not been sorry for
having done so, are doubtless very rare. No one will ever be worse for
just saying plainly what she has to say and then signing her name to
it plainly and in full. For a name half signed is not only a
vulgarity, it indicates a character unfinished, uncertain, and
hesitating.

There is a kind of correspondence which is a special development of
our special civilization, and which it is to be hoped will be
carefully avoided by the young woman of the future,--that is, the
writing of letters begging autographs. A woman who does this thing has
a passion which she ought immediately to arrest and compel to give an
account of itself.

If she did so, she would quickly discover that it is a mean passion,
masquerading in a character it has no right to, and no sympathy with.
An autograph beggar is a natural development, though not a very
creditable one. She doubtless began her career of accumulation with
collecting birds' eggs in the country, where they could be got for
nothing. Butterflies were probably her next ambition. Then perhaps
that mysterious craze for postage stamps followed. After such a
training, the mania for autographs would come as a matter of course.
And the sole and whole motive of the collecting business is nothing at
all but the vulgar love of possessing, and especially of possessing
what costs nothing.

It is amusing and provoking to notice the air of complaisance with
which some of these begging epistles are suffused. The writers seem
incapable of conceiving statesmen, artists, and authors who will not
be as pleased to give as they are to ask. But in reality, a man or a
woman, however distinguished, who feels a request for his or her
autograph to be a compliment, is soaked in self-conceit, and the large
majority certainly do look upon such requests as simply impertinent
begging letters. The request, indeed, carries an affront with it, no
matter how civilly it may be worded, as it is not that particular
autograph that is wanted, for the beggars generally prefix as an
excuse the bare-faced fact that they have already begged hundreds.
Certainly no self-respecting woman will care to put herself among the
host of these contemptible seekers after a scrap of paper.

Speaking broadly, a woman's character may be in many respects fairly
gauged by her habits on the subject of letter-writing; as fairly,
indeed, as we may gauge a man's by his methods of dealing with money.
If we know how a man gets