Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-03-07
I'm the findings Of Letters.

more apparent thar III inc Hla.lel
ending a letter. The most bald, DIS
iointed epistlc is sometimes ia SEQ IRON
The low level of the commonplace by a
falicitous and smooth-tlowing termina-
ion. while. on the other hand, a really
admirable piece of epistolary compost.
tion NAV be mulcted in half its effect II
the writer ends up with a II must now
conclude, as the post is going out
Apropos of this particular termlna-
tioni we may remark that we ourselves
should be disposed to warn u readers
against ever saying anything about
':now concluding
In all letters of form or courtesy they
should strive so to frame their commu-
nications that their signatures should
constitute the closing words of the final
sentence, and this final sentence be in
timately connected with the body OF the
letter.
The following instances, taken at ran
dom from some of the best letters ex-
tant in the English language, will ex-
emplify our meaning.
Samuel johnson, in that famous let
ter to Lord Chesterfield in which he SO
Indignantly denies that he is under any
obligation to the noble lord, ends thus:
"Having carried on my work thus far with
so little obligation to any favorer Of leu ming,
l shall not be disappointed though ! should
conclude tiff less be possible-with less; Tor
l have been long wakencd from that dream of
hope in which L once boasted myself with SO
much cXultation, my lord, your lordships
SAMUEL JOHNSON"
Walter Savage Lander, in an irate
letter to Lord Normandy, concludes
thus:
w are both of us old mon, my lord, and
are verging on decrcpitude and imbccility,
else my note might be more energetic. am
not unobseryant of distinctions. You by the
favor OF a minister are Marquis OF Normandy,
l by the grace OF God am
Then again, Pope, writing to Mrs
Arabella Fermor about his poem the
Grape of the Lock-" winds up thus:
IF this poem had as many graces as there
| are in your person or in your mind, yet could
never hope it should pass through the world
half SO uncensured as you have done: Bullet
it's fortunes be what it will, mine is happ!
enough to have given me this occasion OF as
| surfing you that 1 am, with the truest esteem,
madam, your most obedicnt, humble Servant,
L.
Turn also to that remarkable speci-
men of irony, the letter sent to Oliver
Cromwell by the author of ''killing no
| Murder" The whole Of this curious
| epistle is devoted to point pg out the
various benefits which will accrue to
the nation on Cromwell's death, and it
closes thus:
''That your Highness Ia be speedily in this
security is the universal wish of your grateful
country this is the desire and prayer of the
good and of the bad, and, it may be, is the
only thing wherein all sects and factions do
agree in their devotion, and it is ouronly com
mon prayer. But among all that put in their
request and duplication for your Hiehness's
speedy deliverance from all earthly troubles.
none is more assiduous nor more fervcnt than
he that, with the res: of the nation, hath the
honor to be lmay it please yolr Highness'
your Highness's present slave and vaSsal.
The AUTHOR OF KILLING NO MURDER
In every one of the above instances
the letter runs on naturally to this CON
clusion, and the impression is given that
the writer has finished SAYING all that
he wants to say.
Now, in writingto strangers, whether
in the spirit of friendliness or of anger,
this is just the sort of impression VIC
wish to convey. In letters, therefore,
to persons with whom we are not init.
mate we should aim at endings of this
OF this sort. When, however, we are
writing to near friends, and our letter
may be of an interminable series,
we can be far more careless about the
way in which we end it. We may
break off as abruptly as we please,
passing from the most stirring nara.
tive of public events to a simple good.
by, goodnight, farewell, etc. This is
what Horace Walpole constantly does
in his correspondence with Sir Horace
Mann.
old Marlborough [Sarah, Dowager Ouch
essl is d~ying-but who can tell? Last year she
had laina great while ill without speaking; he1
physician said, she must be b@listcred or She
sill die She called out, I won't be blistcrcd
and l won't die! II she takes the same reso
luton now, | don't believe she will. Adieu
ever ~ i HORACE sas, Ie""f'
1t will be seen that we have drawn
the above instances from the correspond
ence OF a past age, but we have done
so because it is among by-gone genera.
tons that we look for the greatest ex.
c%ellence in the art of e~pistolary compo
sition. At the same t me we must eau
ton our readers against a slavish imita
of such models. For instance, it is nov
extremely old-fashioned to sign Your
self, in an ordinary letter, "Yours ODE
IDENTITY" or "Your obedient servant
When you are addressing strangers
even though they be superior in socia
position, "Yours faithfully is the cor
rect thing to put; while, should you be
corresponding with some one with whom
you are slightly acquainted, your:
sincerely" or "Yours truly viii be
most appropriate. Should YOU wish tc
infuse q shade more warmth into vou1
ending, this can be effected by a trans
position OF the adverh and pronoun 20,
employ, Every sincerely yours being
a degree more genial, because les;
hackneyed, than ''Yours very sincerely
"A Buffalo wholesale fish firm doe,
a. local NncjNncc q 80 -. 81 =.