The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-04-18

the wooer's name is, has not been
bit spontaneous; on the contrary, he
has had to rack his brains. He is genu-
inely in love with the girl to whom he
is writing. He would like to say so, but
he does not know how. The moment he
tries to frame his feelings in words,
they seem stilted. They seem, indeed.
to lose their sincerity and their sacred
ness. To put them on paper is both to
make them wooden and to publish, as
it were, what should be a secret suita-
BILE only to be whispered by word of
mouth.
Still, wrestling with his task, our
inarticulate Jack forces himself to say
something nice-because Ethel expects
it, If only Ethel knew how profound is
the compliment conveyed in those Stun
bling sentences of his. Not the COM
pliment which he pays her by the mere
statement that he loves her. and longs
for their next meeting, but the COM
pliment which turks in the Circumstance
that for her sake, against his own in
stincts, he has written these asser-
tons at all!
And If only she would grasp the SIM
pie truth that the man who cannot
write a good love letter therein often
proves his sheer honesty as type of
man who is not handy with the pen
| Is, to all who know his sterling worth,
extraordinarily lovable and winning
! Why Is it that women attach such
value to love letters--when the best
| love letters are notoriously the product
of writer's mainly tickle and insincere?
To be fluent writer of love letters
| is given to few men-professional au-
thors apart-and the girl who has be-
come engaged, and who enforces a rule
| that she shall receive perfervid out
| pouring of epistolary art at regular
intervals from her future husband, Is
| conceivably making profound psy-
Geological mistake. For she is causing
him to be untrue to himself-for her
sake. Not that his fond speeches, when
| he and she are alone with each other,
are untrue. But for him, the putting of
similar fond speeches on paper Is I'M
true, inasmuch as he is of those who
have to think out what they write--and
such things, when spoken. are not
Thought OUT" they come spontaneous
~. and that Is their beauty.
| There is doubt that a love letter
should. be penned rapidly, as swift inn
promptu. But there are plenty of ex-
cellent fellows who cannot write rapidly
and are unskilled at improvisations on
paper and with ink The mere fact OF
| having fallen In love and become en-
| gagged does not akter this habitual slow
| ness. They still write carefully and with
pains-taling exactitude. But how can tho
| delightfully."- vague-expressive because
vague-thoughts of a lover about his loved
one be phrased with exactitude?
! 1t Is the careless, impulsive. changeable
man who is able to write good love let
| ters He can dash down on to the paper
+, anything that comes into his head. Very
amusing and often rather moving, 1t
sounds, too. But the steady going, care
| full Jack, who Is accustomed to write
very few letters Of any kind. and to ex-
press himself in these with disciplined
accuracy, Is lost when he finds himself
expecte dto write sentiment.
! And the moment that Ethel detects be-
tween the lines of his misslve that II
has been tSuble to him to write that
hen had had to sit and wonder what to
| put next. the Joy of reading what he has
put is vitiated. The statement that he
was we'll and hoped that she was we'll.
also. followed by his signature, would
have been more reassuring than these