but appropriate
note or telegram.

_Conventional Note to an Acquaintance_

I know how little the words of an outsider mean to you just
now--but I must tell you how deeply I sympathize with you in your
great loss.

_Note or Telegram to a Friend_

All my sympathy and all my thoughts are with you in your great
sorrow. If I can be of any service to you, you know how grateful
I shall be.

_Telegram to a Very Near Relative or Friend_

Words are so empty! If only I knew how to fill them with love and
send them to you.

Or:

If love and thoughts could only help you, Margaret dear, you
should have all the strength of both that I can give.

_Letter Where Death Was Release_

The letter to one whose loss is "for the best" is difficult in that you
want to express sympathy but can not feel sad that one who has long
suffered has found release. The expression of sympathy in this case should
not be for the present death, but for the illness, or whatever it was that
fell long ago. The grief for a paralysed mother is for the stroke which
cut her down many years before, and your sympathy, though you may not have
realized it, is for that. You might write:

Your sorrow during all these years--and now--is in my heart; and
all my thoughts and sympathy are with you.

=HOW TO ADDRESS IMPORTANT PERSONAGES=

===============+=====================+============================+=============
| If you | | Formal
| are speaking, | | beginning of
| you say: | Envelope addressed: | a letter:
---------------+---------------------+----------------------------+-------------
The President | Mr. President | The President of the | Sir:
| And occasionally | United States |
| throughout a | or merely |
| conversation, | The President, |
| Sir. | Washington, D.C. |
| | (There is only one |
| | "President") |
| | |
| | |
---------------+---------------------+----------------------------+------