2. The following is an advertisement for a situation:

Wanted.1- By a young man, a situation as bookkeeper; understands single and double entry; high school education; good references. Address H. M., 243 Grove Street.

Write an advertisement for a situation as clerk in a law office; as typewriter and stenographer in a wholesale house; as salesman for men's furnishing goods; as travelling salesman for a wholesale candy house; as teacher in a country school; as teacher in a city grammar school; as clerk in a drug store; as attendant in a business office; as advertising solicitor; as collector for a real estate office.

SECTION 55

Official Letters

Of all letters, excepting only mere notes of invitation and reply, official letters are the most formal. They are dignified in style, and abound in conventional phrases of courtesy. Since it is really the office that is written to, and not the temporary incumbent, many prefer to place on the envelope, as well as in the introduction to the letter itself, the name of the office rather than the name of the officer. They prefer to address a letter to the President of the United States, for example, "To the President, The White House, Washington, D.C.," rather than, “To His Excellency, Theodore Roosevelt," etc. Extra formality is obtained, in addition to that obtained by writing in as dignified a style as possible, by due attention to titles and to the greeting and the courteous close. Titles, with

1 Where the advertisement stands in a column with others of the same sort, the word "wanted" is commonly omitted, since the column itself is headed, "Situations Wanted," "Help Wanted," or the like.

the exception of Mr. and its equivalents, should be written out in full-if more than ordinary courtesy is to be shown. This applies to Doctor, The Reverend, The Honorable (usually applied to congressmen, governors, judges of the higher courts, and high federal officers), as well as to Captain, Colonel, General, Professor, President, Governor, etc., etc.1 Formal greetings are, Your Excellency (if addressing the President of the United States or the Governor of a state), Your Honor (if addressing the Mayor of a city), Reverend Sir (if addressing a clergyman), Sir (the most usual form; it would be entirely proper in any of the above cases); formal phrases for the courteous close are, Most respectfully your obedient servant, I have the honor to subscribe myself most respectfully, I have the honor to be (or to remain) your obedient servant, Most respectfully yours.

Exercise 61

1. You wish to prepare for the civil service examination in mechanical engineering. Write to the President of the Civil Service Commission, Washington, D.C., for information.

2. Your school library is in need of a good natural history. Find out the best, and petition your Board of Education to procure it for your school.

3. The newspapers report that the Governor of your state is about to pardon a notorious criminal. Write a protest.

1"Prof. O. P. Jenkins" is permissible, but "Prof. Jenkins" is not. This means that the family name should never be immediately preceded by an abbreviated title. Post-titles, like LL.D., D.D., etc., etc., are not much used nowadays outside of catalogues, but, if post-titles are used, they should not repeat pre-titles. It is in rather better taste to use Mr. in all personal letters, even to men who might be given other titles, and to reserve the latter for official letters. Mr. is certainly to be preferred to Esq., which is British.

SECTION 56

Invitations and Replies

Invitations are of two kinds, formal and informal. Nothing need be said here, however, regarding informal invitations, because they differ in no way from the ordinary notes that pass between friends and relatives. An informal invitation must be followed by an informal reply, since the reply, in any case, invariably takes the tone of the invitation.

Formal invitations are written throughout in the third person,1 and can be best understood by a study of the examples below. Observe that there is no heading, no introduction, and no conclusion in a formal invitation. If the address of the writer and the date are not omitted altogether, they are written below the body of the invitation, commonly at the left. The year is usually omitted, and the month and the day are sometimes written out in full, though society is not agreed on this last point. To write out in full the name of the month, as evidence that you are not in a hurry and do not grudge the time spent on your note, may be well enough, but to write out in full the day of the month ("eight” for “8”) or the number of your street (" Forty-two" for "42") seems to be straining the matter to the point of affectation. To show affectation would seem to be as vulgar as to show haste, — but this is probably an affair of taste.

1 In case the invitation is wholly engraved or printed, as in (1) below, the second person must be used, since the name of each person invited cannot be inserted in the engraved or printed form. People who entertain frequently commonly have forms engraved with spaces for names and dates, a device that saves a resort to the second person.

The reply, as suggested above, takes its tone from the invitation. The formal reply, indeed, is simply an inverted form of the formal invitation, and therefore needs no comment. A reply of any sort, formal or informal, should always be sent immediately on receipt of an invitation,1 and, to prevent a chance of mistake, the reply should invariably repeat the date and the hour of the invitation.

(1)

The Adelphian Literary Society
requests the pleasure of your company
at its Fifteenth Annual Public
on Friday evening, January the third
at eight o'clock

The Adelphian Hall 2

(2)

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Barbour request the pleasure of Mr. and Mrs. John Wesley Hobb's company at dinner on Thursday, February 8, at 8 o'clock.

(3)

Mr. and Mrs. John Wesley Hobb accept with pleasure Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Barbour's kind invitation for Thursday, February 8, at 8 o'clock.

(4)

Mr. and Mrs. John Wesley Hobb regret that a previous engagement prevents them from accepting Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Barbour's kind invitation for Thursday, February 8, at 8 o'clock.

1 The letters, R. s. v. p. (Répondez si'l vous plait), or some such phrase as, "The favor of an answer is requested," "An answer is requested," or even "Please reply," are met with now and then in invitations. Such phrases, it is needless to say, are extremely offensive to persons of intelligence, since everybody is supposed to know that a reply to an invitation is always expected — and at once.

2 Note the comparative absence of punctuation in this, the engraved form. Note also the arrangement of the lines.

(5)

Mrs. Moulton requests the pleasure of Mrs. Hudson's company at luncheon on Tuesday, October 6, at 1 o'clock.

The Lilacs,
October 3.1

Exercise 62

1. Write an invitation to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Lord to dine with you on Tuesday next, at eight o'clock.

2. Write an acceptance to the above invitation; write a regret. 3. Miss Frances Aldrich is to give a whist party a week from Thursday, at eight o'clock. Write her invitation to Miss Marjorie Daw. Write Miss Daw's acceptance.

4. You are to give a "stag" dinner next week. Write an invitation to one of your friends. Write his acceptance.

5. Your debating society is sending out invitations to a public debate. How should you word the invitations?

SECTION 57

Friendly Letters

Friendly letters are familiar chats on paper, a trifle more restrained than a real chat would be, but still in pretty much the same tone. The tone of a friendly letter, indeed, ought to show the degree of intimacy existing between the writer and the person written to, but it is not always an easy matter to get just the right tone,

1 This invitation suggests a gathering of ladies. An invitation to a "stag" party would run in the name of the host; "Mr. Moulton requests the pleasure of Mr. Hudson's company," etc. Note the arrangement of the lines in (2), (3), (4), and (5), which is the proper arrangement when invitations and replies are written out, and not engraved or printed. When, for obvious reasons, the writer does not wish to mention a previous engagement, but still wishes to decline, he may resort to some such wording as this: "Mr. Hudson regrets his inability to accept," etc.