Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1884 — Hints About Letter-Writing. [ARTICLE]

Hints About Letter-Writing.

As Mrs. Glass said of hare soup, “First catch ydfir hare,” in writing a letter first have-something to say. Life j is too busy, in these hurried days, for I time to be wasted in the platitudes even i of politeness. A letter should have a real cause—some social or friendly duty to discharge, some business question to ask or answer, some opinions to interchange, or tidings to communicate. Then, having a good reason for writing, comes the secondary question of how to do it. Most of the transient fashions for colored or decorated paper are unsafe. Eccentricity is unwise. If a person could afford to give up life to the pursuit of fashion, she might succeed in following its caprices successfully; but, for people who have something else to do than to catch every whim of a moment, and pursue it just far enough, and not too far, the safest stationary is good, white paper, with envelopes to match—stationery thick enough not to reveal its secrets to outside readers—and of that good style which is insured by plainness. Simplicity is the one thing that cannot be ridiculous. Then, as to ink —to use good black iuk almost amounts to a social duty. Who has not felt that he would have foregone a letter rather than weary over pale pages in some blind handwriting, no matter how eloquent those pages might be ? And speaking of eloquence—the temptation tc be eloquent is another foe to epistolary success. If people only would write simply, and say that they have pleasant memories of this or that, instead of telling us that “beautiful pictures are inscribed on the tablets of their memory,” or that “their recollection surrounds the past with an aureole of glory,” we should be grateful. Above all, why should a person who is not a Quaker, who has gone tranquilly through a letter speaking of “you” and “yours,” suddenly, at the end, become “Thine Truly” ? We remember a letter once written in the yeri table crisis of a life, which utterly failed to move the stony heart to which it was addressed, because, all : through, it was an amusing mixture of i you and thee—“ You know how long and deeply I have loved thee, ” for in--1 stance—and for this reason the hardI hearted receiver was able to put it cru- ' elly into the waste basket, coolly saying, “No one who really felt could mix up things in that wav.” This brings us back to our text that simplicity in letter-writing is the secret of su -cess, and that the slightest touch | of affectation or sentimentality is as , fatal to a letter as to a person.— Youth’s Companion. An old minister in Ohio seemed rather opposed to an educated ministry. ; Said he: “Why, my brethering, every young man who is going to preach thinks he must be off to some college and study a lot of Greek and Latin. AH nonsense! All wrong! What did ; Peter and Paul know about Greek? i Why, not a wor !, my brethering. No! Peter and preached in the plain old i English, and so’ll I."— Christian at Work. “What sort of drinking water do you have in Austin,” asked a stranger, of Huddle. “First rate. If you put in whisky enough, it will make as good a toddy as any water I ever drank,” was Huddle’s candid reply.— Texas Siftings. Bella asks: “What is the best thing to feed a parrot on?” If the parrot belonged to us we’d feed it on Paris-green or arsenic. —Harrisburg Telegraph. New York has a newly formed Sunday Society to promote observance of the day.