Year: 1867

The love letters of tradesmen and
haIf-edueated people, whenever they
turn up in the papers, are always full
of little commonplaces which the writ
ers appear to consider appropriate to
the situation. They never seem able
quite to make up their mind whether
it is correct to call the beloved OBJ
ieet thon or you and tie second per
son singular and the second person
plural keep blUndering up against one
another In manner that must be
heartrending to any young tradesman's
mistress who is anything of a gramma
rian There is something about the
corresp spondenee of lovers who belong
to this class of life tlat reminds the
reader of valentine. It is the correct
thing apparently among them to en-
gage in a periodical correspondence,
and the British tradesman does it
without a Inurmur, but his share IN it
generally consists of assurances that
when he got back to his shop, after
| leaving the lady of his affections, he
could not sleep a wink, but that even
in the dark watches of the night he is
thine, fondly thine. The young
milliner to whom it is addressed is fan
better pleased that these little common
forms should not be left out.


! The love letters of educated people
are perhaps less grotesque but edu-
Gated people have their own common
! forms, which to cold and rational OBJ
| servers would appear possibly less RI
| dicUlOus In the long run. The poetry
1 of the times has a good deal to say con-
1 cerning the fove-letter period. Girls
who are tolerably well read know by
/ heart all the routine of love making
/ long before they ever come to be Sc
Tiously In love. They have seen about
4 it in Byron and Tennyson, and have
sung a good deal about it in connection
with the moon, and with all sorts OF
angels and flowers, at the piano. As
soon as the fated hour of lifelong
attachment comes, they settle them
/ selves down to realize all that they
/ have heard Of, and a love which had
not a good deal of moon and flowers
and angels about it would not seem tc
them love at all. The first thing that
q woman likes when she is being court
ed is to be called something like what
amateur musicians are always calling
one another in Duets. She is quite
willing to be bee, or a bird, or a lily
but it is de qiqueT that she should be
]
/ It Is all very well If the lover happens


to have been a little In the duett too
He can in this way understand the feel
ing, and nerve himself without mucl
difficulty to respond to it. But !


he is entirely ignorant about bird


and botany, his task becomes Sc


rious. He has the humiliation of beinl


obliged to confne himself entirely t.


calling his future wife an angel or
goddess, according as he Is most ad


dicted to classical or Christian mythol


ogy; while the mortifying though


cannot fail to strike him that both ap


pelations are a little elevated and


little trite. fit were not. indeed fo


the penny post, writing love letter
might not be so eXhausting TO the intel


lect.


In old times a gentleman could onl.


indite epistles Of the kind once a week


or once a fortnight, and had plenty o


leisure to getup his literary steam, ant


to select his illustrations If at tn


moment it did not occur to him Wha


sort of plant he wished to call his fai
correspondent. he had at least sever


days to think about it, and to consul
his dictionary. The penny post ha


altered all this, and lovers imagina


ton now has to undergo frequent an,
! diuTnal drains which it really is quit


untitled to support. Courtship has be
= come a literary crisis in life. Mel


must write as long as women Will read
and it is on this account that the ar
of love letter writing deserves to b.


seriously taught, and seriously rec5g
| nized.