The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-08-17
Vacation Lends First Aid to
 inc Art of Letter Writing
Defense of the Post CardNo Need to Answer it. Which One Recommendation-Gves Beautiful Idea of Surroundings Which no Amount of Description Could Give-The
 Girl Who Tried to Keep From Writing
By DOLLY DALRYMPLE

at home is busy; they haven't time to wrte) what is more natural than to saunter into the writing room and busy yourself with writing letters? It looks very important to begin with, and besides you are simply wild for somebody from home to write you long, newsy, gossippy letter, and the only way you can hope 10 get one is to write first. That's the req son I'm sure that I've had two letters this week from Peggy. Then another thing, the handsome, imposing looking stationary from the average summer re- sort hotel makes you want to write to your friends just to let them see what swell elegant place you are in, and con sume them with jealousy of your good fortune.A
 But Post Cards have nearly taken the place of letters these days the Girl III Brown suggested That's about all 1 get from my friends
 Nearly everything you read nowadays is inscribed by some unkind writer in the daily press, against the innocent and unsuspecting telephone, or the poor, mis- guided post card" The Girl in Blue said, but l for one am an ardent advocate of t.iS AbNbcis 1 0cdiiS lONt IOcl 1dIuS lOi many reasons. First of all they don require an answer. Nobody ever ex- pected anybody to answer a Post Card. Then another thing, they are so divert ing and entertaining. I've spent the most delicious moments this summer enjoying the scenery they represent. For instance, last week l receiN ed two lovely cards from London and two from Lucerne. mad some beauties from Canada An of frh frpf, Carolina, and they carried me back to some very happy days when I spent the summer in the Land of the Sky and met some of the most delightful people 1 ever knew. Instead of having a written de- scription of these various places the Post Card did the work, in highly colored pho
 ographic tones, showing all the pretty details and surroundings, which no poem car ever describe, matters not how facile and clever it may be-"
 T don't agree with you in one par ticular about the Post Card said The Girl in Brown, and that is the utter lack of obligation 1t imposes. When a person is good enough to take the time to write you long letter, 1t is the least you can do to answer 1t. With Post Card, as soon as you read 1t you toss it into the waste basket. Now, next week, when 1 go away on my summer trip I intend to answer every Post Card I've received in the last year. I want to have that air of I'm my my-vacation, too And, think of the joy 1 will have in sending cards from Atlantic City and New York, Lake Placid and Chicago"
 But in getting even, do you realize that you are cutting off your nose to spite your face? You won't get a single solitary, long, interesting, newsy letter from home the whole time you are gone" said the Girl in Blue, gazing at her writ ing desk upon which lay the two letters from her friend, Peggy-Peggy, way up in the White Mountains, Hitting and firt- iag, with never a word from dear old Birmingham. It's all right for the trave- Ter to send the cards back home, but the one who is tucked away in the Noun tains or at the seashore. or abroad for four or five months. wants something more than mere Post Card to cure her of nostalgia
 Do you know I've heard that girls at summer resorts have been known to write themselves letters?" The Girl in Brown observed. "They change their chirog- laphy. like the chameleon changes color, and great bulky letters arrive daily. which, according to their idea, stimulates the ardor of their summer suitors and makes them appear fabulously popular. Now what do you think of that?'
 I'm much too polite. to listen to such tales" said The Girl in Blue. Much less believe them. although having been to them I am inclined to believe that the average summer resort drives you to do- ing a lot of things that you wouldn' [ otherwise do"