Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-02-24

HOW Forms Change, hut FACES Re
mAtn-An Addisonian Epistie.

from Harper's Magazine.
Cheap postage and postal cards, the telegraph
ana the telephone. are thought by many despair
ing people Of conservative turn Of mind to
nave put an end to letter-writing. The
students of our English literature who delight
ID Gray's and Cowper's and Horace Wall
poles letters do not honor Rowland Hill,
and feel grudge against Mr.. Gladstone be-
cause he uses postal cards. Who now sits
down to an ample sheet and gosslps with the
pen! In whose letters of to-day shall the
historian hereafter look for the form and
pressure of this time? Their crisp brevity. their
aooreviation of words. their undallying direct
ness, even their prepayment with three-cent
stamp. all imply the hurry Of our life and the
engfosslng engagement OF the writer. ''And
ten me-. says enc Of the delightful cOnserva-
tives VINO are as contemptuOus ofthe nineteenth
century as the nineteenth of the eighteenth
tell me. who knows anything to-day of the
bliss OF eager expectation in breaking the seal
pshaw! there are seals no lOnger-I mean in
tearing the end of an envelope or cutting the
gummed lappet-hideous OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
was known so well to our dear old ancestors.
liiat pleasure has dropped clean out Of our
lives There is one Joy less.
WE ARE By so MUCH THE POORER
The same severe critic. who insists that we
are IN the rear, not in the van, Of time, and
iaments that he has been left behind In the great
march OF the ages by the happy days Of Addi-
son ana OF glorious John. SAYS that he still has In
his possession the letter in which one of his an
cestors proposed for his wife-propOsed not to
the lady herself. but to her brother who was
her guardian. and of whom he asked permission
to pay his addresses to the sister. All that in
deed Is letter." signs the lover of the Addison
Ian epoch. My progenitor advanced to the
n hAQ Of u
mother. like Marlborough or Prince Eu-
gene sitting down before fortified town.
Extreme deliberation marked the strate-
gical movements of all these great COM
manders My ancestor drew his lines
with marvellous circumspectcn. After per-
mission had been received he opened siege
IN due form. and pressing his amiable advances
with vigor and skill he at length compelled a
surrender. The besieged garrison marched out
with drums beating aud colors flying and all
conceivable honors of war and was received by
the besieging general with respectful courtesy
winch transformed surrender into triumph
describe it, said the musing conservative
under military metaphor. But it was really
love-making i'm state and In full dress. 1t was
1nii-bottomed periwig galIantry. 1t belonged
lng-wax and impressive seals. of high-bred
courtesy which did not permit. gentlemen to
smoke when escortfng ladies. nor to dare to adj
dress them with clothes and breath
SATURATED WITH THE SMELL OF CIGARETTES.
So the old gentleman lamented and remem-
bered and prattled. He did not reflect that the
amlable advances and ASA ults, in which his an
cestor took part, and the blushing surrender Of
the besieged garrison, did not end with the
marriage of his great-great-grandmothe The
letter sheets are certainly smaller. as he averred,
and the postage is but a trife, and waxen seals
are much left to public offices and Sir Piercie
Shafton. But the important summons to the
garrison is still received with the old perturba-
ton, and the gummed envelope is torn with as
much palpitattng eagerness as ever broke the
wax of an Older day. Such forms change. but
such facts remain. 1t is not letter-writng
age. But the old Addisonian was not quite
correct in thinking it to be lost art; not only
are letters of the best kind still written. but
they still, when they appear. belong to the best
literature. Perhaps when these words are read
the correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle
Will have been published. If any reader be-
heves that cheap postage. hurry and the tele-
graph have abolished Ietter-writing as a branch
OF literature let him turn to that correspon-