ul hand that is absolutely impossible to decipher, and for
General Bourbaki to indite his epistles in a microscopically minute
script, but less important people will do well to render their
chirography as perfect and legible as possible, and not to flourish.

Avoid always too near an approach to the clerkly, commercial hand. A
talented foreigner once remarked to the writer upon his astonishment
at the predominance of this hand in America. "I do not like it," he
said; "the clerk sends me in my rates, the landlord my bill, and the
young lady her reply to my invitation, all in that same commercial
hand. There is no individuality, no character, in such writing." And
there was too much reason in his remonstrance. We are not quite "a
nation of shopkeepers," and there is no reason why this business
handwriting should so permeate all classes of society.

The lines should be straight, and as ruled paper is not permissible in
formal notes, invitations or punctilious correspondence, savoring too
nearly of the school-room and the counting-house, some little practice
may be necessary to keep the lines even. Should this prove impossible,
let a sheet of paper with heavily ruled black lines that will show
through the writing paper, be kept in the desk and slipped beneath the
page as a guide. It may also be inserted in the envelope to keep the
superscription or address perfectly straight.

The lines should be rather far apart, and the fashionable hand just
now is not the pointed English style, but somewhat verging on the
large, round hand of the last century; the ladies, as a rule,
indulging in a rather masculine style.

[Illustration: PROPER POSITION OF A LADY IN WRITING.]

Thin foreign note paper may be used for letters abroad, unless the
most formal. This is usually ruled. So is the commercial note used for
business letters.

These forms answer for ladies and gentlemen alike. There is no
particular objection to gentlemen using in their informal friendly
letters, business note with printed letter head, but for ceremonious
occasions they must be bound by the foregoing forms.

Very faintly perfumed paper is the prerogative of the ladies.
Gentlemen are denied this privilege and a lady avails herself of it
with discretion, selecting a favorite odor and adhering closely to it,
so that correspondents could tell her missives with closed eyes, by
their very fragrance.

Where black-edged paper and envelopes are used by persons in mour