board when expanding the arms, but when drawing the hands
together again, bearing a little hard on the edge of the knives; this
will give them not only a good edge and a fine polish, but is much
better than sharpening them with a steel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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