The Handy Cyclopedia of Things Worth Knowing Part 9

HOW TO CARE FOR A PIANO.

By William H. Damon

The most important thing in the preservation of a piano is to avoid atmospheric changes and extremes and sudden changes of temperature.

Where the summer condition of the atmosphere is damp all precautions possible should be taken to avoid an entirely dry condition in winter, such as that given by steam or furnace heat. In all cases should the air in the home contain moisture enough to permit a heavy frost on the windows in zero weather. The absence of frost under such conditions is positive proof of an entirely dry atmosphere, and this is a piano's most dangerous enemy, causing the sounding board to crack, shrinking up the bridges, and consequently putting the piano seriously out of tune, also causing an undue dryness in all the action parts and often a loosening of the glue joints, thus producing clicks and rattles. To obviate this difficulty is by no means an easy task and will require considerable attention. Permit all the fresh air possible during winter, being careful to keep the piano out of cold drafts, as this will cause a sudden contraction of the varnish and cause it to check or crack. Plants in the room are desirable and vessels of water of any kind will be of a.s.sistance. The most potent means of avoiding extreme dryness is to place a single-loaf bread-pan half full of water in the lower part of the piano, taking out the lower panel and placing it on either side of the pedals inside. This should be refilled about once a month during artificial heat, care being taken to remove the vessel as soon as the heat is discontinued in the spring. In cases where stove heat is used these precautions are not necessary.

The action of a piano, like any other delicate piece of machinery, should be carefully examined, and, if necessary, adjusted each time it is tuned. The hammers need occasional and careful attention to preserve original tone quality and elasticity. Never allow the piano to be beaten or played hard upon. This is ruinous to both the action and tuning. When not in use the music rack and top should be closed to exclude dust. The keyboard need never be closed, as the ivory needs both light and ventilation and will eventually turn yellow unless left open.

The case demands careful treatment to preserve its beauty and polish, Never use anything other than a soft piece of cotton cloth or cheese cloth to dust it with. Never wipe it with a dry chamois skin or silk cloth. Silk is not as soft as cotton and will scratch. A dry chamois skin picks up the dust and grit and gradually scours off the fine finish. In dusting never use a feather duster, nor rub the piano hard with anything. The dust should be whipped off, and not rubbed into the varnish. If the piano is dingy, smoky or dirty looking, it should be washed carefully with lukewarm water with a little ammonia in it to soften it. Never use soap. Use nothing but a small, soft sponge and a chamois skin. Wipe over a small part at a time with the sponge, following quickly with the wet chamois skin wrung out of the same water.

This will dry it immediately and leave it as beautiful and clean as new.

Never use patent polishes. If your piano needs polis.h.i.+ng employ a competent polisher to give it a hand-rubbing friction polish.

The highest mountain on the globe is not, as is generally supposed, Mt.

Everest, that honor belonging to a lofty peak named Mt. Hercules on the Isle of Papua, New Guinea, discovered by Capt. Lawson in 1881, According to Lawson, this monster is 32,763 feet in height, being 3,781 feet higher than Mt. Everest, which is only 29,002 feet above the level of the Indian Ocean.

[Transcriber's Note: The highest point in New Guinea is Puncak Jaya (Mount Carstensz or the Carstensz Pyramid), at 16,023 feet.]

SALT-RISING BREAD.

The real formula for making salt-rising bread, as set down by the daughter of Governor Stubbs, of Kansas, and by him communicated to Theodore Roosevelt, is as follows, according to the "Sat.u.r.day Evening Post":

"On the night before you contemplate this masterpiece of baking take half a cupful of corn meal and a pinch each of salt and sugar. Scald this with new milk heated to the boiling point and mix to the thickness of mush. This can be made in a cup. Wrap in a clean cloth and put in a warm place overnight.

"In the morning, when all is ready, take a one-gallon stone jar and into this put one scant cupful of new milk. Add a level teaspoonful of salt and one of sugar. Scald this with three cupfuls of water heated to the boiling point. Reduce to a temperature of one hundred and eight degrees with cold water, using a milk thermometer to enable you to get exactly the right temperature. Then add flour and mix to a good batter; after the batter is made, mix in your starter that was made the night before.

Cover the stone jar with a plate and put the jar in a large kettle of water and keep this water at a temperature of one hundred and eight degrees until the sponge rises. It should rise at least an inch and a half. When it has raised mix to a stiff dough, make into loaves and put into pans. Do not let the heat get out of the dough while working.

Grease the loaves well on top and set your bread where it will be warm and rise. After the loaves rise bake in a medium oven for one hour and ten minutes. When you take the loaves from the oven wrap them in a bread-cloth."

A CURE FOR LOVE.

Take twelve ounces of dislike, one pound of resolution, two grains of common sense, two ounces of experience, a large sprig of time, and three quarts of cooling water of consideration. Set them over a gentle fire of love, sweeten it with sugar of forgetfulness, skim it with the spoon of melancholy, put it in the bottom of your heart, cork it with the cork of clean conscience. Let it remain and you will quickly find ease and be restored to your senses again.

These things can be had of the apothecary at the house of Understanding next door to Reason, on Prudent street.

DOING BUSINESS WITH A BANK

In opening your account with a bank it is proper that you should first be introduced to the cas.h.i.+er, or some other official. If you are engaged in business, that officer will inquire as to your particular business or calling, your address, etc., and unless he is already satisfied on this point, he may make inquiries as to your business standing. This being satisfactory, he will hand you a pa.s.sbook, and some deposit tickets, whereupon you make your first deposit, entering the amount on the ticket. You will then be asked to write your signature in a book provided for that purpose, or upon a card to be filed away for reference.

The Signature.

This signature should be just as you intend to use it in all your dealings with the bank. If, for instance, your name is John Henry Smith, you may write it J. H. Smith, J. Henry Smith. John H. Smith or John Henry Smith, but whatever form you adopt should be used all the time.

Once having adopted the form, it should be maintained in exactly that way. The only excuse for variation from your usual signature is when presenting checks or other paper made payable to you. In that case, supposing you had adopted the form J. Henry Smith for your regular signature, and the check is made payable to John H. Smith, you should first write on the back of that check "John H. Smith," and immediately under this you should place your regular signature.

Depositing Money.

When making a deposit, always use the deposit ticket provided by the bank, filling it out yourself in ink. From this ticket, which is first checked up by the receiving teller, the amount of your deposit is placed to your credit. Do not ask the teller to fill our your deposit ticket.

No doubt he would be glad to accommodate you, but to do so would violate a rule which protects both the bank and the depositor, Deposit tickets are preserved by the bank, and often serve to correct mistakes.

How to Avoid Mistakes.

Consider for a moment the vast aggregate of bank transactions, and you will see that perfect system on the part of the banks and bank officials is required to insure accuracy and avoid mistakes. Sometimes the requirements of the banks may seem arbitrary and troublesome, but reflection will show that they safeguard the depositor as well as the bank. The simple rules here laid down will enable anyone who has business with a bank to do so with the least trouble and with absolute safety.

How to Make Out a Check.

Checks are the most satisfactory and most convenient method of paying a debt or making any ordinary remittance. The stub of your check book will furnish a permanent memorandum, and when the check is canceled and returned to you by the bank, it is an indisputable evidence that the debt has been paid, or that the remittance has been made. The making of a check is a simple matter, but even the best business men make mistakes sometimes which are as difficult to remedy as they are easy to avoid.

The hints here given and the facsimiles of checks printed in ill.u.s.tration will repay careful study.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Check Properly Drawn. The name and amount are against the left side of their fields.]

The first facsimile shows a check properly made. It will be seen, in the first place, that this check is written very plainly, and that there is no room for the insertion of extra figures or words. The writing of the amount commences as nearly as possible to the extreme left of the check.

The figures are written close together and there is no s.p.a.ce between the first figure and the dollar mark.

All erasures in checks should be avoided. If you have made a mistake, tear a blank check from the back of your check book and use that in place of the one spoiled.

Some business men allow their clerks to fill out checks on the typewriter. This is ill-advised for two reasons: First, it is much easier to alter a typewritten check than one filled in with a pen; in the second place, a teller, in pa.s.sing on the genuineness of a check, takes into consideration the character of the handwriting in the body of the check as well as in the signature. The typewritten characters offer no clue to individuality.

Never mail a check drawn to "Bearer." Remember that if your check is made payable to "Bearer" or to "John Smith or Bearer" it may be cashed by anybody who happens to have it. Unless it is for a large amount the paying teller of your bank will look only to see whether your signature is correct, and, that being right, the bank cannot be held responsible if the check should have come into the wrong hands.

A check drawn to order can be cashed only when the person to whose order it has been drawn has indorsed it by writing his or her name on the back and the bank will be responsible for the correctness of the indors.e.m.e.nt.

If you make your check payable say, to William Armstrong or order, n.o.body but William Armstrong, or some one to whom he indorses the check, can collect the amount, and if through fraud or otherwise some one not ent.i.tled to it gets the money which the check calls for, the responsibility is not yours, but the bank's. It is for that reason that bankers and business men use such great care in accepting checks.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Check Carelessly Drawn. The text and numbers for the amount is in the center of their fields, leaving of s.p.a.ce for extra text.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Same Check "Raised". The amount has been changed from One Hundred/100.00 to Eighty-One Hundred/$8100.00.]

For the same reason you should never accept a check from anybody whom you do not know as responsible, and you should not be surprised or angered if some one else should hesitate to take a check from you.

Checks or drafts received by you should be deposited as soon as possible. Should you receive a check for a considerable amount and have no convenient bank account, you should go to the bank on which the check is drawn and have the cas.h.i.+er certify it by stamping "Accepted" or "Certified" across the face over his signature. That formality makes the paper as good as money so long as the bank accepting it is solvent.

It sometimes happens that a check drawn in good faith by a responsible party is withheld so long by the person receiving it that there is no money to the account when the check is finally presented.