Early 'ball' report in 1734 Colonial New York Newspaper

[barrysloate]

If you look at the first sheet posted above, around the middle of the paragragh, the word "before" is typed directly over the day "Wednesday." If you look closely you can see that the "f" of "before" is constructed slightly differently than the internal "s" of "Wednesday." The "f" is accorded an extra little serif sticking out the right side.

Nevertheless, those internal letters were pronounced "s". Just try to say those words with an "f" sound and nearly all would be tongue twisters. I don't know what year that practice fell out of use, but maybe someone on the board does.