little bit of white pine lying before me came from far north, in the
Hudson Bay Territory, or perhaps from the great silent forests about
Lake Superior, and has been rushed and jammed and tossed in its long
course through rivers, over cataracts and rapids, and across the great
lakes.

We read that near the middle of the seventeenth century it was
discovered that phosphorus would ignite a splint of wood dipped in
sulphur; but this means of obtaining fire was not in common use until
nearly a hundred and fifty years later.

This, then, appears to have been the beginning of match-making. Not
that kind which some old gossips are said to indulge in, for that must
have had its origin much farther back, but the business of making those
little "strike-fires," found in every country store, in their familiar
boxes, with red and blue and yellow labels.

The matches of fifty years ago were very clumsy affairs compared with
the "parlor" and "safety" matches of to-day, but they were great
improvements upon the first in use. Those small sticks, dipped in
melted sulphur, and sold in a tin box with a small bottle of oxide of
phosphorus, were regarded by our forefathers as signs of "ten-leagued
progress." Later, a compound made of chlorate of potash and sulphur was
used on the splints. This ignited upon being dipped in sulphuric acid.
In 1829 an English chemist discovered that matches on which had been
placed chlorate of potash could be ignited by friction. Afterward, at
the suggestion of Professor Faraday, saltpeter was substituted for the
chlorate, and then the era of friction matches, or matches lighted by
rubbing, was fairly begun.