The lady should dye only small things at home; as for large things, it is difficult to dye them at home unless there is room enough. The dyes that use cold water are easy to use, but they are not fast, and the directions for use are always set out on every packet or box of these dyes. As a general rule, cold-water dyeing is used only for dyeing fine things, whereas heavy fabrics are always dyed in hot water only. Dyes are sold in various forms — some in the form of a paste, some as a powder — and the process of dyeing is the same for all of them; it comes down to the following:

1 - All dyes must be mixed with boiling water.

2 - All garments to be dyed must first be washed, then dyed while wet.

3 - Silk or woolen fabrics sometimes need special care and special dyes.

4 - Salt is the essential element that fixes the dye, and it is always used.

5 - The dye must be tried on a scrap of cloth or on old clothing before the piece you wish to dye is put into the mixture.

6 - All pieces must be immersed in the mixture to be dyed, and she should use a stick with which to stir the garments about in the colored solution.

7 - Dyed articles must be ironed while damp (moist).

8 - The lady must follow the instructions written on the back of every packet of dye with complete clarity and the utmost exactness, taking note of whether

The means of cleaning the house in the old way — sweeping, dusting, spreading out the carpets and beating them with a beater or a stick to drive the dust out of their pores, and likewise the cleaning of couches and sofas and everything of the kind — must be counted a method neither practical nor healthful; for the spreading of dust inside the house during this cleaning operation is among the causes of children's illnesses, because of the microbes this dust contains.

It is worth mentioning here that following those old methods is one of the factors that help to ruin the house's furnishings, effects, and contents in a short time. For example, carpets, curtains, and couches that are cleaned by beating wear out quickly under the effect of the blows upon them. It is plain and palpable that the mistress of every house in this age of ours cares greatly about the cleanliness of her house by the comfortable method, just as she cares at the same time about safeguarding her economies — I mean to say, about not ruining and wrecking the contents of the house in a short time.

Housewives, then, should turn their careful thought toward the means that will keep the house clean and healthful at one and the same time — namely, by using the most modern electrical appliances designed for the purpose, which do no harm to those furnishings and contents and preserve for them their luster and the cheerfulness of their look. Let her compare the cleaning of a piece of carpet by the old method — that is, by beating — with the cleaning of that same piece by means of the electrical equipment that sucks up the dust without letting it spread with its deadly microbes, as against the first method, which helps it to spread; this in addition to the toil that falls upon the housewife, driving her to seek help from others or to hire someone to do this work for her.

Now that the essential differences between the two methods have become clear to us — in cleanliness, in economy, and in the safeguarding of health — it behooves us to abandon the old means and follow the modern methods aforesaid, and to search and inquire after the newest of them in invention and the soundest in workmanship, such as the Hoover models, which were first of all in devising this true class of cleaning methods and appliances — and remain so.

"From The Clean House"