Evening star., 1942-12-16
Unnecessary to
Mark Letters
Personal
Permissible Only
When Sent to
Office
By Emily Post

ny Emmy I OSt
Personal written on the enve-
lope of letter sent to a business
office is entirely proper, but on one
sent to some ones home address II
is rather questionable-for the rea-
sons that this reader herself gives
me in this letter: PLEASE tell me
the ruling for writing personal on
| letters? I think it is rather an
affront to the honesty of other men,
bers of the family to write it across
the envelope directed to one of us
but some friends do not agree with
! this opinion of mine I have, OF
| course, always supposed it was per-
misSible when sending personal let
terS to a business Office. But about
this I would like your opinion also >
( Since reading this letter I have
been wondering how often the word
personal" really counts? Those who
open their own mail open every
| thing, no matter how addressed
those who have private secretaries
open very little themselves Apart
from recognized handwritings and
postmarks of intimate friends I am
quite sure this little" would be set
aside for the reason of the person
ality of its general appearance
rather than because of the word
personal written on its face.
Dear Mrs. Post: Is it necessary tc
make public announcement of the
engagement in the newspapers be-
fore the bridegroom's family is re-
quired to make some effort to pay a
visit on the girls family or at least
make some gesture to welcome the
girl?
Answer - Correctly the bride
groom's family should make a ges-
ture of welcome to the girl as soon
as their son tells them of his en-
gagement. But it should also be
remembered that this is not a widely
known rule and that one should
withhold criticism of those who have
had no engagements in their fam
lilies and may not know it is their
move. This has, however, nothing
! to do with the public announce
ment. In fact it is never necessary
to make any public announcement
Dear Mrs. Post: Most of our
| friends will feel obliged to send us
wedding presents if they receive an
invitation to a wedding reception
None of them can afford to buy
presents. Therefore I'd like not
to send an invitation that suggests
a reception. And yet of course we're
inviting a great many people tc
the church and want all of them t1
come after the ceremony to the par
ish house for a reception. Is there
any way this could be gotten
around? There are really too many
invitations to write by hand (Which
would solve the problem) because
am too busy getting ready for the
wedding without giving up my vol
unteer war work.
| Answer-There are several ways
by which you might solve your
problems. The best perhaps would
be to have the clergyman make an
announcement at the end of the re-
cessional that every one is expected
to 60 into the parish house. Or the
ushers might perhaps tell people as
they seat them and then stand
guard outside of the church and fur
ther direct those who do not turn
toward the parish house. You
should, think, try to tell very spe-
cial friends who are also very busy
that you want them to come to the
parish house for a piece of wedding
cake. So far as avoiding their pres
ents is concerned they will give you
what they can, because they will
want to-even were you married
with no one present at all!