CHAPTER VI.

The laundry-The advantages and disadvantages of washing at home-Preparations-Modes of washing white and coloured clothes, flannels, blankets - Starch - Ironing - Twelvetrees' washing mixture-Shirt-fronts, counterpanes, laces, dresses, and swansdown.

Town families will rarely submit to the inconveniences of a laundry on the establishment; but country-houses are never without this useful appendage, and a wellinstructed, steady laundrymaid can always obtain a comfortable place, with good wages.

In large houses the laundry is usually apart from the rest of the offices, divided into washing, drying, and ironing rooms, commodiously fitted with useful appliances, and plentifully supplied with water.

In the houses of the middle classes it frequently happens that the washing must be performed in the backkitchen, and accomplished by one of two servants, while the other does all the household work. We have heard of families where there was only one maid-of-all-work, who, having the necessary convenience, have thought it economy to pay this servant additional wages on condition that she should undertake the washing without assistance. In this case the washing was done once a month, the servant rising early and working late, while the mistress herself did the household work. It was commenced on Friday, that the Sunday might intervene for a rest, and was usually finished on Tuesday.

We have been told that in a small family a saving of from fifteen to twenty pounds a year was effected by this plan, rather than sending the washing to a laundress. But it is still a question whether this saving compensated for the trouble, anxiety, neglected duties, and discomforts of four days in every month.

It is less questionable when there are two or more servants, and the means of accomplishing the work without much inconvenience. Then, there should be a large copper, from which hot water can be plentifully supplied, and in which the household linen may be boiled. A closet or press should also be appropriated for tubs, baskets, clothes-lines and pegs, irons, ironing-blankets, and everything appertaining to the laundry, to be kept solely for this purpose.

Where a piece of ground can be conveniently set apart for a bleach-ground, posts should be fixed at proper distances, from which strong horse-hair lines, which are the most durable, can be stretched when needed for drying the clothes, which must be attached to them by cleft wooden pegs.

But in small houses where there is no bleach-ground, moveable posts are usually raised in a garden or some neighbouring paddock when needed; these posts should be painted to preserve them, and when brought away, should be carefully placed under cover.

There should be a sufficient number of tubs provided for the various operations, particularly large tubs for the linen to be soaked in for many hours.

Small wooden troughs are usually made in the washingtubs to hold the soap; but if the tubs are without this convenience, the washerwoman must have small wooden bowls for the soap.

Never allow the women washing to take spirit or any strong stimulant when at work, neither should they have tea frequently. Let them have a good, plentiful dinner while at work, and a meat supper when the day's labour is concluded, with a reasonable quantity of ale or porter, but no gin. It is absolutely sinful to encourage the poor and ignorant in the dangerous practice of taking spirit.

No washing can be properly done without an abundant supply of soft water; rain water suits the best for the purpose if collected in clean butts or tanks.

It is usual to sort and arrange all the clothes for washing early on Monday, and in the evening to put all the linen, flannel, and uncoloured clothes into water, to lie all night.

Very early in the morning the copper must be heated and filled with water, into which, when boiling, must be mixed a pound of soap, two ounces of soda, prepared for washing, and a quart of water in which has been for some time infused half a pound of quick lime. Then, after soaping the parts that look most dirty, put the white clothes, the bed and table linen, and towels, into the boiler; let them boil for half an hour, then take them out, and allow them to drain a short time.

After this, put them into tubs of water, just warm enough for the hand to bear, and soap any parts that seem still to need it; from this they must be transferred into tubs of cold water, into which a little blue has been pressed from the flannel bag which contains it; they must be thoroughly rinsed, wrung, and hung out in the open air.

Small muslins should be soaped and put into cold water the night before; in the morning washed through two tolerably warm waters with white soap, taking care not to rub, but merely squeeze or press them. Then they must be squeezed through a hot lather, in which. they must lie five minutes. After this they must be rinsed, first through clean warm water, then through cold water, in which a very small quantity of blue has been infused. Nothing disgraces a laundress more than very blue muslins. After this they may be spread on the grass to dry previous to starching.

All flannels and woollen stockings should be washed by themselves in warm water, never in hot or boiling water, which causes wool to shrink. Neither should soap be rubbed on flannel, as this destroys the soft texture, and makes it harsh and stiff. The water should be a lather made of white soap. The rinsing-water should also be warm, as cold water is as injurious to flannel aş

boiling water. It should then be immediately shaken and wrung out of the water, and put to dry in a shady place, that the wet may be slowly absorbed. A laundress may always keep flannels soft and white by care; and nothing shows her skill more than this department of her duty.

Coloured dresses also require the water to be only warm; hot water destroys the colour. Make a strong soap lather, into which you may infuse a tablespoonful of ox-gall. Then dip the dress in, and wash it quickly. After washing it through two waters, rinse it, and then pass it through starch-water, to which a small quantity of gum-water has been added. Squeeze it out, and hang it to dry immediately, either in a shady place or before the fire, but not too near. If not dried very soon, the colours will run into each other, and the dress be disfigured.

Brown Holland dresses should be washed without soap, first in cold water, then in lukewarm water, in which a small quantity of hay had been boiled half an hour, and the water strained from it. The dresses must be rinsed twice through this mixture, which preserves the brown colour, then dried in the shade.

Furniture chintz must be first well dusted, and if curtains, must be ripped to pieces. Boil some rice, in the proportion of two pounds of rice to two gallons of water, till soft. Strain the water into a tub and let it stand till lukewarm. Then put in the chintz and wash it thoroughly, using some of the rice, tied up in a muslin bag, instead of soap.

Again boil the same quantity of rice and water, strain it, and set the water to cool, but tie the rice in a bag and put it in a tub of clean warm water, through which you must wash the chintz, still using the rice instead of soap, till it is perfectly clean. Afterwards it must be rinsed in the water in which the last rice was boiled, mixed with a cup of vinegar. Then draw it out even and hang it to dry. After it is dried and mangled it

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should be stretched on the ironing-table, and rubbed with a smooth stone or calender to obtain a gloss, but should never be ironed.

Blankets should always be washed one at a time; first, in a strong warm-soap lather, then in a lather less strong, and a third time through suds quite weak. They should be wrung slightly, pulled out as straight and even as possible, and then hung up in the sun (for blankets must always be washed on a sunny day) to drip. If not quite dry in the evening, they must be taken in, folded, and put in a basket till next morning, and then, if the day be dry, hung out again till they are dry. If the weather is not quite bright, they must be dried off in the house. They must hang a considerable time in a warm room before they are fit to be folded and put away.

When the washing is over for the day, the tubs, pails, and bowls should be scoured and set to dry, everything restored to its proper place, and the floor washed and scoured. The tubs and pails should never be left out of doors when empty, as exposure to the sun and air will contract the wood and cause the seams to open.

Large wooden folding clothes-horses are indispensable to a laundress, as well for airing as for drying clothes on a damp day. Those horses are safest which have broad substantial feet. When the clothes are perfectly dry they must be brought into the house in baskets; each article must be spread out on a large, clean table, covered with a clean linen cloth, and sprinkled well by dipping the hand into a bowl of cold water and dashing it lightly over. Then pull and stretch each article, fold it up very straight, and put it into the basket appropriated for it. The things to be mangled must be put in one basket, such as table and bed linen, or any plain things; shirts and any dresses with folds or buttons are ironed without mangling, and must be in a separate basket.

The muslins and small collars, &c. that require starch