EARLY DAY STORIES. 241 



to make fire. There were several ways to do this. In those 

 days many men who smoked carried in the vest pocket a 

 "burning glass" as it was then called — that is, a double con- 

 vex lens, about an inch and a half in diameter. The pipe 

 would be filled with tobacco and the lens held in such a 

 way as to focus the sun's rays upon the tobacco in the pipe, 

 and after two or three puffs the tobacco would take fire and 

 the pipe would be lighted. With the burning glass a fire 

 could be quickly kindled by bringing the sun's rays to a 

 focus upon some dry, rotten wood or some very fine shav- 

 ings. Of course this could only be done when the sun was 

 shining brightly. 



Many people kept a tinder box, and a flint and steel. I 

 carried these implements in my pockets as play things when 

 I was a boy. The steel was an oval steel ring perhaps three 

 eights of an inch thick that would slip easily over two or 

 three fingers of the right hand — the tinder was linen cloth 

 burned or charred until it was brown, and was carried in a 

 tin box called a tinder box — the flint was any common flint 

 stone with a sharp edge. When necessary to make a fire, 

 the tinder box was placed on the hearth or on the ground, 

 with the cover off so as to expose the tinder, the flint was 

 held over it with the left hand in such a way that when struck 

 by the steel the sparks would fall upon the tinder thus set- 

 ting it on fire. A fire could then be quickly kindled with the 

 aid of dry, rotten wood or of tow and fine shavings. I be- 

 lieve I thought more of my flint, steel and tinder box, than 

 boys of today do of their bat and ball, or of their marbles. 



I have also kifidled a fire several times with a pistol, 

 gunpowder and tow. This was done by loading the pistol 

 with a very small charge of powder — only a pinch in fact, 

 and placing loosely on top of the powder a large wad of 

 very dry tow that had been first sprinkled all through lightly 

 with gunpowder, and then firing the wad into a bunch of 

 fine shavings. The gunpowder would ignite the tow and 



