n white paper, with monogram or address stamped in
gray to match gray tissue lining of the envelope is, for instance, in very
best taste. Young girls may be allowed quite gay envelope linings, but the
device on the paper must be minute, in proportion to the gaiety of the
color.

[Illustrations: GOOD TASTE GOOD TASTE GOOD TASTE BAD TASTE BAD TASTE]

Writing paper for a man should always be strictly conservative. Plain
white or gray or granite paper, large in size and stamped in the simplest
manner. The size should be 5-3/4 x 7-1/2 or 6 x 8 or 5-1/8 x 8-1/8 or
thereabouts.

A paper suitable for the use of all the members of a family has the
address stamped in black or dark color, in plain letters at the top of the
first page. More often than not the telephone number is put in very small
letters under that of the address, a great convenience in the present day
of telephoning. For example:

350 PARK AVENUE
TELEPHONE 7572 PLAZA

=DEVICES FOR STAMPING=

As there is no such thing as heraldry in America, the use of a coat of
arms is as much a foreign custom as the speaking of a foreign tongue; but
in certain communities where old families have used their crests
continuously since the days when they brought their device--and their
right to it--from Europe, the use of it is suitable and proper. The sight
of this or that crest on a carriage or automobile in New York or Boston
announces to all those who have lived their lives in either city that the
vehicle belongs to a member of this or that family. But for some one
without an inherited right to select a lion _rampant_ or a stag _couchant_
because he thinks it looks stylish, is as though, for the same reason, he
changed his name from Muggins to Marmaduke, and quite properly subjects
him to ridicule. (Strictly speaking, a woman has the right to use a
"lozenge" only; since in heraldic days women did not bear arms, but no one
in this country follows heraldic rule to this extent.)

=THE PERSONAL DEVICE=

It is occasionally the fancy of artists or young girls to adopt some
especial symbol associated with themselves. The "butterfly" of Whistler
for instance is as well-known as his name. A painter of marines has the
small outline of a ship stamped on his writing paper, and a New York
architect the capital of an Ionic column. A generation ago young women
used to fancy such an intriguing symbol as a mask, a sphinx, a question
mark, or their own names, if their name