Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 118, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 May 1913 — CHOOSING THE VISITING CARD [ARTICLE]

CHOOSING THE VISITING CARD

Many Kinds to Select From, and It Really Becomes Simply a Matter of One’a Own Choice. <. You drop into a stationer’s and ask casual tone for new visiting cards. The* salesman inquires: “What kind, madam?** Hundreds of cards are whirled at you. You are informed that Mrs. Murray-Lothrop never uses old English lettering; you are assured that Mrs. Rutledge-Harmon prefers her cards to read with three names; those of her husband and herself and of her daughter. Your husband does not wish to use his middle name in full, but the man across the counter lifts his eyebrows and tells you that initials may have been in style when George Washington wa§ the first gentleman of America, blit they are not used now by anyone who pretends to know social conventions. When you have decided on the entirely correct thing, which is a thin square bit of white pasteboard with your name in full, engraved in block letters, shaded with the address beneath in the corner, then you will instantly wonder .if it would not have been wiser to have ordered shaded old English lettering, which has now taken the place of plain old English. The public will answer that question by saying thdt block letters are neater, cleaner and easier to read. What about your husband’s cards? asks the man across the counter. Your first impulse Is to wonder why your husband cannot attend to his own cards, but when you are reminded that it is in better taste for the cards of the family to correspond in size and lettering you turn to the task with more You choose an oblong bit of pasteboard with his name in full preceded by Mr. and followed in the lower corner with his address. You sigh. This task is done for the year, you think. At the moment of relief the man across tbe counter asks whether all of your husband’s cards shall bear the name of his club. Now this is the one question for him to decide. There is also the question of the bill—it is a wise plan to let him decide on paying that, too—as his share of the bargain. k