The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-11-14

some Absurditles Connected with Letter
Writing.

|
Writing.
Why do we write ESQ" after a
mans name or "Mr." before ID In ad-
dressing a letter? Why do we write
Dear Sir" even In addressing the veri-
est stranger? Why do we subscribe
ourselves to all correspondents az
yours truly" or other words TO that
meaningless effect?
We do none of these things in tele-
grams, yet we do not feel that we are
discourteous to John Jones when We
address him by telegraph solely as
John Jones and eign our names at the
end of the dispatch without any Hour
ish OF words. Why should we not be
as direct simple and truthful in our
letters as in our kilograms? All these
practices are surviyals from an age OF
leisure, extravaganza and seryility OF
mind. They are now an absurdity and
costly Que. More than three billion
letters are written every year i'm the
United States. Allowing half min
ute as the time consumed in writing
Dear sir" and Yours truly" inside,
and Mr." and Esq" outside of each
Of these letters. and allowing 800 work
ing days of ten hours each to the year.
the people of the United States waste
year. In other words, We actually
waste the whole time of more than
5000 persons IN writing Dear Sir"
Yours truly" Mr." and Esq" At
the lowest calculation the time thus
wasted each year is worth ten millions
of dollars. or half river and harbor
bill. The sole purpose of the super
scription on letter is TO tell the post
Office people to whom and where to
deliver It, All that In necessary for
that purpose is TO write the name and
address. j. Wintersmith. "a John ST.,
New York city," completely fills the re-
quirement All else is waste. There
is no occasion to tell the postman that
J. Wintersmith is a clergyman by writ
ing Rev" before his name, or that he
Is a woman and unmarried by writing
Miss" there, or that j. w. aforesaid
is a married woman. or has been, by
writing Mrs" But we have worse
habits than these. In addition to the
meaningless MIR" and the absurd
Esq, we are constantly addressing
men as Hon" or Col" or Rev"
Why do we do it? AS every little
politician who gets himself elected an
alderman or a member of the legisla-
ture is thenceforth forever called
Hon" why should anybody think
IL q requirement OF courtesy to address
so justly a distinguished a man as
William L. Wilson for example, as
Hon. w. L. Wilson," We do not
epeak of Hon. Thomas jefferson or
Hon. Daniel Webster. Military titles
titles are necessary in military life.
In addressing a general or a colonel
In the field an indication of his rank
helps to find him. and perhaps ii helps
discipline, too. But why should we
go on calling men colonel. general.
major and the like long after they have
retired to civil life, merely because
they held such rank i'm the volunteer
forces of thirty-odd years ago or be- !
cause some governor has appointed
them 10 his staff? We do not speak /
or think of Gen. George Washington
or Gen. Hannibal or Gen. Julius Gaze |
sar. Still worse is the title gratul- |
tously conferred. the honorary" title |
of colonel and the like. There are tens /
of thousands Of "colonels" i'm this /
country who never commanded a squad !
and Judges" who never sat on any /
bench or read a page OF law. II Is all i
falsehood and flummery. As an hon
est, self-respecting people. why should I
we not rid ourselves of IL? Mr." IL /
convenient when the first name Of The
person addressed or referred TO is not
used. So are Mrs" and Miss" in
like circumstances. All the reet are
leather and prunella," which is tho
poets phrase for stuff and nonsense
New York World.