How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) Part 21

My dear Mrs. Sampson,

I am so glad to know that you have completely recovered from your recent illness.

I trust you will soon be able to resume your wonted activities. We all have missed you--at bridge and tennis particularly.

Sincerely yours, Mary E. Wells.

July 18, 1923

My dear Mr. Baines,

I have just heard of your success in getting your book published. I have always had a great admiration for you and your work, and I am sending this little note to a.s.sure you of my regard, and to wish you still further successes.

Yours very sincerely, Madeleine Strickland.

March 10, 1923

My dear Miss Gwynne,

I am very sorry that I was out when you called. I hope you will come again soon for I do so much want to see you.

Sincerely yours, Katherine G. Evans.

February 16, 1923

It may be of pa.s.sing interest to read a letter or two from distinguished persons to their boyhood friends. Here is one[14] from the late John Burroughs:

Esopus, N. Y., June 1, 1883.

Dear Tom Brown:

I have been a-fis.h.i.+ng or I should have answered your letter before. I always go a-fis.h.i.+ng about this time of year, after speckled trout, and I always catch some, too. But dog-fighting I have nothing to do with, unless it be to help some little dog whip some saucy big cur. Game birds are all right in their season, but I seldom hunt them. Yet this is about the best way to study them.

You want to know how I felt as a boy. Very much as I do now, only more so. I loved fis.h.i.+ng, and tramping, and swimming more than I do these late years. But I had not so tender a heart. I was not so merciful to the birds and animals as I am now.

Much of what I have put in my books was gathered while a boy on the farm. I am interested in what you tell me of your Band of Mercy, and should like much to see you all, and all the autographs in that pink covered book. Well, youth is the time to cultivate habits of mercy, and all other good habits. The bees will soon be storing their clover honey, and I trust you boys and girls are laying away that which will by and by prove choicest possessions.

Sincerely your friend, John Burroughs.

[14] From "John Burroughs, Boy and Man," by Dr. Clara Barrus. Copyright, 1920, by Doubleday, Page & Co.

The following letter[15] was written when J. J. Hill--perhaps the greatest railroading genius America has ever produced--was twenty years of age. It is one of the few letters written by him at this time of his life that have been preserved:

Saint Paul, February 11, 1858.

Dear William:

Your epistle bearing date of seventeenth ult. came to hand on good time and your fertile imagination can scarcely conceive what an amount of pleasure I derived from it, as it was the first epistle of William to James at St. Paul for a "long back." My surprise at receiving your letter was only surpa.s.sed by my surprise at not receiving one from you after you left St. Paul, or sometime during the ensuing season. Still, a good thing is never too late or "done too often." It gave me much pleasure to hear that you were all well and enjoying yourselves in the good and pious (as I learn) little town of Rockwood. I did intend to go to Canada this winter, but it is such a long winter trip I thought I should defer it until summer, when I hope to be able to get away, as I intend to go on the river this summer if all goes as well as I expect.

Capt. W. F. Davidson wrote me from Cincinnati about going with him as first clerk on the side-wheel packet _Frank Steele_, a new boat about the size of the _War Eagle_. The Captain is Letter A, No. 1, and I think I shall go with him. If not, I have two or three good offers for coming season on the levee, besides my present berth, which is nevertheless very comfortable.

I think it mighty strange that some (of my letters) have not reached home as I wrote several times to my brother Alex. and I never was more surprised in my life than when old Ba.s.s handed me a letter of inquiry as to my whereabouts. But after the boats stop running our mails are carried so irregularly that whole bags of mail matter are often mislaid at way stations for weeks and some finally lost or otherwise destroyed. On the tenth of November last I was returning from the Winslow House with Charley Coffin, Clerk of the _War Eagle_, about eleven o'clock, and when we were coming down Fourth Street pa.s.sing one of those rum holes, two Irishmen, red mouths, came out and, following us, asked us if we would not go back and take a drink. Charley said "no," and we were pa.s.sing on when two more met us who, along with the other two, insisted that they meant no harm and that we should go in and drink. I told them that I did not drink and that, generally speaking, I knew what I was about. We attempted to go on, but they tried to have us go back, so I hauled off and planted one, two in Paddie's grub grinder, and knocked him off the sidewalk about eight feet. The remainder pitched in and Charley got his arm cut open and I got a b.u.t.ton hole cut through my left side right below the ribs. The city police came to the noise and arrested three of them on the spot and the other next day and they turned out to be Chicago Star Cleaners, a name given to midnight ruffians. I was not compelled to keep my bed, but it was some two months before I was quite recovered from the effects of the cut.

One day on the levee I was going aboard one of the boats and slipped on the gang plank and sprained my knee, which laid me up for about two weeks. About a week ago my pugnacious friend who gave me his mark escaped from the penitentiary at Stillwater, along with all the rest of the prisoners confined at the time. I am sincerely very grateful to you for your generous offer in your letter and fully appreciate your kindness. But notwithstanding my bad luck I have still "a shot in the locker," about $200, which will put me out of any trouble until spring.

Our winter here has been very mild and open. We have scarcely had any snow, but what was altogether unprecedented, rain storms lasting three or four days in succession. Times have been mighty dull here this winter and money scarce. Write to me as soon as you receive this and give me a bird's eye view of Rockwood and its inhabitants. Believe me

Yours sincerely, J. J. Hill.

Send me some papers.

[15] From "The Life of James J. Hill," by Joseph Gilpin Pyle.

Copyright, 1916, 1917, by Doubleday, Page & Co.

CHAPTER VI

PERSONAL BUSINESS LETTERS

One does not have to be in business in order to write "business letters." A thousand personal affairs crop up which require letters of a commercial rather than a social nature. There is only one rule--say what you have to say clearly and quickly. Although the letter should be written on the ordinary social stationery and follow the placing and s.p.a.cing of the social letter, no time should be wasted in trying to make the letter appear friendly and chatty. The clerks in business houses who usually attend to the mail seem to be picked for their obtuseness, and do not often understand a letter which is phrased in other than commonplace terms. Once I overheard a conversation between an Italian shoemaker and a Boston woman over the repairing of a pair of shoes. The woman wanted the soles fastened on with nails. The only word she knew for that operation was "tapped." The only word the shoemaker knew was "nailed." They were absolutely at a deadlock until the shoemaker, knowing that the woman did not want the soles sewed on, proceeded to demonstrate with hammer and nail just what he meant by "nailed." It is well to remember that motion pictures do not accompany letters and hence to take for granted that if a way exists for getting what you mean wrong that way will be found. It is unfortunately safe to take for granted that a personal business letter is going to be read by a moron.

_Ordering goods from a department store_

500 Park Avenue, April 3, 1922.

L. Burton & Company, Fifth Ave. & 39th St., New York

Gentlemen:

Please send me as soon as possible and charge to my account the following goods:

1 doz. hemst.i.tched huck towels, large size, from $12.00 to $15.00 a dozen

2 pairs infants' laced shoes, sizes 4 D and 4-1/2 D. One pair to be returned as I am not certain of the correct size.

3 pairs children's rompers, size 2 years, band knee, 1 all white, 1 white with blue collar, 1 white with pink collar.

Very truly yours, Katherine G. Evans (Mrs. John Evans)

_To correct an error_

500 Park Avenue, April 3, 1922.

Caldwell Sons Co., 8941 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y.