Or wring a newspaper out of cold water until it is damp, but not wet. Tear in small pieces and sprinkle with them. Sweep thoroughly before taking up the tacks.
To Beat Carpets.—If you have a clean green lawn, draw the carpet over the grass for some distance, turn, and draw back on the other side. Beat the carpet while lying on the grass. Reverse the carpet so as to draw it over another spot, and beat on the other side. Then bang it over a line and beat until clean. Beat first thor oughly on the wrong side and after wards more gently on the right.
To beat carpets, use preferably 0. wire beater made by bending a heavy piece of wire 8 or 10 feet long and inch or more in thickness. Of this form a loop, and attach the ends to a convenient handle, as a broomstick.
Or use flexible hickory switches rather than heavy sticks, which may injure the warp of the carpet.
To Clean Carpets.—If a carpet is much soiled it may require washing or scouring after having been beaten. This may be done after the carpet has been laid on the floor. First remove stains and grease spots. Next wash, then, with a stiff bristle brush the size of a nailbrush, apply suds made with warm water and one of the following cleansing mixtures: Have at hand a pail containing suds, another containing clear hot rinsing water, 0. stiff bristle brush, a large sponge, and a number of coarse porous cloths. Use as little water as possible. Take one breadth at a time and scrub what can be reached with out moving. Rinse this section imme diately with a sponge wrung out of clear water and dry with a coarse cloth before proceeding to the next. Soap soiled spots with any good bard white soap dipped in water. Take about 1 yards at a time and work quickly, so that the water will not soak into the carpet.
Or pure soapsuds made by dissolv ing 1 bar of castile of other hard white soap in 2 gallons of water.
Or one bar of hard white soap, 1 tablespoonful each of borax, washing soda, fuller's earth, and salts of tar tar. Cut the soap fine, mix the in gredients in a kettle, add 1 gallon of boiling water, and stir until all are dissolved.
Or 1 pint of ox gall dissolved in 1 quart of cold water. Apply with a scrubbing brush until a lather is formed. Rub pure ox gall on soiled places, rinse, and dry as above.
Or dissolve I bar of bard white soap in 1 gallon of water. Dissolve 4 ounces of borax and 4 ounces of sal soda in 4 gallons of water; mix, remove from the fire, and add pint of alcohol, stirring well. Apply when cold.
Finally, open the windows and al low the carpet to thoroughly dry be fore the room is used. Kindling a fire, if convenient, will assist in drying.
Or ingrain carpets may be ripped into breadths and washed in the tub like other woolen goods with soap and water, or hung out on the line during tt warm summer rain.
Any of these methods is suitable for all forms of carpets or rugs of similar materials, as Oriental, Smyrna, and domestic rugs, art squares, and the like.
To Clean Oriental and Other Rugs. —Oriental rugs and other rugs having fast colors may be scrubbed with soap and water, or any of the above cleans ing mixtures. Tack the rug on a bare floor, as a porch or piazza, and pro ceed as with a carpet.
The following mixture is especially recommended for the best quality of rugs or carpets and other woolen fab rics: dissolve 8 ounces of good white soap in the same quantity of boiling water; add 10 ounces of aqua am monia, 5 ounces of alcohol, 5 ounces of glycerin, and 4 ounces of ether or chloroform. Keep in a fruit jar or large glass bottle and cork tightly. Use 1 tablespoonful of this prep aration to 0. pailful of warm water, and apply with a stiff brush. Or for obstinate stains use a stronger solu tion.
To Wash Goatskin Rugs. — Wash goatskin rugs in gasoline, or in a mix ture of gasoline and pure soapsuds made of hard white soap.
To Freshen Faded Carpets.—After carpets have been cleaned and laid, the colors, if faded, may be freshened by sprinkling the carpet with strong salt water and sweeping hard.
Or dampen a cloth with ammonia and rub over the surface of the carpet.