The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-06-12
LETTERS ARE A BIG BORE.
HOW sHALL THEY BE BEGUN, AND
nov CONCLUDED?

Guilty, / had almost said the impossi
bility, Of beginning and ending letters
Shall it be my Dear Sir" or "Deal
Sir" or simply the name and "Sir" BE-
meath. The man, writing to a woman,
who hestitates about beginning, Is
lost. "My Dear Madame" looks SC
formal, and surely my Dear Mrs. So
and So" has a familiar air.
But this is really nothing to the
winding up. The tag" as the actors
call it, simply will not get itself writ,
ten. How easy it would be to Jot
down II must now conclude, as the
post is going out" but it will not do
nowadays. "Yours obediently" or
"Your obedient servant" are too, too
dreadfully old fashioned; then come
in succession all the ordinary end
ings:-"Yours faithfully Yours sin
cerely," or yours truly But they
look unnatural at the moment; even
very sincerely yours is abandoned,
and finally, in despair, Yours very
sincerely" is written, the letter Is
despatched, and the writer feels that
always in the future his correspond
ent will regard him as the worst letter
writer of the age.
After a while, perhaps, all the letter
writing will be done on the type
writer's, just as all the sewing Is
now done on the machines. IL
will be much nicer. The correspon-
dence can be allowed to accumulate
for a month at a time, and then a girl
will be engaged for a days work, and
the whole score wiped out at once.
Then the handwriting will not mat
ter, and aver poor spelling will pass
as a vagary of the machine. The girl
that runs it will be accountable for
the heading, and the ending will
make no earthly difference, for every
thing looks the same in print.
Every day VIZ grow less precise
about these things, but, in the good
old times, they used to pride them
selves on their letters. Among the
letters written by well known writer's
that are often referred to, is n from
Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann,
which he ends thus
Old Marlborough (sarah, Dowager Duchess) is
dying, but who can tellY Last year she had lain
a great while Ill without speaking; her physicians
said, She must be blistered or she will die" She
called out, Il won't be bIistered and | won't die
II she takes the same resolution now ! don't be-
lieve she will. Adieu, my dear child; l have but
room to say, yours ever, HORACE WALPoLE.
A very nice complimentary letter is
the one written to Mrs. Arabella Fer
more by Pope about his poem, the
''Rape of the Lock" 1t winds up
thus
II 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, But let its for
tunes be what it WILL mine is happy enough to
have given me this occasion of assuring you that
| am, with the truest esteem, madame, your
most ~obedlent, humble servant, A.. PoPE.
A very good letter was written, not
very long since, by Kyrle Bellew, who
is becoming accustomed, or ought to
be, to being goaded in this country.
1t was in reply to one from a young
man, who wrote to the actor, telling
him that he had taken his sweetheart
to the theatre the previous evening
and had a bet with her that Bellew
was married. A fine-looking girl and
an expensive box of bon-bons, he said,
were at stake. Kyrle's reply was:-
DEAR sIR:--I am credibly informed by the daily
press that | am not married, and equally as EN-
phatically acquainted with the fact that | am. /
am married to a very beautiful young English
girl whom l have temporarily left in England. l
see that l am also married to q great lady" in
England. Further than this, l have deserted
another wife and Il don't remember the numberl
several children. also married an actress with
whom | played Romeo in Melbourne. Her name
I forget. According to the London papers Ihave
been married since l arrived here, and am also
engaged to an heiress, whose appearance ! grieye
to hear is not attractive. Another wife arrived
here some time ago, and is playing in a travelling
company, and | also have two wives in Paris.
Each one of these statements is made, 1 am
told. ION tine hest authority" SO am bound in a
way to believe them all. But l should send those
sweets. were l you, in spite of this we'll attested
evidence. Yours while, KYRLE BELLEw.
Curly is evidently not giving him
self away to the girls. An often
quoted letter from Walter Savage
Landor to Lord Normandy concludes
thus
We are both of us old men, my lord, and are
verging on decrepitude and imbecility, else my
note might be more energetic. l am not UNI
%inister are Sl al MarSuis Of N Morn az iSs l ! by d the g
grace Of God am WALTER SAVAGE LANDoR.
Mime. de Sevigne always stands out
as the particular letter writer of note.
An elderly lady was relating recently
that she had paid a visit to Paris some
thirty-five years ago. AT that time
Commodore Coe, u. S. N, was also
staying there with his family. The
Commodore's name is inseparably
connected with a story of a lombard
ment when he was in command at
Buenos Ayres, S. A. The supply of
cannon balls giving out he ordered all
the Dutch cheeses, of which there
happened to be a large supply on the
ships, brought forward, and they
answered the purpose eXcellently. 1t
happened that while the Goes were in
Paris some wrangle occurred between
the heirs of Nine. de Sevigne, and her
property was sold at auction to settle
affairs. Commodore Coe heard of it
and bought for $25, 900 her chateau,
some fourteen miles out of Paris, Just
as it stood while she was living. After
the Goes had established themselves
at the chateau the lady went out to
pass the day with them. They had
indeed secured a bargain.
She does not remember how much
land went with the place. but in the
noble pile of stone building there were
no less than ninety-six bedrooms, be-
sides all the drawing rooms, and
every other sort of room. The
dark floors were all waxed with rugs
them, and the furniture would
bring almost any amount today in
Wardom street. In an overlooked