to wash black silks in--it
stiffens, and makes them glossy and black. Beef's gall and lukewarm
water is also a nice thing to restore rusty silk, and soap-suds answers
very well. They look better not to be rinsed in clear water, but they
should be washed in two different waters.

414. _Directions for Washing Woollens._

If you do not wish to have white flannels shrink when washed, make a
good suds of hard soap, and wash the flannels in it, without rubbing any
soap on them; rub them out in another suds, then wring them out of it,
and put them in a clean tub, and turn on sufficient boiling water to
cover them, and let them remain till the water is cold. A little indigo
in the boiling water makes the flannels look nicer. If you wish to have
your white flannels shrink, so as to have them thick, wash them in soft
soap-suds, and rinse them in cold water. Colored woollens that incline
to fade, should be washed with beef's gall and warm water before they
are put into soap-suds. Colored pantaloons look very well washed with
beef's gall and fair warm water, and pressed on the wrong side while
damp.

415. _Directions for Washing White Cotton Clothes._

Table-cloths, or any white clothes that have coffee or fruit stains on
them, before being put into soap-suds, should have boiling water turned
on them, and remain in it till the water is cold--the spots should be
then rubbed out in it. If they are put into soap-suds with the stains
in, they will be set by it, so that no subsequent washing will remove
them. Table-cloths will be less likely to get stained up, if they are
always rinsed in thin starch water, as it tends to keep coffee and fruit
from sinking into the texture of the cloth. White clothes that are very
dirty, will come clean easily if put into strong, cool suds and hung on
the fire the night previous to the day in which they are to be washed.
If they get to boiling, it will not do them any harm, provided the suds
is cool when they are put in; if it is hot at first, it will set the
dirt in. The following method of washing clothes is a saving of a great
deal of labor: Soak the clothes in lukewarm soap-suds; if they are quite
dirty, soak them over night. To every three pails of water put a pint of
soft soap, and a table-spoonful of the salts of soda. Heat it till
mildly warm, then put in the clothes without any rubbing, and boil them
an hour. Drain the suds out of them as much as possible, as it is bad
for the hands; th