The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-05-02
Love- Letters and LQcifer Matches.
REMINISCENSES BY AN EX.AB.
BEVILLIAN OF FORTY
VFARC

You young fellows sitting in Able
vile writing your love-letters and she
getting them without so much as your
left hand knowing what your right
hand has done, and taking out your
Lucifers and lighting your pipes, may
he segars, can have no Just conception
of how your daddies or "pa's" used to
he troubled in etfecting the same ends.
1t was only about 1915 when envel-
opes were invented, aud was o year or
two later before stamps for prepay
ment were adopted. The previous ar
rangement was, to write your letter OIL
one, two or three pages of a sheet, and
fold it and back it OH the fourth page.
Waters were in general use for sealing,
and if you were much Of ''sonle' you
had your initials on your gold or sill
v~er-headed pencil, or q motto that suit.
ed you. You wet the wafer and put it
under the edge of the fold, then drop
ped melted wax owe the seal and
where it Tapped, and while warm
impressed your initials or motto; aud
it WaS'nt best at all times to loan your
pencil to any and every body. Letters
didn't go by weight then, but by the
number of separate pieces, and of that
the post master who delivered had to
judge by peeping and squeezing. The
rates during that and my vinegar
moon was six aud one-fourlh cents for
under twenty miles, twelve and one
half for over and to three hundred
miles, and twenty-five cents beyond
three hundred miles. 1t often requir-
ed reference to maps, compasses, &c.
On more than one OCCASION resulted in
tights between the Post Master and
letter recipients -quarrels were too
common for mention. Every sepa-
rate paper in a letter subjected it TO
double rates. For illustration: If a
Post Master could detect at Anderson
Court House a letter from your office
containing a one dollar bill, he charged
double postage; if he could see, feel
or smell two bills he added again, and
80 on al fnitum. There Vas no re-
auirement nor prohibition of prepay
ment, but if you wanted to prepay
YOU had to do it in person and cash TO
the post master; and strange to..say,
that with all these disabilities upon a
bashful young fellow III limbo, 1t was
as ~discreditable as it is to day to lax
your dulcinea with the postage. Oh!
it was horrible. 1 will state The case
via my own. In lS45 l wanted to
make a non-verbal say" to a certain
fell0w-traveller in the adjoining Dis
trict (now county by theit) OF Lau-
rens, and I didn't want any body else
to- know of it; but how could l get
around it? I didn't want to saddle
her with the postage and l didn't
want to enclose it 10 her az II d
needed 1t, or that I didn't think 1t
worth the postage to her; ! could't
think of making John McLaren, the
post master, my %confidant; and TO
avoid all these I put my wits to work,
and thus I worked II: l got an enVei-
one. the first I ever used, and put 1t in
properly addressed, and enclosed 1t to
ihe post master al Greenville, with
funds abundant, requesting him to re-
mail it, without telling him who I
was. It reached her and cost me for
ty cents; but who cared tor expense
N such cases?
I connect with this subject Lucifer
matches, because between the two
here is q pathological, philosophical
and physchological connection. Lucl-
fer is also one name for The Devil, and
# unrequited love, which sometimes
happens through q letter, is not Tue es-
,ence, I don't know what 1t is:
both are producers OF fire, imam
mable and consuming. ~ dont
mean to discuss, as the subject
. too eXtensive,' as Col. J. Ed. e.
..scd to say in his religious essays,
out to suggest The line of thought TO
other minds" The 6ohd fde lire
business No 2 was not so hea't-rend-
Nc Il, the No. J, but were each SO far
behind the present that l cant see
now we endured The old disDensalion
and lived through it. Fire ";or seed'
vas kept going i'll most families f:om
YEARS beginning 10 years end. No
hing was less su. Using than to be
awakened at u hour Of the night
with.-"Hello!'' What do you
want" "a chunk o. ire"-and the
man who, having 1t refused, was voled
as worse than q healhen or lnhdel
and mathematical aud mdrondthasd:
Campers-ouL had TO be as we'll assured
of where they gould gel i'e as WOOD
and water. All Sous of invasion were
m:de under the p:e;eXt "for a chunk
| OF lTe,' uilu tIOl w 10
or chicken went with and beyond 1t.
The standard reliance for production
when the seed ran out was The lSnl-
lion of "spunk" or punk" by Mint
and steel, end almost all fIeellOlders
were prepared for The manufacture.
Another wes tow or cotton fired from
d gun, but it Ouen required seve' al
shots and burnt fingers to succeed;
and still another was the sun-g]a:s,
but that didn't suit wet weather and
winter as we'll as some may suppose
aud MANY desired. II Sancho PanZa
was authorized to thank lhe inventor
OF sleep for that ~inst,tuiiOn. so ought
,his reneration for Luci'er matches.
Certainly no invention llas conlribu-
ed so much TO convenience OF man
kind: and the names o: John Walker
and Reuben Pait ;dye desc We 10
stand along with Mo, Sc, Faust and
The discoveries o: Inc needle aud
steam. The first matches ever saw
were a few brought up from savan.
nah, about 1ScS, by Chas. NJ. Pe'ot,
Esu' They were much longer lhan
now used, and made O., fal pieces of
!-white oak and dawn rapidly between
~dllu IiDSl ouiC NV 49,
certain 20 bum your fingers. This
subject calls 10 mind a story told on
Uncle Jake Marin, who had ideas
and ways of his owu. He was nat
'+hrally merry, and some times put. on
IN addition. Recurring in ea!ly Days
4; ON the Court Hou-e, "how came
you so" and ''happy." he passed a
clearing where a green D WAS
trying 10 burn logs, and stopping 10
Chat, as he always did in such mood,
the other chatter complained of the
fire mol burning 1T was just ai.er a
long wet sreil) but going out. What
kind of fire ale you using, inquired
Uncle Jake. "Such as We use in COOK
ing and wa,hims," was the answer
Are you" continued Uncle Jake,
'such n da*ned fool as TO suppose you
eau burn those logs with the common
f.e. Go you 10 the woods and get
from a hollow tee the genuine spunk