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Shoffner History.
cup shape, with a projecting handle that could be inserted in the cracks in the wall and held firmly while dispelling the gloomy darkness. Xo oil had yet appeared, but in this we lind melted tallow or grease doing service through a twisted piece of cloth for a wick. Then came kerosene, atid with it lamps of all kinds; and these brought advancement in means of sell-improvement.
When we of to-dav see an old letter written one hundred years ago, we little realize at first thought the trouble that it was to the writer. The pen was made from a goose quill trimmed into something like the shape of the steel pen points of the present. The ink also was manufactured at home from the juice of ink balls that grow on oak trees, and to this was added a little copperas to give it a deep color. There was another process also, whereby it was made from logwood. Vet, after all this, we find some splendid scribes of pioneer days. So after realizing what small advantages our ancestors had for obtaining an education and how well they improved the little opportunity they did have, we surely can. with all due reverence, overlook the few mistakes we find in their spelling, writing, etc.
In looking over the old letters left by .John Shofner, one is struck forcibly at first by the absence of stamps and envelopes. To-day we would think that a letter could not be written without an envelope, but such was the case in this country until almost up to the time of the Civil War. The letters of those days were written on a large sheet of paper, a part of which was folded so as to encase the balance, and then a drop of ceiling wax was placed on the back to hold it together. Postage