e plot as would five or six
scenes.

Letters should be short and to the point, but they should also tell as
much as possible of _what can not be told in action_. Better a single
letter of thirty-five words which tells everything than two or three
notes of a line or two each that only suggest what the writer means.
Some of the so-called "letters" which are seen on the screen are
simply ridiculous on account of their very brevity. If it is a mere
note that is dashed off and sent to one of the characters, or a note
left where it will be found by someone after the writer has gone away,
its brevity is allowable; but when a "letter" is written by a man to
an old friend of his--a friend who, he is told, is living in a distant
city, when for years he has supposed him to be dead--and contains but
seventeen words, it is likely to make the spectator doubt the strength
of the former friendship.

It is not always necessary actually to write a long letter; but it is
best in such instances to _suggest_ that a long letter has been
written. This may be accomplished in two ways: You may either show a
paragraph in the body of the letter, with a line or two just before
and just after it, thus:

On screen, letter.

and it was from him that I learned the truth.

I'll leave for Wheeling on the first train tomorrow, and
hope to clasp your hand again before Monday night.

Honestly, old man, it seems too, etc.

or you may write out the ending of the letter in such a way as to
suggest that much more has been said in the forepart of the message,
thus:

On screen, letter, folded down to show only this:

so I'll leave for Wheeling on the first train tomorrow, and
hope to clasp your hand again before Monday night.

Honestly, old man, it seems too good to be true. I won't be
able to believe that what Morgan told me _is_ true until I
see you with my own eyes.

Until then, believe me to be

As ever, your sincere friend,

Stephen Loring.

To illustrate the way a letter will consume footage, we reproduce one
for which fifteen feet were allowed.

Lord Cornwallis:

Am now within forty miles of Charlottesville. Thomas
Jefferson and the entire Virginia Assembly will be my
prisoners today.

Tarleton.

As we know, a letter will sometimes be written by a character in one
scene, but the spectators will not learn its exact contents--though
they may know