River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-08-02
The Etiquette of addressing Letters.

The Etiquette ofAddressing Letters,
/ have found in the course of my ex-
perience, that there are very many peo-
pie, even among those who assume TO
be cultivated, who do not know how to
address letter. | have. had many oc-
casions, especially in official life, to test
this. summing up the results of my ex-
perience in social and official life,
| must say that the majority of men are
| ignorant of what is due others in this
| matter of address.
| Nowadays many people assuming-ot
course out of.their own dense stupidity
that they know names better than their
owners, will adopt not their owners way
of writing them but their own: There
| is but one rule ami it has no exceptions
always address a man as he gives you
his name. The Attorney General of the
| United States, for instance, writes his
| name Benjamin Harris Brewster. Al
though many of the curbstone brokers
| address him as ''B. Brewster" and their
example is followed by others who
should know better, it is nothing short
of impertinence to do so. Who would
think of putting Oliver Wendell Holmes
down as o. w. Holmes, or James Russell
Lowell as J. B. Lowell?
One of the first elements of cultivation
as well as the proof of it is rec
oguition of what others claim as due
them.
Whilst you find, especially among fe-
males, individuals who are ever watch
ful and fearful lest they omit the prefix
general, colonel, " "major," to some
E
write to and speak of ''the Gen, "the
Coll" the Maj" yet these same will
address Prof William Simmer, Of Yale
college, as W. Sumner, ESQ.,, forgetting
that a title honorably earned and hon
orably worn in the highest walk of cul-
tured civilization is at least quite as ie-
climate claim as titles often self-im-
posed, and more frequently game by
means as dishonest as burglary.
Never address a married lady by the
title of her husband-as Mrs. DR.. Smith,
Mrs. Col. Jones or Mrs. Senator Wilkins.
This is the extreme of flunkeyism, to
to say the least of it. 1t is never in
good taste, because it is senseless. A
woman in marrying assumes her hus-
bands name but never his title. Mrs.
John Jones is an anamoly as
Mrs. DR.. Jones. You might as
we'll tell me that the wife of Thomas
Adams, esq, attOrney-at-law, should be
addressed as Mrs. Thomas Adams, ESQ.,,
attorney-at-law. In England the term
esquire" is as much OF title as colonel
or judge. Why, If you say Mrs. Col or
Mrs. Judge Simkins, would you not say
Mrs. Henry Simkins, esquire.
And if Mrs. General Hollowbrain be
proper, why not Mrs. Sergeant or Mrs.
CORPORAL Liehthead? or Mrs, First Lieu
tenant or Mrs. Second Lieutenant-for
each is distinct title. / heard of a fe-
male who wrote to a friend, who adj.
dressed her as Mrs Lieutenant, please,
after this direct to Mrs First Lieuten-
ant, for my darling has been promoted"
And, remember that custom is very
foolish and may sanction anything from
the grecian-hend to crushed strawberry
for mourning. 1t is the custom of the
shoddy and the giddy, of feather heads
and of snobs. of title worshipers and of
people whose vanity is never satisfied
without noise and clap-trap.-W Washing
ton Star.