Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-03-18
WOMAN LETTERS.
How they Differ from those OF Men
why There are SO Many IfaIies.

why There are SO Many Italics.
No strong, muscular fingers, hard
ened by graphing with circumstan-
ces, could ever make those long,
delicate, hoOp-letters- his and
the g's-while the Us, long and
slenderly drawn out, the shapely
o's and the well-proportioned as,
all speak of hands used to leisure
delicate, soft hands, used to trifing
with skeins of silk and bits of bright
stuffs, and which triao with letter.
writing, too, in their graceful, half
aimless manner. And if the hand
writing didn't tell you all about the
hand that wrote, the composition Of
the letter would Her tricks Of
expression, and even the way she
begins it-"My Dearest Georgia"
or ''My Darling Caroline, or MY
own Dear WILL" Those are al
wOman's terms Of endearment and
81 lore, LOVE, LOVE you % She
writes in a perfect agony of unex-
pressed sentiment When abe
wants to set for the ardent affec-
ton, italics find themselves put in
to the most active service in her
hands. No man uses italics as q
woman does, or feels the need of
using them as she does. She can't,
for the life fher, help making that
all-expressive and all expressing
dash of the pen under the word
that only half expresses what she
wants to say. She is especially
fond of ftolicisiRg the mysterious
che When she writes it thus:
she, you may know that she mas
especial designs on this particular
che By that single stroke of the
pen, she sets him apart from all the
other he's in the world She does
not know any better way Of ex-
pressing it, however, than that
His name may be Theodore Alger-
non Howard, or Adolphus Gusta
vus Jenkins, or plain John Smith,
but he is only che" in her sdoring
thoughts, when she sits down to
write to Laura Matilda about him.
Eight pages, and one or two Of them
crossed Not a page less, on my
honor and responsibility as q com
missioner in the little ins and outs
of the sex
Then, again, what man ever
crosses his Ietters2 On the con
trary, they hate, and despise. and
contemn the custom. NV dear"
growls the disgusted Fitz-Floss ia
in the Getty" whence he writes to
his dutiful and be-paniered spouse
at Saratoga or Long Branch, don't
cross your letters when you write
to me. It's too hard on a fellow
this hot weather to have to make
'em out, and | can't stand it. L
couldn't read your last, it was all
scrubbed over So Yet his Maria
Louisa still persists in crossing her
letters to her "dear, darling hubby
Why do women do it2 The fact is
that a wOman's letter, like a wo-
mans work, is never done, and she
does violence to her natural self
when she finds that she has left
only one fraction of q corner avail
able for writing her name in, and
must, perforce, fold up the econom-
ically-written sheet, and slip it into
its tiny envelop; and even then,
some last thought occurs to her, and
she is tempted to seribble on the in
side Ofthe wrapper-fap. What does
she find to write about so much
She tells you Of Annie's new dress,
and Mrs: Wheedleum' last crush
about Julia's Irritation and Alfred's
engagement something about b 9.
own heart affairs, too, if she
writing to a confidential friend. Set
a man down to the same sort ST
work. give him the same range Of
subjects, and he win whisk you OF
a two-page letter in a jiffy-say
one word about this, half word
about that, and two words about
the other, and sign himself ~ ours,
sincerely" and have done with it,
while woman correspondent,
writing the same sort of letter, il
"YOur own Lucy" or Lovingly
yours, Sallie." Docs anything tehS
more to show the great difference
in the mental complexion ofthe two
sexes in general?
And then, a woman's letter never
looks quite like a mans. For her,
the stationers' shops spread their
choicest fancy assortments. For
her, are the fancifully-printed
monograms, the three. cOrnered
note-enyelopes, the dainty, scented
note-papeF. Women use these
things as a rule, men use them as .
an exception. Lay the mans letter
beside the woman J.; the one in its
large, plain, white envelope, its
strong, clear, free writing on the
address the other in its dainty
trickery of crest or monogram, or
embossed letter, and its delicate
snperscription, not half-illing the
tiny envelope There you have the
epitomes Of their eharacters-the
mans and the Woman's.
Dun Piatt mentions rumor that Sc