The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1883-08-02

The Etiquette Of Addressing Letters
have found in the course of my ex-
perience, that there are very many PEG
pie, even among those who assume to
be cultivated, who do not know how to
address letter. I 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, I
must say that the majority of men are
ignorant of what is due others in this
matter of address.
Nowadays many people assuming-ol
coursS o1t Of their own, dense stupidity
that they know names better than their
owners, vill,adopt not their owners way
of writing them butt their own. There
is but one rule and it has no exceptions
always address 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 0. 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 DIS due
them.
Whilst you find, especially among fe-
males; individuals who are ever watch
full + and fearful e 1f lest they omit the prefix
general" COLONEL" '''major,", to some
self: constituted titularies, and always
Write to and speak Of 'the Gen." 1.-The
Col.," "the Maj" yet these same will
address Prot. William SHmnet, Of Yale
college, as W. Summer, esd, forgetting
that title honorably earned and hon.
orably worn in the highest walk of Gull
tured civilization is at least quite as ie-
gitimate a claim as titles often self-im
posed, and more frequently game by
means as dishonest as burglary. :.
Never Address unmarried 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. It 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
"Io. ~. jules. lou mlgnC as
we'll tell me that the wife of Thomas
Adams, ESQ.,, attorney-at-l 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 Lighthead? or Mrs. First Lieu
tenant or Mrs. Second Lieutenant-for
each is distinct title. heard of a fe-
male who wrote to friend, who ad-
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-bend to crushed strawberry
for mourning; It 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.-Washing-
ton Star.