ill smaller
size for a few words of congratulation or condolence. The social note
must be arranged so as to be contained on the first page only.

A man should not, for his social correspondence, use office or hotel
stationery. His social stationery should be of a large size.

Envelopes may be either square or oblong.

In the matter of perfumed stationery, if perfume is used at all, it must
be very delicate. Strong perfumes or perfumes of a pronounced type have
a distinctly unpleasant effect on many people. It is better form to use
none.

[Illustration: Specimens of addressed social stationery]

[Illustration: Specimens of addressed social stationery. (The first
specimen is business stationery in social form)]

An inviolable rule is to use black ink.

The most approved forms of letter and notepaper (although the use of
addressed paper is not at all obligatory and it is perfectly proper to
use plain paper) have the address stamped in Roman or Gothic lettering
at the top of the sheet in the centre or at the right-hand side about
three quarters of an inch from the top. The color used may be black,
white, dark blue, dark green, silver, or gold. Country houses, where
there are frequent visitors, have adopted the custom of placing the
address at the upper right and the telephone, railroad station, and post
office at the left. The address may also appear on the reverse flap of
the envelope.

Crests and monograms are not used when the address is engraved at the
top of a letter sheet. Obviously the crowding of address and crest or
monogram would not be conducive to good appearance in the letter.

A monogram, originally a cipher consisting of a single letter, is a
design of two or more letters intertwined. It is defined as a character
of several letters in one, or made to appear as one. The letters may be
all the letters of a name, or the initial letters of the Christian and
surnames.

[Illustration: The monograms in the best taste are the small round ones,
but many pleasing designs may be had in the diamond, square, and oblong
shape]

[Illustration: Specimens of crested letter and notepaper]

Many of the early Greek and Roman coins bear the monograms of rulers or
of the town in which they were struck. The Middle Ages saw the invention
of all sorts of ciphers or monograms, artistic, commercial, and
ecclesiastical. Every great personage had his monogram. The merchants
used them, the "merchant's mark" being th