TO CLEAN SILVER.—When silver has become much tarnished, spotted, or discoloured, it may be restored by the following process. Having dissolved two tea-spoonfuls of powdered alum in a quart of moderately strong lye, stir in a gill of soft soap, and remove the scum or dross that may rise to the surface. After washing the silver in hot water, take a sponge and cover every article all over with this mixture. Let the things rest about a quarter of an hour, frequently turning them. Next wash them off in warm soap-suds, and wipe them dry with a soft cloth. Afterwards brighten them with rouge-powder, or with whiting and spirits of wine.—J. S. C. TO CLEAN THE RUST FROM IRON OR STEEL.—Scrape off as much of the rust as you can. Then grease the iron all over with lamp oil (any other oil will do), rubbing it in well. Put the iron in a place where it will be out of the way, and let it rest for two or three days, or more. Then wipe off the oil, as thoroughly as possible, and rub the iron with sand-paper till it is perfectly cleaned from the grease. Sand-paper is to be had at any oil or Italian warehouse, its price is usually a penny or three halfpence a sheet. For want of oil or sand-paper, rusty iron may be cleaned tolerably well by greasing it with a bit of pork-fat, and afterwards rubbing it with common sand. TO PRESERVE POLISHED IRONS FROM RUST.—Polished iron-work may be preserved from rust by a mixture not very expensive, consisting of copal varnish intimately mixed with as much olive oil as will give it a degree of greasiness, adding thereto nearly as much spirit of turpentine as of varnish. The cast iron work is best preserved by rubbing it with black-lead. But where rust has begun to make its appearance on grates or fire-irons, apply a mixture of tripoli with half its quantity of sulphur, intimately mingled on a marble slab, and laid on with a piece of soft leather: or emery and oil may be applied with excellent effect; not laid on in the usual slovenly way, but with a spongy piece of the fig-tree fully saturated with the mixture. This will not only clean but polish, and render the use of whiting unnecessary.—M. B. TO CLEAN BRASS, LACQUERED WORK, ETC.—For this purpose, some persons employ a mixture of finely powdered glass and red lead. Powdered charcoal substituted for the latter will be an improvement. It will polish brass or copper in very little time, and would do well for cleaning lacquered work.