silver salt in the ammonia; dissolve the carbonate of soda, gum arabic, and sulphate of copper in the distilled water, and mix the two solutions together.

Blue-Black Writing Paper.

Take of Aleppo galls, bruised, 9 ozs.; bruised cloves, 2 drachms; cold water, 80 ozs.; sulphate of iron, 3 ozs.; sulphuric acid, 70 minims; indigo-paste, 4 drachms. Place the galls and the cloves in a gallon bottle, pour upon them the water, and let them macerate, with frequent agitation, for a fortnight. Press, and filter through paper into another gallon bottle. Next, put in the sulphate of iron, dissolve it, add the acid, and shake the whole briskly. Lastly, add the indigo-paste, mix well, and filter again through paper. Keep the ink in well-corked bottles.

Coloring Metals.

Metals may be rapidly colored by covering their surfaces with a thin layer of sulphuric acid. According to the thickness of the layer and the durability of its action, there may be obtained tints of gold, copper, carmine, chestnut-brown, clear and aniline blue and reddish-white. These tints are all brilliant, and if care be taken to scour the metallic objects before treating them with the acid, the color will suffer nothing from the polishing.

For Cheaply Gilding Bronzes, Etc.

A mixture for cheaply gilding bronzes, gas-fittings, etc.:—Two and one-half pounds cyanide of potash, five ounces carbonate of potash and two ounces cyanate of potass, the whole diluted in five pints of water, containing in solution one-fourth ounce chloride of gold. The mixture must be used at boiling heat, and, after it has been applied, the gilt surface must be varnished over.

How To Clean a Chamois Skin.

When a chamois skin gets into a dirty condition, rub plenty of soft soap into it, and allow it to soak for a couple of hours in a weak solution of soda and water. Then rub it until it appears quite clean. Now take a weak solution of warm water, soda and yellow soap, and rinse the leather in this liquor, afterward wringing it in a rough towel, and drying it as quickly as possible. Do not use water alone, as that would harden the leather and make it useless. When dry brush it well and pull it about; the result will be that the leather will become almost as soft as fine silk, and will be, to all intents and purposes, far superior to most new leathers.

Hints on Dressing the Store Windows.

In dressing store windows avoid as far as possible placing cards or note sheets flat; endeavor in some manner to have them erect, leaning against a box or placed upon a small easel. Neither crowd your window nor place things in exact rows. Give each article plenty of space in your window; then you do not need so much to fill up, and on the following week put in the pieces you might have displayed the previous week had you crowded your window.

A Varnish for Paper.

A varnish for paper which produces no stains, may be prepared as follows:—Clear damar resin is covered in a flask, with four and a half to six times its weight of acetone, and allowed to stand for fourteen days at a moderate temperature, after which the clear solution is poured off. Three parts of this solution are mixed with four parts of thick collodian, and the mixture allowed to become clear by standing. It is applied with a soft hair brush in vertical strokes. At first the coating looks like a thin, white film, but on complete drying it becomes transparent and shining. It should be laid on two or three times. It retains its elasticity under all circumstances, and remains glossy in every kind of weather.

To Remove Grease Spots From Paper.

The following is a recipe for removing grease spots from paper:—Scrape finely some pipe clay on the sheet of paper which is to be cleaned. Let it completely cover it, then lay a thin piece of paper over it, and pass a heated iron on it for a few seconds. Then take a perfectly clean piece of India rubber and rub off the pipe clay. In most cases one application will be found sufficient, but if it is not, repeat it.

Paper for Taking Out Ink Stains.

Thick blotting paper is soaked in a concentrated solution of oxalic acid and dried. Laid immediately on a blot it takes it out without leaving a trace behind.

Qualities of Good Paper.

A good paper ought to feel tight and healthy, not clammy and soft, as if a little muscle were required. Paper-makers say that a good paper has “plenty of guts” in it, a forcible if not extremely polite expression. In buying a good paper always look out for the “guts.” Clay gives paper a soft feel. Perhaps the first qualification about a good writing paper is its cleanliness and freedom from specks of all kinds. A dirty paper is never salable except to dirty people and firms who don’t mind using dirty materials.

Paste for Labels.

For adhesive labels dissolve 1½ ozs. common glue, which has laid a day in cold water, with some candy sugar, and ¾ oz. gum arabic, in 6 ounces hot water, stirring constantly till the whole is homogeneous. If this paste is applied to labels with a brush and allowed to dry, they will then be ready for use by merely moistening with the tongue.

How to Produce Engravings or Types for Printing by Photography

The process of producing engravings or types for printing by photography consists first, in making a sharp negative of the picture to be engraved; second, in the photographic printing of a sheet of sensitized gelatine by means of the negative; third, the development of the printed lines upon the surface of the gelatine by water; and fourth, the casting of a copy of the developed gelatine sheet in metal, the metal so produced being used for printing on the press in the ordinary manner. All this is very simple, and in the hands of experienced and skilled persons very beautiful examples of printing plates, having all the fineness and artistic effect of superior hand engraved work, may be produced.

How to Split a Sheet of Paper.

Get a piece of plate glass and place on it a sheet of paper; then let the paper be thoroughly soaked. With care and a little dexterity the sheet can be split by the top surface being removed. But the best plan is to paste a piece of cloth or strong paper on each side of the sheet to be split. When dry, violently and without hesitation pull the two pieces asunder, when part of the sheet will be found to have adhered to one and part to the other. Soften the paste in water and the pieces can be easily removed from the cloth. The process is generally demonstrated as a matter of curiosity, yet it can be utilized in various ways. If we want to paste in a scrap book a newspaper article printed on both sides of the paper, and possess only one copy, it is very convenient to know how to detach the one side from the other. The paper, when split, as may be imagined, is more transparent than it was before being subjected to the operation,