rge for
it which will be added to your bill at the end of the month. I
hope it will reach you safely. It is a nuisance to be without
one.

Imagination is indispensable to good letter writing, but it is going
rather far when one sends thanks in advance for a favor which he expects
to be conferred. Even those who take pleasure in granting favors like to
feel that they do so of their own free will. It takes away the pleasure
of doing it when some one asks a favor and then assumes the thing done.
Royalty alone are so highly privileged as to have simply to voice their
wishes to have them complied with, and royalty has gone out of fashion.

At one point in their journey all the travellers in "Pilgrim's Progress"
exchanged burdens, but they did not go far before each one begged to
have back his original load. That is what would happen if the man who
dictates a letter were to exchange places with his stenographer. Each
would then appreciate the position of the other, and if they were once
in a while to make the transfer in their minds (imagination in business
again) they would come nearer the sympathetic understanding that is the
basis of good teamwork.

The responsibility for a letter is divided between them, and it is
important that the circumstances under which it is written should be
favorable. The girl should be placed in a comfortable position so that
she can hear without difficulty. The dictator should not smoke whether
she objects to it or not. He should have in mind what he wants to say
before he begins speaking, and then he should pronounce his words evenly
and distinctly. He should not bang on the desk with his fist, flourish
his arms in the air, talk in rhetorical rushes with long pauses between
the phrases, or raise his voice to a thunderous pitch and then let it
sink to a cooing murmur. These things have not the slightest effect on
the typewritten page, and they make it very hard for the girl to take
correct notes. No one should write a letter while he is angry, or if he
writes it (and it is sometimes a relief to write a scorching letter) he
should not mail it.

It is said that Roosevelt used to write very angry letters to people who
deserved them, drawing liberally upon his very expressive supply of
abusive words for the occasion. Each time his secretary quietly stopped
the letter. Each time the Colonel came in the day after and asked if the
letter had been sent. Each time the secretary said, "