ddresses, bearing insufficient postage,
and showing other evidences of carelessness and thoughtlessness. In a
town in New England last year one of the specialty shops received at
Christmas time twenty different lots of money--money orders, stamps, and
cash--by mail, not one of which bore the slightest clue to the identity
of the sender. Countless times during the year this happens in every
mail order house.

The initials of the dictator and of the stenographer in the lower
left-hand corner of a letter serve not only to identify the carbon, but
often to place the letter itself if it has gone out without signature.
The signature should be legible, or if the one who writes it enjoys
making flourishes he may do so if he will have the name neatly typed
either just below the name or just above it. It should be written in ink
(black or blue ink), not in pencil or colored crayon, and it should be
blotted before the page is folded. The dictator himself should sign the
letter whenever possible. "Dictated but not read" bears the mark of
discourtesy and sometimes brings back a letter with "Received but not
read" written across it. When it is necessary to leave the office before
signing his letters, a business man should deputize his stenographer to
do it, in which case she writes his name in full with her initials just
below it. A better plan is to have another person take care of the
entire letter, beginning it something like, "Since Mr. Blake is away
from the office to-day he has asked me to let you know----"

The complimentary close to a business letter should be "Yours truly,"
"Yours sincerely" or something of the kind, and not "Yours cordially,"
"Yours faithfully" or "Yours gratefully" unless the circumstances
warrant it.

In writing a letter as a part of a large organization one should use
"We" instead of "I." A firm acts collectively, no one except the
president has a right to the pronoun of the first person, and he (if he
is wise) seldom avails himself of it. If the matter is so near personal
as to make "We" somewhat ridiculous "I" should, of course, be used
instead. But one should be consistent. If "I" is used at the beginning
it should be continued throughout.

Similarly a letter should be addressed to a firm rather than to a
person, for if the person happens to be absent some one else can then
take charge of it. But the address should also include the name of the
addressee (whenever possible) or "Advertising Manager,