the date; for
example, 4 / 7 / 86; meaning the 4th day of the 7th month (July, that
is) of 1886. This contraction--which is improved by having the month put
in Roman figures (as, 4 / vii. / 86)--is handy now and again, but it
does not strike one as looking particularly well at the head of a
letter.

Put the name of the person to whom the letter is written at the
beginning or the end. Long ago, when envelopes were not in use, this did
not matter so much, because the name of the person addressed could be
seen by turning to the postal direction; but nowadays the envelope
bearing the address is dropped into the waste-paper basket, and a second
address is required to give the letter completeness, and enable third
parties, perhaps, to understand it.

As to how to begin, whether "Sir" or "Madam," or "Dear Sir" or "Dear
Madam," everyone may please herself, only taking note that the "Dear"
should be omitted when any special reason exists for being distant and
formal. Not, however, that the word when used in a business letter has
anything of an affectionate meaning. It is just one of the drops of oil
used to keep the machinery of human intercourse working smoothly.
Perhaps it originally crept in to soften the sharp effect of "Sir,"
which sounds for all the world as if it would snap a correspondent's
head off.

"Dear Sir" and "Dear Sirs" are both right, but "Dear Gentlemen" is not,
though there seems no reason against it. If you begin "Sir" you must not
end "I remain, dear sir." The beginning and the end should be all of a
piece, and in both places the same form of address should be used.

In concluding a business letter you may say "yours respectfully," or
"your obedient servant," or "yours truly," or "yours faithfully,"
according to the degree of intimacy existing between you and your
correspondent. But really there are no very nice distinctions to be
observed between such phrases, and their use may safely be left to every
girl's common sense and discretion.

Take pains to sign your name always so that people can read it. Some,
out of pure affectation, conceal what they call themselves under a
scribble which none can read--"a hopeless puzzle of intemperate
scratches." How is a stranger, getting a letter signed in this way, to
know to whom to send a reply, unless, as is sometimes done, he cuts out
the signature, pastes it on the envelope, and adds the address? But
illegible signatures, it must be confessed, are more often