New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-04-26
THE KINDLY ART OF LETTER WRITING

lettergram we hear frequent sigh for
those good old times when letter writing was
IN fashion. IL has in reality no more gone
out OF style than has the habit of decrving
the IS and praising the used 10 BE-
For all The increase in the volume of
business correspondence, social letter writ
ing Is still popular. Postage is cheaper. the
postal service better; So there is no longer
the need for extremely long letters that
the was when mails were few and far be-
tween. We may write as many letters and
as short ones as We wish without rcproach-
ING ourselves for the undue waste of any
thing bat timc-unlcss, indeed. we feel rs
Cicero did when he apologized for writing
long letter. because he had not time TO
write a short oncl Good letters will ALWAYS
be written by those who have the Gift 10 do
It naturally, or The patience 90 learn how.
Letters, more than any other kind of writ
ing are a CryStalhzatiou of personality.
Fool. look into your own heart and writel'
says Sir Philip Sidney But those of us
who are not born with this gift of personal
expression viii have 90 learn its use. That
is what all the great letter writers of all
ages have done. Sir Richard Steele. who
wrote even more Charminglv 90 his Prue
than he did 20 his public, gives us a bit of
insight: There Is no rule in the world for
writing letters but that of being as near
what YOU speak face TO face as YOU can"
NO closer, more warrn-hearted expression
of friendship can be found in all the let
ter files of the ages than Eugene Fields
words 20 Francis Wilson. sent with one of his
books, as related in that actors Sympa-
thetic little study, "The Eugene Field
Knew: Il hope that YOU will live forever,
and ! should ike TO live one day longer to
write your epitaph. "
Nothing more playful is in any page Of
the humoriStS than O. Henrys letters to his
little daughter. where he complains that he
has heard no news of Easter and the Rab-
bit eggs: But | suppose you have learned
by this time that eggs grow on egg plants
and are not laid by rabbits. In one vol
ume of the complete set Of Q. Henry'S sto-
RES recently issued may be found many Of
his characteristic letters, kindly, humorous,
whimsical. Some Of them are filled with
the kind of delicious foolery one sees in the
letters Of Thackeray, where he sends his
wonted messages 10 the Brookfeld family,
but mentions the little girl Of the household
IN the minuteSt of handwriting.
No records Of impressions no essays nor
books of travel, that / have ever read sur
pass in interest or beauty of description the
vet unpublished letters of LafCadio Hearn
to Alexander Hill. the Cincinnati bookman
and collector. No, when the people of to-
day have anything 10 say in letters, they
say It Just as well as # they had lived in those
past ages which we have been accustomed
to regard as the great days Of the letter as
literature.
Field O. Henry, Hearn, and the other
men and women whose letters we are likely
to find published in the books and maya
zines. were professional literary people. But
so too were the great letter writers Of the
past. NarQulse de Sevigne and Lady Mary
Wortlev NOntagu are known 70 US only as
writers Of letters; but are they any less
literary than dear old Charles Lamb, who
wrote up all his simple adventures 20 one
friend after another in his letters, and after
he had the incident expanded 70 his liking
made II into one Of the Essays Of Ella /;
Or are -hese eminent Blue Stockings any
less letter writers than DR.. Samuel Parr, Of
whom nobody now ever hears' Surely
neither one II the ladies had the training
nor the practice Of this well known scholar,
who gave So much time 20 his fourteen hum
dred Correspondents that he had none LETT
for any other work.
THE letter was one Of the earliest forms OF
literature: for even the primitive stage Of
civilization feels the need Of sending tldlngS