Do's and don't of love letter writing.
Letters which pass between persons under engagement of marriage
should be returned, by both parties, should anything happen to
cause the engagement to be broken off.
Letters of a kind involving the character, or containing secrets
of moment to others, should be destroyed. It is not just to
preserve them, so that they may by any chance fall into strange
hands.
A letter is the property of its writer. It is private and
confidential and should not be thoughtlessly exhibited to
others. Of course you have no right to print a letter you have
received.
All letters should be replied to without delay.
No love-letter ever should be typewritten, for obvious reasons.
A love-letter is holy to two persons, the writer and the
recipient, and its contents should not be a subject for possible
gossip or comment by any clerk, amanuensis or stenographer.
Hence a letter that contains loving endearments and personal
matters of the heart, which concern only the lover and the
loved, always should be in the hand-writing of the sender.
For your ladylove to receive a letter from you that had been
spoken to a third party, a stenographer, and then printed on a
machine, would be to destroy for her all the romance and charm,
all the sentiment and love which your letter might struggle to
express. A letter thus written, no matter in how great sincerity
it might have been composed, nor how ardent your real feelings
and sentiments, would be very apt to meet with a reception at
your lady's hands quite the opposite from its "dictator's"
desire -- and justly so.
A typewriter is not sufficiently " personal" for use in a love
correspondence, even if one operates his own machine, as do many
authors and editors nowadays in their preparation of MSS. for
publication, and many society ladies, too, in their social, club
and friendly correspondence.
So when you write to your adored one, get your forgotten pen and
ink, Mr. Businessman, and keep the typist and her writing
machine for strictly business letters.
Do not write letters with a lead-pencil. Avoid possible
grammatical and rhetorical blunders by using short sentences and
simple words.
Never send an anonymous letter. It is so common a device of
sneaks and blackmailers that respectable people cannot afford to
rest under the suspicion of it. Never pay any attention to an
anonymous letter, or any other form of postal impertinence sent
to yourself.
Never write a letter when excited or angry. Sleep over the
subject; and, though your candid views may remain unchanged
to-morrow, your manner of writing them will be more discreet
when a cooler head dictates the language.
Never put one of the important messages of your letter into a
postscript -- a thing usually done by writers whose letters are
so poorly constructed as to require this awkward addendum.
Postscripts are rarely admissible, never in good style.
Be more conservative in writing than in conversation. Words
written may be read by other and less friendly eyes than those
for which they were intended. Preserve your dignity, however
frank and affectionate your letters may be; then you need not
care who sees them.
One is seldom criticized for taking too many pains with a
letter. Certainly no correspondent will resent the delicate
compliment that is implied by a carefully written letter.