ETIQUETTE

Manawatu Herald, 1 August 1896, Page 4

ETIQUETTE

MODERN LETTER WRITING. I

Conciseness and Brevity Characterize the Fashionable Correspondence of Today. The letter writing of today bears little at no resemblance* to the letter writing of former times. The pace at which we live, the rush and hurry of each day, are answerable, in part at least, for the change from long letters concerning the topics of the day, political and social, to tho merest notes on purely personal matters. The letter writer of today, unlike his predecessor, does not confide his experiences — whatever form they may have taken — to his friend and correspondent, and if he has anything worth saying on any particular Bubject ho rushes into print forthwith, into tho pages of one or other of the many magazipes or into the daily or weekly newspapers. Tho admirable diction, the vigorous English,' tho polished periods,- tho. telling epigrams in the careful and well thought out essays of tho day are not to be found as heretofore in private correspondence, but in magazine and journalistio literature. The decided bias of the times is never to write a letter when a note will answer the purpoae,,never to write a note when a cord will suffice and of toner than nob to send a "wire" in lieu of either note or letter. The points in the notes of the day, which have superseded letters, are conciseness and brevity, to write without preamble of any kind and to go to the root of the matter at once. Now almost telegraphic conciseness is the mode adopted, and aught else would read out of date. In truth, telegrams have hod not a littlo to do in forming the present style of letter writing and havo taught economy in the use of words. It may be said that (ho loiters of today are the direct an t ' thesis oi lhu>:o of yore. Then, too, many subjects could not bo broached and cominonlod upou; now the reverso is the rule, and Co kw.-p to one subject only, and that lv. tho iowost words, ia what society of-vxtr.-f htuco the brief notes wo all receive a: i '. wvUa Yet, brief as they are, a clever lunn .Of v talented woman conveys in a j stii\u" ■*» o: 1 tv,-o the gist of tho whole mat- j te •.'. i ; fr.iimiatical in neatness and subtly j hlllliUiOliS. j