RAN.

LETTERS TO PARENTS

Of course, when young people write to the members of their immediate
family, it is not necessary that they employ such reserve as in
correspondence with friends. The following letter well illustrates the
change in tone which is permissible in such intimate correspondence:

A Correct Letter from a Young Lady in Boarding School to Her Parents

DEAR MOTHER:

Of course I am terribly glad that you and father are thinking of
coming to visit me here at school next week, but don't you think
it would be better if, instead of your coming all the way up
here, I should come down and stay with you in New York? The
railroad trip up here will be very hard on you, as the trains are
usually late and the porters and conductors are notorious for
their gruffness and it is awfully hard to get parlor-car seats
and you know what sitting in a day-coach means. I should love to
have you come only I wouldn't want you or father to get some
terrible sickness on the train and last month there were at least
three wrecks on that road, with many fatalities, and when you get
here the accommodations aren't very good for outsiders, many of
the guests having been severely poisoned only last year by eating
ripe olives and the beds, they say, are extremely hard. Don't you
really think it would be ever so much nicer if you and father
stayed in some comfortable hotel in New York with all the
conveniences in the world and there are some wonderful things at
the theaters which you really ought to see. I could probably get
permission from Miss Spencer to come and visit you over Saturday
and Sunday if you are stopping at one of the five hotels on her
"permitted" list.

However, if you do decide to come here, perhaps it would be
better to leave father in New York because I know he wouldn't
like it at all with nothing but women and girls around and I am
sure that he couldn't get his glass of hot water in the morning
before breakfast and he would have a much better time in New
York. But if he does come please mother don't let him wear that
old gray hat or that brown suit, and mother couldn't you get him
to get some gloves and a cane in New York before he comes? And
please, mother dear, make him put those "stogies" of his in an
inside pocket and would you mind, mother, not wearing that brooch
father's employees gave you last Christmas?

I shall be awfully glad to