To the bride and groom, love and congratulations from an old friend.

May this day be the beginning of a long, happy, and prosperous life for you both.

On the birth of a child

Love to the dear mother and her little son (daughter).

Heartiest congratulations and love to mother and son (daughter).

We rejoice with you in the happiness that has come into your lives. Love to mother and son (daughter).

My best wishes to the newly arrived son (daughter) and to his (her) mother.

We are all (I am) delighted to hear the news. Hearty congratulations.

A warm welcome to the new arrival and best wishes for his (her) health and happiness.

To the dear mother and her little son (daughter) love and every good wish.

Hearty congratulations on the arrival of the new son (daughter).

Messages of condolence

You have my heartfelt sympathy in this hour of your bereavement. I wish I might find words in which to express my sorrow at your loss which is also mine. May you have the strength to bear this great affliction.

You have my (our) heartfelt sympathy.

My (Our) heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow.

I (We) want you to know with what tender sympathy I am (We are) thinking of you in these days of your bereavement.

My (Our) sincere and heartfelt sympathy.

I (We) have just heard of your great affliction. Let me (us) send to you my (our) heartfelt sympathy.

My (Our) sincere sympathy.

In the death of your dear father (mother—wife—sister—brother) I (we) have lost one whom it was my (our) privilege to call my (our) friend. My (our) heartfelt sympathy goes out to you in your sorrow.

—— joins me in the expression of our deepest sympathy.

My (Our) love and sympathy go out to you in your great sorrow.

I (We) share your sorrow for I (we) have lost a dear friend. All love and sympathy to you and yours.

I (We) send you my (our) heartfelt sympathy. To have enjoyed the friendship of your father (husband—brother) I (we) hold one of the greatest privileges of my life (our lives).

My (Our) sincere sympathy goes out to you in your heavy affliction.

My (Our) love and sympathy in your sudden affliction.

I am (We are) greatly shocked at the sad news. You have my (our) deepest sympathy.

My (Our) deepest sympathy in your great loss. If there is anything I (we) can do, do not hesitate to let me (us) know.

Congratulation to a school or college graduate

May your future be as successful as have been your school (college) days. Heartiest congratulations upon your graduation.

I am (We are) proud of your success. May the future grant you opportunity and the fulfillment of your hopes.

I (We) hear that you have taken class honors. Sincerest congratulations and best wishes.

May your Class Day be favored with sunny skies and your life be full of happiness and success.

Sincerest congratulations upon your graduation.

Congratulations upon your school (college) success, so happily terminated to-day.

I (We) regret that I (we) cannot be with you to-day to see you take your new honors. Sincerest congratulations.

Congratulation to a public man

Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.

We have just heard of your success. Sincere congratulations and best wishes for the future.

Heartiest congratulations on your nomination (election).

Your nomination (election) testifies to the esteem in which you are held by your fellow citizens. Heartiest congratulations.

Congratulations on your victory, a hard fight, well won by the best man.

Your splendid majority must be a great satisfaction to you. Sincerest congratulations on your election.

Congratulations upon your nomination. You will have the support of the best element in the community and your election should be a foregone conclusion. I wish you every success.

You fought a good fight in a good cause. Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.

Nothing in your career should fill you with greater satisfaction than your successful election. I congratulate you with all my heart.

No man deserves success more than you. You have worked hard for your constituents and they appreciate it. Heartiest congratulations.

Your nomination (election) is received with the greatest enthusiasm by your friends here and by none more than myself. Heartiest congratulations.

I congratulate you upon your new honors won by distinguished services to your fellow citizens.

Your campaign was vigorous and fine. Your victory testifies to the people's confidence in you and your cause. Warmest congratulations.

Congratulations upon your well-won victory and best wishes for your future success.

You deserve your splendid success. Sincerest congratulations.

I cannot refrain from expressing my personal appreciation of your eloquent address. Warmest congratulations.

Your address last night was splendid. What a gift you have. Sincerest congratulations.

Heartiest congratulations on your splendid speech of last night. Everybody is praising it.



CHAPTER XI

THE LAW OF LETTERS—CONTRACT LETTERS

There are forty-eight states in this Union, and each of them has its own laws and courts. In addition we have the Federal Government with its own laws and courts. In one class of cases, the Federal courts follow the state laws which govern the particular occasion; in another class of cases, notably in those involving the interpretation or application of the United States statutes, the Federal courts follow Federal law. There is not even a degree of uniformity governing the state laws, and especially is this true in criminal actions, for crimes are purely statutory creations.

Therefore it is extremely misleading to give any but the vaguest and most elementary suggestions on the law which governs letters. To be clear and specific means inevitably to be misleading. I was talking with a lawyer friend not long since about general text-books on law which might be useful to the layman. He was rather a commercially minded person and he spoke fervently:

"If I wanted to build up a practice and I did not care how I did it, I should select one hundred well-to-do people and see that each of them got a copy of a compendium of business law. Then I should sit back and wait for them to come in—and come in they would, for every mother's son of them would decide that he had a knowledge of the law and cheerfully go ahead getting himself into trouble."

Sharpen up a man's knowledge of the law and he is sure to cut himself. For the law is rarely absolute. Most questions are of mixed fact and law. Were it otherwise, there would be no occasion for juries, for, roughly, juries decide facts. The court decides the application of the law. The layman tends to think that laws are rules, when more often they are only guides. The cheapest and best way to decide points of law is to refer them to counsel for decision. Unless a layman will take the time and the trouble most exhaustively to read works of law and gain something in the nature of a working legal knowledge, he had best take for granted that he knows nothing whatsoever of law and refer all legal matters to counsel.

There are, however, a few principles of general application that may serve, not in the stead of legal knowledge, but to acquaint one with the fact that a legal question may be involved, for legal questions by no means always formally present themselves in barristers' gowns. They spring up casually and unexpectedly.

Take the whole question of contract. A contract is not of necessity a formal instrument. A contract is a meeting of minds. If I say to a man: "Will you cut my lawn for ten dollars?" and he answers, "Yes," as valid a contract is established as though we had gone to a scrivener and had covered a folio of parchment with "Whereases" and "Know all men by these presents" and "Be it therefore" and had wound up with red seals and ribbons. But of course many legal questions could spring out of this oral agreement. We might dispute as to what was meant by cutting the lawn. And then, again, the time element would enter. Was the agreement that the lawn should be cut the next day, or the next month, or the next year? Contracts do not have to be in writing. All that the writing does is to make the proof of the exact contract easier.

If we have the entirety of a contract within the four corners of a sheet of paper, then we need no further evidence as to the existence of the contract, although we may be in just as hopeless a mess trying to define what the words of the contract mean. If we have not a written contract, we have the bother of introducing oral evidence to show that there was a contract. Most contracts nowadays are formed by the interchange of letters, and the general point to remember is that the acceptance must be in terms of the offer. If X writes saying: "I will sell you twenty tons of coal at fifteen dollars a ton," and Y replies: "I will take thirty tons of coal at thirteen dollars a ton," there is no contract, but merely a series of offers. If, however, X ships the thirty tons of coal, he can hold Y only at thirteen dollars a ton for he has abandoned his original offer and accepted Y's offer. It can be taken as a general principle that if an offer be not accepted in its terms and a new condition be introduced, then the acceptance really becomes an offer, and if the one who made the original offer goes ahead, it can be assumed that he has agreed to the modifications of the unresponsive acceptance. If X writes to Y making an offer, one of the conditions of which is that it must be accepted within ten days, and Y accepts in fifteen days, then X can, if he likes, disregard the acceptance, but he can waive his ten-day time limit and take Y's acceptance as a really binding agreement.

Another point, sometimes of considerable importance, concerns the time when a letter takes effect, and this is governed by the question of fact as to whom the Post Office Department is acting for. If, in making an offer, I ask for a reply by mail or simply for a reply, I constitute the mail as my agent, and the acceptor of that offer will be presumed to have communicated with me at the moment when he consigns his letter to the mails. He must give the letter into proper custody—that is, it must go into the regular and authorized channels for the reception of mail. That done, it makes no difference whether or not the letter ever reaches the offerer. It has been delivered to his agent, and delivery to an agent is delivery to the principal. Therefore, it is wise to specify in an offer that the acceptance has to be actually received.

The law with respect to the agency of the mails varies and turns principally upon questions of fact.

Letters may, of course, be libelous. The law of libel varies widely among the several states, and there are also Federal laws as well as Postal Regulations covering matters which are akin to libel. The answer to libel is truth, but not always, for sometimes the truth may be spread with so malicious an intent as to support an action. It is not well to put into a letter any derogatory or subversive statement that cannot be fully proved. This becomes of particular importance in answering inquiries concerning character or credit, but in practically every case libel is a question of fact.

Another point that arises concerns the property in a letter. Does he who receives a letter acquire full property in it? May he publish it without permission? In general he does not acquire full property. Mr. Justice Story, in a leading case, says:

"The author of any letter or letters, and his representatives, whether they are literary letters or letters of business, possess the sole and exclusive copyright therein; and no person, neither those to whom they are addressed, nor other persons, have any right or authority to publish the same upon their own account or for their benefit."

But then, again, there are exceptions.



CHAPTER XII

THE COST OF A LETTER

Discovering the exact cost of a letter is by no means an easy affair. However, approximate figures may always be had and they are extremely useful. The cost of writing an ordinary letter is quite surprising. Very few letters can be dictated, transcribed, and mailed at a cost of much less than twelve cents each. The factors which govern costs are variable and it is to be borne in mind that the methods for ascertaining costs as here given represent the least cost and not the real cost—they simply tell you "Your letter costs at least this sum." They do not say "Your letter costs exactly this sum." The cost of a form letter, mailed in quantities, can be gotten at with considerable accuracy. The cost of letters dictated by correspondents or by credit departments or other routine departments is also capable of approximation with fair accuracy, but the cost of a letter written by an executive can really hardly be more than guessed at. But in any case a "not-less-than" cost can be had.

In recent years industrial engineers have done a great deal of work in ascertaining office costs and have devised many useful plans for lowering them. These plans mostly go to the saving of stenographers' time through suitable equipment, better arrangement of supplies, and specialization of duties. For instance, light, the kind or height of chair or desk, the tension of the typewriter, the location of the paper and carbon paper, all tend to make or break the efficiency of the typist and are cost factors. In offices where a great deal of routine mail is handled, the writing of the envelopes and the mailing is in the hands of a separate department of specialists with sealing and stamp affixing machines. The proper planning of a correspondence department is a science in itself, and several good books exist on the subject. But all of this has to do with the routine letter.

When an executive drawing a high salary must write a letter, it is his time and not the time of the stenographer that counts. He cannot be kept waiting for a stenographer, and hence it is economy for him to have a personal secretary even if he does not write enough letters to keep a single machine busy through more than a fraction of a day. Many busy men do not dictate letters at all; they have secretaries skilled in letter writing. In fact, a man whose salary exceeds thirty thousand dollars a year cannot afford to write a letter excepting on a very important subject. He will commonly have a secretary who can write the letter after only a word or two indicating the subject matter. Part of the qualification of a good secretary is an ability to compose letters which are characteristic of the principal.

Take first the cost of a circular letter—one that is sent out in quantities without any effort to secure a personal effect. The items of cost are:

(1) The postage.

(2) The paper and printing.

(3) The cost of addressing, sealing, stamping, and mailing.

The third item is the only one that offers any difficulty. Included in it are first the direct labor—the wages of the human beings employed; and, second, the overhead expense. The second item includes the value of the space occupied by the letter force, the depreciation on the equipment, and finally the supervision and the executive expense properly chargeable to the department. Unless an accurate cost system is in force the third item cannot be accurately calculated. The best that can be done is to take the salaries of the people actually employed on the work and guess at the proper charge for the space. The sum of the three items divided by the number of letters is the cost per letter. It is not an accurate cost. It will be low rather than high, for probably the full share of overhead expense will not be charged.

It will be obvious, however, that the place to send out circular letters is not a room in a high-priced office building, unless the sending is an occasional rather than a steady practice. Costs in this work are cut by better planning of the work and facilities, setting work standards, paying a bonus in excess of the standards, and by the introduction of automatic machinery. The Post Office now permits, under certain conditions, the use of a machine which prints a stamp that is really a frank. This is now being used very generally by concerns which have a heavy outgoing mail. Then there are sealing machines, work conveyors, and numerous other mechanical and physical arrangements which operate to reduce the costs. They are useful, however, only if the output be very large indeed.

The personally dictated letter has these costs:

(1) The postage.

(2) The stationery.

(3) The dictator's time—both in dictating and signing.

(4) The stenographer's time.

(5) The direct overhead expense, which includes the space occupied, the supervision, the executive overhead, and like items.

The troublesome items here are numbers three and five. If the dictator is a correspondent then the calculation of how much it costs him to dictate a letter is his salary plus the overhead on the space that he occupies, divided by the number of letters that he writes in an average month. It takes him longer to write a long than a short letter, but routine letters will average fairly over a period of a month. But an executive who writes only letters that cannot be written by correspondents or lower salaried men commonly does so many other things in the course of a day that although his average time of dictation per letter may be ascertained and a cost gotten at, the figure will not be a true cost, for the dictation of an important letter comes only after a consideration of the subject matter which commonly takes much longer than the actual dictation. And then, again, the higher executive is usually an erratic letter writer—he may take two minutes or twenty minutes over an ordinary ten-line letter. Some men read their letters very carefully after transcription. The cost of this must also be reckoned in.

The cost of any letter is therefore a matter of the particular office. It will vary from six or seven cents for a letter made up of form paragraphs to three or four dollars for a letter written by a high-salaried president of a large corporation. A fair average cost for a personally dictated letter written on good paper is computed by one of the leading paper manufacturers, after a considerable survey to be:

Postage .0200 Printing letterheads and envelopes .0062 Stenographic wages (50 letters per day, $20.00 per week) .0727 Office overhead .0727 Paper and envelopes .0054 ——— $.1770

The above does not include the expense of dictation.

It will pay any man who writes a considerable number of letters to discover what his costs are—and then make his letters so effective that there will be fewer of them.



CHAPTER XIII

STATIONERY, CRESTS AND MONOGRAMS

SOCIAL CORRESPONDENCE

For all social correspondence use plain sheets of paper, without lines, of white or cream, or perhaps light gray or a very dull blue. But white or cream is the safest. Select a good quality. Either a smooth vellum finish or a rough linen finish is correct. For long letters there is the large sheet, about five by six and one half inches, or it may be even larger. There is a somewhat smaller size, about four and one half by five and one half or six inches for formal notes, and a still smaller size for a few words of congratulation or condolence. The social note must be arranged so as to be contained on the first page only.

A man should not, for his social correspondence, use office or hotel stationery. His social stationery should be of a large size.

Envelopes may be either square or oblong.

In the matter of perfumed stationery, if perfume is used at all, it must be very delicate. Strong perfumes or perfumes of a pronounced type have a distinctly unpleasant effect on many people. It is better form to use none.



An inviolable rule is to use black ink.

The most approved forms of letter and notepaper (although the use of addressed paper is not at all obligatory and it is perfectly proper to use plain paper) have the address stamped in Roman or Gothic lettering at the top of the sheet in the centre or at the right-hand side about three quarters of an inch from the top. The color used may be black, white, dark blue, dark green, silver, or gold. Country houses, where there are frequent visitors, have adopted the custom of placing the address at the upper right and the telephone, railroad station, and post office at the left. The address may also appear on the reverse flap of the envelope.

Crests and monograms are not used when the address is engraved at the top of a letter sheet. Obviously the crowding of address and crest or monogram would not be conducive to good appearance in the letter.

A monogram, originally a cipher consisting of a single letter, is a design of two or more letters intertwined. It is defined as a character of several letters in one, or made to appear as one. The letters may be all the letters of a name, or the initial letters of the Christian and surnames.



Many of the early Greek and Roman coins bear the monograms of rulers or of the town in which they were struck. The Middle Ages saw the invention of all sorts of ciphers or monograms, artistic, commercial, and ecclesiastical. Every great personage had his monogram. The merchants used them, the "merchant's mark" being the merchant's initials mingled with a private device and almost invariably a cross, as a protection against disaster or to distinguish their wares from those of Mohammedan eastern traders. Early printers used monograms, and they serve to identify early printed books.

A famous monogram is the interlaced "H.D." of Henry II and Diane de Poitiers. It appeared lavishly upon every building which Henry II erected. It was also stamped on the bindings in the royal library, with the bow, the quiver, and the crescent of Diana.

Monograms and crests on stationery, after a period of disuse, seem to be coming into favor again. The monograms in the best taste are the small round ones, though very pleasing designs may be had in the diamond, square, and oblong shapes. They should not be elaborate, and no brilliant colors should be used. The stamping is best done in black, white, dark green, dark blue, gold, or silver. The crest or monogram may be placed in the centre of the sheet or on the left-hand side about three quarters of an inch from the top. The address may be in the centre or at the right-hand side. But, as noted above, to use both addressed and monogrammed or crested paper is not good taste. The best stationery seems to run simply to addressed paper.

Crests and monograms should not be used on the envelope. In the matter of crests and heraldic emblems on stationery and announcements, many families with authentic crests discontinued their use during the war in an effort to reduce everything to the last word in simplicity. However, there are many who still use them. The best engravers will not design crests for families without the right to use them. But the extreme in "crests" is the crest which does not mean family at all, but is a device supposed to give an idea of the art or taste of the individual. For example, a quill or a scroll may be the basis for such a "crest."

Really no good reason exists why, in default of a family with a crest, one should not decide to be a crest founder. The only point is that the crest should not pretend to be something it is not—a hereditary affair.



On the use of crests in stationery one authority says:

As to the important question of crests and heraldic emblems in our present-day stationery, these are being widely used, but no crests are made to order where the family itself has none. Only such crests as definitely belong to the family are ever engraved on notepaper, cards, or any new style of place cards. Several stationers maintain special departments where crests are looked up and authenticated and such families as are found in Fairbairn's Crests, Burke's Peerage, Almanche de Gotha, the Armoire General, are utilized to help in the establishment of the armorial bearing of American families. Of course, the College of Heraldry is always available where the American family can trace its ancestors to Great Britain.

Many individuals use the coat-of-arms of their mothers, but according to heraldry they really have no right to do so. The woman to-day could use her father's and husband's crests together if the crests are properly in pale, that is, if a horizontal line be drawn to cut the shield in two—the husband's on the left, the father's on the right. If the son wants to use the father's and mother's crest, this must be quartered to conform to rule, the arms of the father to be in the first and fourth quarter; that of the mother in the second and third quarter. The daughter is not supposed to use a coat-of-arms except in lozenge form.

The dinner card that reflects the most refined and modern type of usage is a card of visiting card size, with a coat-of-arms in gold and gilt border, on real parchment. These cards are hand-lettered and used as place cards for dinner parties.

The use of sealing wax is optional, though a good rule to follow is not to use it unless it is necessary. The wax may be any dark color on white, cream, or light gray paper. Black wax is used with mourning stationery. The best place to stamp a seal is the centre of the flap. It should not be done at all if it cannot be accomplished neatly. The crest or monogram should be quickly and firmly impressed into the hot wax.

In selecting stationery it is a good plan to adhere to a single style, provided of course that a good choice of paper and stamping has been made. The style will become as characteristic of you as your handwriting. Distinction can be had in quiet refinement of line and color.

The use of the typewriter for social correspondence has some authority—though most of us will want to keep to the old custom of pen and ink. In case this should be employed for some good reason, the letter must be placed in the centre of the page with all four margins left wide. Of course the signature to any typewritten letter must be in ink.

BUSINESS STATIONERY

For the usual type of business letter, a single large sheet of white paper, unruled, of the standard business size, 8-1/2 x 11 inches, is generally used. The standard envelopes are 6-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches and 10 x 4-1/2, the former requiring three folds of the letter (one across and two lengthwise) and the latter requiring two folds (across). The former size, 6-1/2 x 3-1/2, is much preferred. The latter is useful in the case of bulky enclosures.

Bond of a good quality is probably the best choice. Colored papers, while attracting attention in a pile of miscellaneous correspondence, are not in the best taste. Rather have the letter striking for its excellent typing and arrangement.

Department stores and firms that write a great many letters to women often employ a notepaper size sheet for these letters. On this much smaller sheet the elite type makes a better appearance with letters of this kind.



The letterhead may be printed, engraved, or lithographed, and it is safest done in black. It should cover considerably less than a quarter of the page. It contains the name of the firm, the address, and the business. The addresses of branch houses, telephone numbers, cable addresses, names of officials, and other data may be included. But all flamboyant, colored advertisements, trade slogans, or advertising matter extending down the sides of the letter detract from the actual content of the letter, which it is presumed is the essential part of the letter.

For personal business letters, that is, for letters not social but concerning personal affairs not directly connected with his business, a man often uses a letter sheet partaking more of the nature of social stationery than of business. This sheet is usually rather smaller than the standard business size and of heavier quality. The size and shape of these letter sheets are matters of personal preference—7 x 10 inches or 8 x 10 inches—sometimes even as large as the standard 8-1/2 x 11 or as small as 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 or 6 x 8. The smaller size, however, requires the double sheet, and the engraving may be done on the fourth page instead of the first. The inside address in these letters is generally placed at the end of the letters instead of above the salutation.

Instead of a business letterhead the sheet may have an engraved name and home or business address without any further business connotations, or it may be simply an address line.

THE END