dropcap.jquery.js

// wraps the first character of a paragraph with <div class="dropclass"></div>
// expects a jQuery paragraph object
// ex: dropCap($('.story p:first'));

function dropCap($target) {
  $first_p = $target.html().trim(); // removes any leading whitespace
  
  if ($first_p.charAt(0) != '<') {
    // not a html tag
    $target.html( '<div class="dropcap">' + $first_p.charAt(0) + '</div> ' + $first_p.substring(1) );
  }
}