How to Speak and Write Correctly Part 13

The plural of Mr. as in addressing a firm is _Messrs_, and the corresponding salutation is _Dear Sirs: or Gentlemen:_

In England _Esq._ is used for _Mr._ as a mark of slight superiority and in this country it is sometimes used, but it is practically obsolete.

Custom is against it and American sentiment as well. If it is used it should be only applied to lawyers and justices of the peace.

SUBSCRIPTION

The _Subscription_ or ending of a letter consists of the term of respect or affection and the signature. The term depends upon the relation of the person addressed. Letters of friends.h.i.+p can close with such expressions as:

Yours lovingly, Yours affectionately, Devotedly yours, Ever yours, etc.

as between husbands and wives or between lovers. Such gus.h.i.+ng terminations as Your Own Darling, Your own Dovey and other pet and silly endings should be avoided, as they denote shallowness. Love can be strongly expressed without dipping into the nonsensical and the farcical.

Formal expressions of Subscription are:

Yours Sincerely, Yours truly, Respectfully yours,

and the like, and these may be varied to denote the exact bearing or att.i.tude the writer wishes to a.s.sume to the person addressed: as,

Very sincerely yours, Very respectfully yours, With deep respect yours, Yours very truly, etc.

Such elaborate endings as

"In the meantime with the highest respect, I am yours to command,"

"I have the honor to be, Sir, Your humble Servant,"

"With great expression of esteem, I am Sincerely yours,"

"Believe me, my dear Sir, Ever faithfully yours,"

are condemned as savoring too much of affectation.

It is better to finish formal letters without any such qualifying remarks. If you are writing to Mr. Ryan to tell him that you have a house for sale, after describing the house and stating the terms simply sign yourself

Your obedient Servant Yours very truly, Yours with respect, James Wilson.

Don't say you have the honor to be anything or ask him to believe anything, all you want to tell him is that you have a house for sale and that you are sincere, or hold him in respect as a prospective customer.

Don't abbreviate the signature as: _Y'rs Resp'fly_ and always make your s.e.x obvious. Write plainly

Yours truly, _John Field_

and not _J. Field_, so that the person to whom you send it may not take you for _Jane Field_.

It is always best to write the first name in full. Married women should prefix _Mrs._ to their names, as

Very sincerely yours, _Mrs._ Theodore Watson.

If you are sending a letter acknowledging a compliment or some kindness done you may say, _Yours gratefully,_ or _Yours very gratefully,_ in proportion to the act of kindness received.

It is not customary to sign letters of degrees or t.i.tles after your name, except you are a lord, earl or duke and only known by the t.i.tle, but as we have no such t.i.tles in America it is unnecessary to bring this matter into consideration. Don't sign yourself,

Sincerely yours, Obadiah Jackson, M.A. or L.L. D.

If you're an M. A. or an L.L. D. people generally know it without your sounding your own trumpet. Many people, and especially clergymen, are fond of flaunting after their names degrees they have received _honoris causa_, that is, degrees as a mark of honor, without examination. Such degrees should be kept in the background. Many a deadhead has these degrees which he could never have earned by brain work.

Married women whose husbands are alive may sign the husband's name with the prefix _Mrs:_ thus,

Yours sincerely, _Mrs._ William Southey.

but when the husband is dead the signature should be--

Yours sincerely, _Mrs._ Sarah Southey.

So when we receive a letter from a woman we are enabled to tell whether she has a husband living or is a widow. A woman separated from her husband but not a _divorcee_ should _not_ sign his name.

ADDRESS

The _address_ of a letter consists of the name, the t.i.tle and the residence.

Mr. Hugh Black, 112 Southgate Street, Altoona, Pa.

Intimate friends have often familiar names for each other, such as pet names, nicknames, etc., which they use in the freedom of conversation, but such names should never, under any circ.u.mstances, appear on the envelope. The subscription on the envelope should be always written with propriety and correctness and as if penned by an entire stranger. The only difficulty in the envelope inscription is the t.i.tle. Every man is ent.i.tled to _Mr._ and every lady to _Mrs._ and every unmarried lady to _Miss_. Even a boy is ent.i.tled to _Master_. When more than one is addressed the t.i.tle is _Messrs._ _Mesdames_ is sometimes written of women. If the person addressed has a t.i.tle it is courteous to use it, but t.i.tles never must be duplicated. Thus, we can write

Robert St.i.tt, M. D., but never Dr. Robert St.i.tt, M. D, or Mr. Robert St.i.tt, M. D.

In writing to a medical doctor it is well to indicate his profession by the letters M. D. so as to differentiate him from a D. D. It is better to write Robert St.i.tt, M. D., than Dr. Robert St.i.tt.

In the case of clergymen the prefix Rev. is retained even when they have other t.i.tles; as

Rev. Tracy Tooke, LL. D.

When a person has more t.i.tles than one it is customary to only give him the leading one. Thus instead of writing Rev. Samuel MacComb, B. A., M. A., B. Sc., Ph. D., LL. D., D. D. the form employed is Rev. Samuel MacComb, LL. D. LL. D. is appended in preference to D. D. because in most cases the "Rev." implies a "D. D." while comparatively few with the prefix "Rev." are ent.i.tled to "LL. D."

In the case of _Honorables_ such as Governors, Judges, Members of Congress, and others of the Civil Government the prefix "Hon." does away with _Mr._ and _Esq._ Thus we write Hon. Josiah Snifkins, not Hon. Mr. Josiah Snifkins or Hon. Josiah Snifkins, Esq. Though this prefix _Hon._ is also often applied to Governors they should be addressed as Excellency. For instance:

His Excellency, Charles E. Hughes, Albany, N. Y.

In writing to the President the superscription on the envelope should be

To the President, Executive Mansion, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.

Professional men such as doctors and lawyers as well as those having legitimately earned College Degrees may be addressed on the envelopes by their t.i.tles, as

Jonathan Janeway, M. D.

Hubert Houston, B. L.

Matthew Marks, M. A., etc.

The residence of the person addressed should be plainly written out in full. The street and numbers should be given and the city or town written very legibly. If the abbreviation of the State is liable to be confounded or confused with that of another then the full name of the State should be written. In writing the residence on the envelope, instead of putting it all in one line as is done at the head of a letter, each item of the residence forms a separate line. Thus,