The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1916-04-11
THE NEGLECTED ART
OF LETTER WRITING
indianapolis News)

There has been much lamentation
of late years over the lost art of let
ter writing The blame has been
pretty evenly divided between the
innocent post card and the useful
telephone, and, reading the plaintive
comments, we almost wept over the
terrible state of affairs. A recent ex-
pertinent, however, has changed our
views on this particular matter. Nov
ing from a big house to small one,
we found it necessary to do lot of
condensing and some eliminating,
and, among other things, it seemed
best for trunk full of old letters to
be eliminated. OF course, we waded
through all of them, for fear some
valuable document mi9ht be lost.
There were letters to represent all
ages. Simple, childish affairs; fool
ish, sntimental epistles; long, sad
pages of admonition. Old-fashioned
lttttlS llO1ll hlHolCIh 70, StOitS VI
them You remember how they ran.
The page was given over to taking.
the pen in hand to let you know they
were we'll, and hoping you were en-
joying the same great blessing, if
not they would be sorry to hear of
it. On the second page, your cousin
informed you that father had been
suffering during the winter months
with rheumatism. and that mother
had also been quite poorly. (By the
way, that has become of the poorly"
peolpe?) On the third pace she
stated the piece of plaid bingham in
closed with the letter was like her
new dress. The red piece was like
Emma Joness new dress. and the
blue and the yellow were like Mary's
children's new dresses. On the last
page she invariably would end up by
saying she must close because her
hand was growing very tired. She
asked you to excuse the bad penman-
ship, and write soon, etc And
postage was hiah then, too,
But the old-time love letters, ah,
me, and ah, me. No wonder many
of them required excess postage.
Sweet stuff usually is heavy. We
were thankful that we had plucked
up the courage to eliminate them .
posterity to waste time going through
them Lost art, eh? Thank goodness
that some phases of it have been
lost We'd rather our boys and
girls made dates with a few jerky
sentences over the telephone, slam
med up the receiver aud hustled out
to eroquet grounds or tennis court
out in the blessed fresh air and sun
shine. doing their counting in whole
sale. healthful fashion, instead OF
sitting moved up over a desk, nib
bling a penholder while studying VI
stuff with which to disfi2ure highly
tinted and scented stationery. Life
is too short to waste any of it on un
necessary letter writing. and, be
sides. we chance our minds too fire
uucntly nowadays to risk putting Cul
THOUGHTS down in black and white,
Don't misunderstood and get tn,
notion that We are frowninc on al
kinds of CORE spondence. Don't stoI
writing 10 mother kind of let
ter will always be in good style
md mothers don't stop writing I,
the boys and girls away from home
They hunger for the home news. an,
tine assurance of your unehanging
undying love. And sweethearts. sep
arated by long, dreary miles-writ
sensible, helpful. CHEEKY letters Pure
strong love letters are never disgust
ing. But letter writing, just for tn
sake of Boosting of your many cor
respondents, or for the privilege o
airing your views or letting your sen
timent slop over-oh, well. we woul,