Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-07-05
MODERN LETTER WRITING.
How Forms Change, bnt Facts Remain
An Adoisonian Epistle.

how orms Change, bnt Facts Remain
An Adaisouian Epistle.
Cheap postage and postal cards. the
telegraphand the telephone. are thought
by many despairing people Of CON
servaiive turn OF mind to have put an
end 10 letter-wriing. The students Of
oT English literature who delight in
Gray audGowpcr's and Horace Wal
pole letters do not honor Rowland
Hill, and feel grudge against Mr..
sIladstone because he used postal cards.
Who now sits down TO an ample sheet
and gossips with the pen? In whose
letters of to-day shall the historian
hereafter look for the form and pressure
Of this time? Their crisp breyify. their
Authorization Of words, their undallyinq
directness, even their prepayment with
scent stamp, all imply the hurry of
Cur life and the engrossing engagement
Of the writer. And tell me. saws one
Of the delightful conservatives who are
a cOntemptuOus Of the nineteenth CEN
turr IS tie nineteenth Of the eighteenth
tell me, who knows anything to-day Of
the bliss of eager expectation in break
lng the ~eaI-pshaw! there are seals no
longer mean in tearing the end OF an
envelope or cutting the gummed
lappet-hidcousa denominations that was
known so well 10 our dear old ancestors.
The same severe critic who insist. !
that we are IN the rear, not in the van /
of time. and lamcnts that he has been |
left behind IN the great march Of ages /
0y the happy days Of Addison and of /
glorious John, says he still has in his /
possession the letter in which one of his |
ancestors proposed for his wife, pro- [
posed not 20 the lady herself. but TO her
brother. who was her guardian and of
whom he asked permission 10 pay his
addresses 10 the Sister. "Ah, that is in
deed "a letter signs the lover Of the
Addi-onian epoch, Only progrnitor
advanced 10 the assault of the heart of
my great-grcat-g grandmother like Mari
borough or Prince Eugene sitting down
before "a fortified town Extreme de-
liberation marked the stlatcgical move
mcut, of AN these great commanders.
Nv ancestor drew his lines with marvel
Gus circumspcction After permission
had bccn received he opened siege in
due form. and pressing his amiable adj
vances IS tn yigor and skill he ut
length CON PEELED a surrender. The be-
~ieged garrison marched ont with drums
beating and rolors living and all con-
ccivahlc hOnors oi var, and was received
by be hc~icging General with - respect
ful courtesy which transformed sur
render into triumph | describe it,,
said the mu~ing conservative. ''under u
military metaphor. But il was really
love-makiug in state and in full dress.
II belonged TO the lej~urely epoch Of
letter-wrting Of sealing-WaV and im-
prcs-iye seals, of high-bred courtesy
which did not permit gentlemen to
smoke whom eecortug ladies, nor 10 I
dare TO address them with clothes and
breath saturated with the smell Of
cigarettes,
So the old gentleman lamcntcd and
remembered and prattled. He did not
reflect that the amiahle advances and
assaults I'm which his ancestor took part,
and the biushiug surrender of the be-
sicgcd garrison, did not end with the
marriage of hi, at-grcat-grand-
mother The letter sheets are certainly
smaller, rs he avclred. and the postage
ia but a trilc, and WaNcn seals are much
ttlt w INlllil' billtf'N Nil'l III i'iiiO
Shatl0n But the important summons
10 the garrison is still received with the
old perturbation. and the @ummed en-
vclope Ks torn with MS much palpitating
cagenc,S as ever broke tile wax of AN
Older day Such forms change but
such fact, remain It is not letter.
writing age But the old Addison was
not quite correct in thinking ii to he a
lost art: not only are letters OF the best
Kind still written. hut they still, when
they appear, belong 70 the best Iitera-
ture Perhaps when these words are
read. the correspondence of Emerson
and Carlyle will have been published
If any reader believes that cheap post
age, hurry and the telegraph have
abolished Icuer-writng as "a branch OF
literature lot him turn to the cores
pondcncc and decide = HGrp.r'S Hag
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