ROSIN Soap {yellow soap}.–Fifteen per cent, of rosin can be saponified with potash or soda lye, and mixed with clear, warm tallow soap to a good purpose; more would deteriorate it, although for the cheapest grade of soaps, thirty-three per cent is often added; but such soaps remain soft andContinue Reading

WRAPPING PAPER. The use of wrapping paper as store advertising is a practice that is very generally followed, though not as much since the advent of the roll wrapping paper, which, by the way, can be had printed just as well as the sheet paper can. Some stores make itContinue Reading

These marbles were found on the grounds of my 1830's era house. photo property of a Victorian Passage.

The chief place of the manufacture of “marbles,” those little round pieces of stone which contribute so largely to the enjoyment of “Young America,” is at Oberstein, on the Nahe, in Germany, where there are large agate-mills and quarries, the refuse of which is carefully turned to good paying accountContinue Reading

THE frequent use of “oils,” “bear’s grease,” “arctusine,” “pomades,” “lustrals,” “rosemary washes,” and such like, upon the hair, is a practice not to be commended. All of these oils and greasy pomades are manufactured from lard-oil and simple lard. No “bear’s grease” is ever used. If it could be procuredContinue Reading

Most young housekeepers take a deep interest in the furnishing and equipment of their tables — not alone with the food supplies which are there to be served, the dishes which are to contain them, the appointments which are to make everything neat and cozy but as well and especiallyContinue Reading