How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) Part 17

My dear Miss Judson,

May I send you my congratulations on this your birthday?

I am sending a little token of my best wishes for you for many years to come.

Yours sincerely, Richard Evans.

_On a wedding day anniversary_

500 Park Avenue, June 1, 1923.

My dear Charlotte and George,

Please accept my heartiest good wishes on this, the fifteenth anniversary of your marriage. May the years to come bring every blessing to you both.

Sincerely yours, Katherine Gerard Evans.

(B)

500 Park Avenue, December 4, 1922.

My dear Mrs. Smith,

Congratulations on this the twentieth anniversary of your wedding. Our heartiest wishes to you both from Mr. Evans and me.

Yours very sincerely, Katherine Gerard Evans.

_On the birth of a child_

788 East 46th St., August 11, 1923.

My dear Dorothy,

Congratulations upon the birth of your daughter. May the good fairies shower upon her the gifts of goodness, wisdom, and beauty.

Very sincerely yours, Charlotte B. Trent.

_On a graduation_

500 Park Avenue, June 30, 1923.

My dear John,

It is with great pleasure that I hear of your graduation this year. It is a fine thing to have so successfully finished your college course.

May I send my heartiest congratulations?

Sincerely yours, Ruth Evans.

_On an engagement_

In writing to a girl or a man on the occasion of an engagement to be married there is no general rule if one knows the man or woman. One may write as one wishes.

If a stranger is to be received into the family, one writes a kindly letter.

28 Odell Avenue, April 3, 1923.

My dear Haines,

Let me be among the first to congratulate you on your engagement to Miss Bruce. I have not met her but I know that to reach your high ideals she must indeed be a wonderful girl.

I hope I may soon have the pleasure of meeting her.

Sincerely yours, Charles Lawson.

500 Park Avenue, May 14, 1923.

My dear Miss Bruce,

My nephew has told me his great news. I am much pleased to hear that you are soon to come into the family, because I know that the girl of Edward's choice must be sweet and charming. I hope that you will learn to love us for our own sake as well as for Edward's.

Sincerely yours, Katherine G. Evans.

500 Park Avenue, September 18, 1923.

Dear Helen,

The announcement of your engagement to Robert Haines is a delightful surprise. He is, as we all know, a splendid chap.

I am so happy that this great happiness has come to you. I hope that I may hear all about it, and with best wishes to you both, I am

Affectionately yours, Ruth Evans.

On the subject of engagements, perhaps the following letter from Charles Lamb to f.a.n.n.y Kelly, and her reply, will be of interest--though the unarduous and somewhat prosaic tone of Elia's proposal of marriage--beautifully expressed as it is--is hardly to be recommended as a model calculated to bring about the desired result!

Dear Miss Kelly:

We had the pleasure, _pain_ I might better call it, of seeing you last night in the new play. It was a most consummate piece of acting, but what a task for you to undergo! At a time when your heart is sore from real sorrow it has given rise to a train of thinking, which I cannot suppress.

Would to G.o.d you were released from this way of life; that you could bring your mind to consent to take your lot with us, and throw off forever the whole burden of your profession. I neither expect nor wish you to take notice of this which I am writing, in your present over occupied and hurried state--but to think of it at your leisure. I have quite income enough, if that were all, to justify for me making such a proposal, with what I may call even a handsome provision for my survivor.

What you possess of your own would naturally be appropriated to those, for whose sakes chiefly you have made so many hard sacrifices. I am not so foolish as not to know that I am a most unworthy match for such a one as you, but you have for years been a princ.i.p.al object in my mind. In many a sweet a.s.sumed character I have learned to love you, but simply as F.

M. Kelly I love you better than them all. Can you quit these shadows of existence, and come and be a reality to us? Can you leave off hara.s.sing yourself to please a thankless mult.i.tude, who know nothing of you, and begin at last to live to yourself and your friends?