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.