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Wash Day: Clotheslines

To Select and Preserve Clotheslines. -Gutta-percha clotheslines are much more satisfactory than rope. They can be left out of doors in all weathers, and wiped clean with a damp cloth.

But clotheslines of rope will last longer and keep in better order if they are boiled in water for a couple of hours when first purchased, and afterwards dipped in boiling water once a month.

They must be thoroughly dried by hanging them near the fire or stretching them on the clothes posts in the sunshine. Care must be taken not to allow them to kink.

To Wash Clotheslines. - A soiled line may be cleansed and made to look like new by boiling it in strong soapsuds. For this purpose make suds of a neutral white or yellow soap, but do not use soda in any form or washing powders containing free alkali. The line is so thick that the alkali may not all be rinsed out of it and hence will be likely to rot the fiber.

Wind the line into a coil around the elbow, tie it securely at both ends, and put it in the boiling suds. If it is much soiled, change the water. Pour the last suds into the tub, place the coil of line on the washboard, and apply the suds with a scrubbing brush, scrubbing downward. Dry by stretching between clothes posts in the sunshine or indoors by the fire. Take WASH DAY care that the line is thoroughly dry before it is put away.

To Avoid Kinks in Clotheslines.- To prevent a clothesline from becoming kinked or twisted when taken down, wind it toward you instead of from you. This tends to remove the kinkiness.

Care of Clotheslines.-Do not put out a clothesline until the clothes are ready to be hung out. When they are dry take the line down at once, coil it carefully over the elbows to avoid kinks, knot the coil at one end, and slip it into a clean cotton bag with a draw string at one end to keep it free from dust and dirt. Hang the bag in a clean, dry place.

To Hang Out Clothes. -The orderly arrangement made by sorting the clothes in the first instance should be observed in hanging them on the line.

Hang the contents of the first boile in one row, those of the second boiler in another, sheets together, towels together, napkins together, and so on. Expose plain white goods and coarser articles to the sun, but hang colored goods and delicate woolen and flannel goods in the shade. Hang up the clothes, especially colored articles, as quickly as possible after they are removed from the rinsing water. If small or delicate articles, as laces, crocheted articles, and the like, are boiled in a cotton bag or pillowcase, hang them up in this receptacle to dry. Take down woolens and flannels, including blankets, before they are quite dry. While drying, stretch them occasionally as nearly as possible to their proper shape. To Hang Out Large Pieces.-Fold large pieces, as tablecloths, sheets, blankets, counterpanes, quilts, and the like, and pin the opposite edges to the line rather than by the middle. The articles will thus be less injured by whipping and present a better appearance. Figured counterpanes hung in this way will require no ironing, and if on account of sickness or otherwise it is necessary to save labor, sheets and even tablecloths may be used rough dry.

To Take Down Clothes. - When taking clothes from the line place the clothes basket in a child's cart or wheelbarrow. Lay a large clean cloth in the bottom, shake the wrinkles from each article, fold it carefully, "Place the Basket in a Child's Cart." and lay all in orderly fashion in the basket. Put the corners of the sheets, tablecloths, towels, and other similar articles exactly together, and it will be found much easier to iron them than if they were thrown into a clothes basket in a disorderly mass.

To Prevent Freezing. The excess of soap and washing powders containing alkali which may be left in fabrics by careless rinsing will in time give white articles a dingy or yellow color. This is very much intensified by freezing. Colored articles will always be more or less faded by freezing, and all garments are injured more by one freezing than by several weeks of constant use. To prevent freezing add salt to the rinsing water.

This makes the clothes less liable to freeze.

If the corners especially of towels, napkins, etc., and the edges of sheets and tablecloths be dipped in rather strong salt water they will not freeze so tightly, and there will be less danger of their tearing when whipped by the wind or when being removed from the line.

Bad Weather. - If wash day is stormy the clothes may be thoroughly wrung dry, rolled up, and laid away in covered tubs or baskets for a reasonable time while waiting for fair weather. This plan is better than to keep them soaking in a tub of water.

If the clothes are on the line and it is necessary, on account of bad weather, to take them down before they are dry, it is a good plan to put the clotheshorse in the yard, fold the pieces, and lay them over it, rather than to crowd the wet clothes into the basket. They can then be carried on the clotheshorse indoors and placed by the fire.

Or clothes may be dried indoors by special drying arrangement in the kitchen or other warm, convenient room. Place hooks or small pulleys on either side of a room opposite one another, about 3 feet apart and at a height a few inches above the head of the tallest member of the family.

Stretch the clothesline on these so that it will go back and forth across the room. Instead of allowing the clothes to hang down on the line, stretch them across horizontally, up and out of the way. Put the heaviest articles nearest the stove, and keep a good fire. Open the windows a few inches at the top for ventilation. An entire wash for a family of half a dozen persons can be thus dried without serious inconvenience in an ordinary kitchen. If there is a special room set apart for the laundry, this method will be found equally convenient.

To Dry Knit Goods. - Children's knitted underwear, woolen shirts, and other small but expensive articles which tend to shrink when drying, may be kept in shape by drying on frames.

These may be purchased or can be readily made by any ingenious member of the family. They should be about an inch wider than the garment, made in two parts hinged together, and each having an arm piece with a blunt point projecting at the side. Shut the stretcher by means of the hinges, slip it into the garment while wet, insert the arm pieces, stretch it out flat, button the garment, and hang it up to dry. This not only preserves the shape and prevents shrinking, but gives the article the appearance of being new.