American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-04-20
Letter.Writing.

PEOPLE do not write letters any more,
but notes. At least most people. Now
and then there is letter-writer of the old
sort who knows how to say brilliant and
piquant things. But most people who
can say piquant things sell their brilliancy
to the journals, and waste none of it on
friends. In the good old days." before
newspapers took the place of conversation,
when a man saved his best things for the
parlor of his friend, there were letters
the only substitute for talk in absence, the
only way of making ones brilliancy per-
manent. Letters in those days were
literary compositions They were filed
they were admired, criticised, and talked
over. Madame de Sevigne was only
etterwriter, and the greatest of letter
writers. The matters now discussed in
piquant newspaper paragraphs were sub
iects for Madame de Sevigne's letters.
And the whole history of the Hotel de
Rambouilet, and of the society of the
Fronde has been reconstructed by NJ.
Victor Cousin and NJ. Ste Beuve from
package of old letters accidentally dis
covered. But now we do not write such
letters. 1t is: my dear Tom Excuse me
for not writing before. Anna has the
measles. Mr. Smiths youngest child
died Saturday, oftyphoid. Business dull.
w lie SENDS love truly, Ben he
telegraph, the steam eng inc and cheap
postage have demoralized us, and we
grudge the time given to even these brief
notes. In the olden time, when your
fathers letter was carried to Cincinnati
by post coach once week, and when it
cost a precious silver quarter of postage,
and consequently must be made of value
to him that received, your father tried to
write a quarters worth. And so he whit
FL L, 1nrs,
good, long, fresh forenoon to the COM
position of the epistle. Very delight
full those old epistles were, telling
about weather and news and customs and
dress and speech-just what books and
papers tell now. They were little stiff
and formal, we grant. We have seen
many an old letter in which The husband
wrote to the wife, or the fatherto the son,
with all the starched decOrum of a Presi-
dents Message. People who were per
fectly free and easy in their ordinary in
tercOurse froze to icicles of propriety
when once they had written ''Dear who
ever-it might be" over the top. We have
known a Southern lady who had never
called her mother anything but ma" in
her life-for ma is the aristocratic usage
there-we have known such lady TO
write mamma" in all her letters. Indeed,
any other term written was disrespectful.
We have now in our possession letter of
forty wears ago, in which the writer, adj
dressing his own brother near his own
age never alludes to the father but in the
most formal way as my father"
There are many people at the present
time who are free enough in converse
ton, but who are fearfully stiff as soon
as they get pen holder between their
fingers. We have known young men
from the country to go and buy Let
ter-Writer' in order to find out the cor
rect way of writing to friend with whom
they were not under the least restraint in
conversation. Perhaps there is one rule
better than all the guides ever written on
the subject of epistolary correspondence.
Write as nearly like your conversation as
you can. Think of your friend as before
YOU eschew all Alterations, and talk to
him A very easy rule to give, but very
hard one to follow. This simplicity and
siraghtforwardness is often the last result
of long practice. But the best letters are
the simplest -HedrH and Home
THE Danbury Ns,cs says: Many of
our readers will he glad to learn that