The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-04-06
NJ DERN i, PISTI,ES.
Di6eren Betwe On Letter Writing
Past and Pre- nj. s5

Past and Present.
Conciseness ana Brsvity Now tho Rslss
Where's In Times Gone BY Poo
plo Vrots Mors for
.ssss Posterity. IN
b The letter writing OF to-day bears lit
tie or no resembl ance to letter writing
of other days, and Mr.. Andrew Lang
IN an interesting paper in the Illus
trated London News discourses on the
letter writer's Of the past, and says that
the lack Of good letters in modern
life. is not so much from the slack OF
writer's as from the .slack Of readers"
and long letter, say from Australia,
is perhaps never read at all, and that
we have become so frivolous "a man
as far away as Samoa will write note
as If to a friend in the next street. !"
The pace at which we live, the rush
and hurry Of each day, are answera bic
in measure for this change in our
style of correspondence; but, above all,
isait not the result of the food of Jour
nalism which sweeps all before it? The
letter writer's Of the past wrote for pos
terity, it is true, but also to keep their
friends in touch with the topics of the
day, political and social, says London
Queen. Our newspapers do this for us
to the fullest extent, and only the
most private matters remain for the
letter writer to record, matters of so
private a nature that were such letters
given to posterity discreet editor
would at once erase these condolences
from his MS. The letter writer of to-
day, unlike his predecessor, does not
conhde his experie nces-whatever form
they may have takento his friend and
correspondent; and If he has anything
worth saying on any particular subject
he rushes into print forthwith, into the
pages of one or other of the many mag
azines, or into the daily or weekly
newspapers. Women are not one whit
behind men in this respect, and news
paper and magazine readers are the re-
they have seen and done becomes at
once public property.
The admirable diction, the vigorous
English, the polished periods, the tell
ing epigrams in the careful and we'll
thought-out essays Of the day are not
to be found as heretofore in private
correspondence but in magazine and
journalistic literature. Mr.. Lang re-
marks that the ''fear or hope" of hav-
ing their letters published inspired
many of the old eminent hands" to do
their best for fame and posterity, as
well as for their correspondents. Miss
Austen kept her wit for. the world, {"
and gave ''fat gossip" to the worthy,
dull ladies' with whom she CORE
sponded. Of literary letters none ex-
eel Shelly's." SCOTS are simply ''nat-
ural, business-lilSe and unpretentious;"
Thackeray, though he lived in our
railway days. and ''should have writ
ten few letters" yet for tone, style,
wit and loving kindness his are among
the best in the world.
The points in the notes of the day
which have superseded letters-are con-
ciseness and brevity, to write without
preamble of any kind and to go to the
root Of the matter at once. Formerly,
If anything in the way Of a request was
made, a suggestion as regards plan to
do something, or any one of the thou
sand social trifles that fill up leisure
end life, it required a lead Of some lines
to introduce it, and oftener than not
an apology also. But now almost tel
egraphic conciseness is the mode
adopted, and aught else would read
out of date; in truth, kilograms have
not little to doin forming the present
form of letter writing, and have taught
economy in the use of words. It may
be said that the letters Of to-day are
the direct antithesis of those of yore.
Then too many subjects could not be
preached and commented upon; now
the reverse is the rule, and to keep to
one subject only, and that in the
fewest words, is what society affects,
hence the brief notes we all receive and
write; yet, brief as they are, a clever
man or talented woman conveys in
sentence or two the gist Of the whole
matter, epigrammatical in neatness and
subtly humorous-a compensation small
in it's way, perhaps, for the lengthy
epistles Of the past, but all this worka-
day world has time either to write or to
read
E q