From Lord Alfred Tennyson to Walt Whitman:[10]

Farringford, Freshwater, Isle of Wight,

Jan'y 15th, 1887.

Dear old man:

I the elder old man have received your Article in the Critic, and send you in return my thanks and New Year's greeting on the wings of this east-wind, which, I trust, is blowing softlier and warmlier on your good gray head than here, where it is rocking the elms and ilexes of my Isle of Wight garden.

Yours always,

Tennyson.

From Ellen Terry to Walt Whitman:

Grand Pacific Hotel, Chicago,

January 4th, '88.

Honored Sir—and Dear Poet:

I beg you to accept my appreciative thanks for your great kindness in sending me by Mr. Stoker the little big book of poems—As a Strong Bird, etc., etc.

Since I am not personally known to you I conclude Mr. Stoker "asked" for me—it was good of him—I know he loves you very much.

God bless you, dear sir—believe me to be with much respect

Yours affectionately,

Ellen Terry.

From Moncure Conway to Walt Whitman:

Hardwicke Cottage, Wimbledon Common,

London, S. W., Sept. 10, '67.

My dear friend:

It gave me much pleasure to hear from you; now I am quite full of gratitude for the photograph—a grand one—the present of all others desirable to me. The copy suitable for an edition here should we be able to reach to that I have and shall keep carefully. When it is achieved it will probably be the result and fruit of more reviewing and discussion. I shall keep my eyes wide open; and the volume with O'C.'s introduction shall come out just as it is: I am not sure but that it will in the end have to be done at our own expense—which I believe would be repaid. It is the kind of book that if it can once get out here will sell. The English groan for something better than the perpetual réchauffé of their literature. I have not been in London for some little time and have not yet had time to consult others about the matter. I shall be able to write you more satisfactorily a little later. I hear that you have written something in The Galaxy. Pray tell O'Connor I shall look to him to send me such things. I can't take all American magazines; but if you intend to write for The Galaxy regularly I shall take that. With much friendship for you and O'Connor and his wife, I am yours,

Moncure Conway.

From John Addington Symonds to Walt Whitman:

Clifton Hill House, Bristol,

July 12, 1877.

Dear Mr. Whitman:

I was away from England when your welcome volumes reached me, and since my return (during the last six weeks) I have been very ill with an attack of hemorrhage from the lung—brought on while I was riding a pulling horse at a time when I was weak from cold. This must account for my delay in writing to thank you for them and to express the great pleasure which your inscription in two of the volumes has given me.

I intend to put into my envelope a letter to you with some verses from one of your great admirers in England. It is my nephew—the second son of my sister. I gave him a copy of Leaves of Grass in 1874, and he knows a great portion of it now by heart. Though still so young, he has developed a considerable faculty for writing and is an enthusiastic student of literature as well as a frank vigorous lively young fellow. I thought you might like to see how some of the youth of England is being drawn towards you.

Believe me always sincerely and affectionately yours.

J. A. Symonds.

From Edward Everett Hale to Dr. Lyman Abbott:[11]

Jan. 29, 1900, Roxbury,

Monday morning.

Dear Dr. Abbott:

I shall stay at home this morning—so I shall not see you.

All the same I want to thank you again for the four sermons: and to say that I am sure they will work lasting good for the congregation.

More than this. I think you ought to think that such an opportunity to go from church to church and city to city—gives you a certain opportunity and honour—which even in Plymouth Pulpit a man does not have—and to congregations such a turning over the new leaf means a great deal.

Did you ever deliver the Lectures on Preaching at New Haven?

With Love always,

Always yours,

E. E. Hale.

From Friedrich Nietzsche to Karl Fuchs:[12]

Sils-Maria, Oberengadine, Switzerland,

June 30, 1888.

My dear Friend:

How strange! How strange! As soon as I was able to transfer myself to a cooler clime (for in Turin the thermometer stood at 31 day after day) I intended to write you a nice letter of thanks. A pious intention, wasn't it? But who could have guessed that I was not only going back to a cooler clime, but into the most ghastly weather, weather that threatened to shatter my health! Winter and summer in senseless alternation; twenty-six avalanches in the thaw; and now we have just had eight days of rain with the sky almost always grey—this is enough to account for my profound nervous exhaustion, together with the return of my old ailments. I don't think I can ever remember having had worse weather, and this in my Sils-Maria, whither I always fly in order to escape bad weather. Is it to be wondered at that even the parson here is acquiring the habit of swearing? From time to time in conversation his speech halts, and then he always swallows a curse. A few days ago, just as he was coming out of the snow-covered church, he thrashed his dog and exclaimed: "The confounded cur spoiled the whole of my sermon!"...

Yours in gratitude and devotion,

Nietzsche.

In making a donation of £100,000 for branch libraries in the city of Glasgow, this is the letter[13] that Andrew Carnegie sent to the Lord Provost of the city council:

My dear Lord Provost:

It will give me pleasure to provide the needed £100,000 for Branch Libraries, which are sure to prove of great advantage to the masses of the people. It is just fifty years since my parents with their little boys sailed from Broomielaw for New York in the barque Wiscassett, 900 tons, and it is delightful to be permitted to commemorate the event upon my visit to you. Glasgow has done so much in municipal affairs to educate other cities, and to help herself, that it is a privilege to help her. Let Glasgow flourish! So say all of us Scotsmen throughout the World.

Always yours,

Andrew Carnegie.

Letters between Friends

First, catch your shrimp! When they have been cleaned and prepared as for a salad, place on ice and in ice, if possible. Grate the carrots on the coarse side of the grater, placing immediately on the salad plates, which of course have already been garnished with lettuce leaves. Then add just a fine sprinkling of chopped apples (I find this the best substitute for alligator pears) and then the shrimps. Pour over this the mayonnaise and serve at once.

I do not know what he called it and could not spell it if I did, but you are at liberty to call it anything you like. At all events, I am sure the crowd will agree it is a little different, and I am glad to have been able to give the idea.

Cordially yours,

Ruth Wilson.

July 14, 1921

My dear Mrs. Sampson,

I am so glad to know that you have completely recovered from your recent illness.

I trust you will soon be able to resume your wonted activities. We all have missed you—at bridge and tennis particularly.

Sincerely yours,

Mary E. Wells.

July 18, 1923

My dear Mr. Baines,

I have just heard of your success in getting your book published. I have always had a great admiration for you and your work, and I am sending this little note to assure you of my regard, and to wish you still further successes.

Yours very sincerely,

Madeleine Strickland.

March 10, 1923

My dear Miss Gwynne,

I am very sorry that I was out when you called. I hope you will come again soon for I do so much want to see you.

Sincerely yours,

Katherine G. Evans.

February 16, 1923

It may be of passing interest to read a letter or two from distinguished persons to their boyhood friends. Here is one[14] from the late John Burroughs:

Esopus, N. Y., June 1, 1883.

Dear Tom Brown:

I have been a-fishing or I should have answered your letter before. I always go a-fishing about this time of year, after speckled trout, and I always catch some, too. But dog-fighting I have nothing to do with, unless it be to help some little dog whip some saucy big cur. Game birds are all right in their season, but I seldom hunt them. Yet this is about the best way to study them.

You want to know how I felt as a boy. Very much as I do now, only more so. I loved fishing, and tramping, and swimming more than I do these late years. But I had not so tender a heart. I was not so merciful to the birds and animals as I am now.

Much of what I have put in my books was gathered while a boy on the farm. I am interested in what you tell me of your Band of Mercy, and should like much to see you all, and all the autographs in that pink covered book. Well, youth is the time to cultivate habits of mercy, and all other good habits. The bees will soon be storing their clover honey, and I trust you boys and girls are laying away that which will by and by prove choicest possessions.

Sincerely your friend,

John Burroughs.

The following letter[15] was written when J. J. Hill—perhaps the greatest railroading genius America has ever produced—was twenty years of age. It is one of the few letters written by him at this time of his life that have been preserved:

Saint Paul, February 11, 1858.

Dear William:

Your epistle bearing date of seventeenth ult. came to hand on good time and your fertile imagination can scarcely conceive what an amount of pleasure I derived from it, as it was the first epistle of William to James at St. Paul for a "long back." My surprise at receiving your letter was only surpassed by my surprise at not receiving one from you after you left St. Paul, or sometime during the ensuing season. Still, a good thing is never too late or "done too often." It gave me much pleasure to hear that you were all well and enjoying yourselves in the good and pious (as I learn) little town of Rockwood. I did intend to go to Canada this winter, but it is such a long winter trip I thought I should defer it until summer, when I hope to be able to get away, as I intend to go on the river this summer if all goes as well as I expect. Capt. W. F. Davidson wrote me from Cincinnati about going with him as first clerk on the side-wheel packet Frank Steele, a new boat about the size of the War Eagle. The Captain is Letter A, No. 1, and I think I shall go with him. If not, I have two or three good offers for coming season on the levee, besides my present berth, which is nevertheless very comfortable.

I think it mighty strange that some (of my letters) have not reached home as I wrote several times to my brother Alex. and I never was more surprised in my life than when old Bass handed me a letter of inquiry as to my whereabouts. But after the boats stop running our mails are carried so irregularly that whole bags of mail matter are often mislaid at way stations for weeks and some finally lost or otherwise destroyed. On the tenth of November last I was returning from the Winslow House with Charley Coffin, Clerk of the War Eagle, about eleven o'clock, and when we were coming down Fourth Street passing one of those rum holes, two Irishmen, red mouths, came out and, following us, asked us if we would not go back and take a drink. Charley said "no," and we were passing on when two more met us who, along with the other two, insisted that they meant no harm and that we should go in and drink. I told them that I did not drink and that, generally speaking, I knew what I was about. We attempted to go on, but they tried to have us go back, so I hauled off and planted one, two in Paddie's grub grinder, and knocked him off the sidewalk about eight feet. The remainder pitched in and Charley got his arm cut open and I got a button hole cut through my left side right below the ribs. The city police came to the noise and arrested three of them on the spot and the other next day and they turned out to be Chicago Star Cleaners, a name given to midnight ruffians. I was not compelled to keep my bed, but it was some two months before I was quite recovered from the effects of the cut.

One day on the levee I was going aboard one of the boats and slipped on the gang plank and sprained my knee, which laid me up for about two weeks. About a week ago my pugnacious friend who gave me his mark escaped from the penitentiary at Stillwater, along with all the rest of the prisoners confined at the time. I am sincerely very grateful to you for your generous offer in your letter and fully appreciate your kindness. But notwithstanding my bad luck I have still "a shot in the locker," about $200, which will put me out of any trouble until spring.

Our winter here has been very mild and open. We have scarcely had any snow, but what was altogether unprecedented, rain storms lasting three or four days in succession. Times have been mighty dull here this winter and money scarce. Write to me as soon as you receive this and give me a bird's eye view of Rockwood and its inhabitants. Believe me

Yours sincerely,

J. J. Hill.

Send me some papers.

Back to contents

CHAPTER VI

PERSONAL BUSINESS LETTERS

One does not have to be in business in order to write "business letters." A thousand personal affairs crop up which require letters of a commercial rather than a social nature. There is only one rule—say what you have to say clearly and quickly. Although the letter should be written on the ordinary social stationery and follow the placing and spacing of the social letter, no time should be wasted in trying to make the letter appear friendly and chatty. The clerks in business houses who usually attend to the mail seem to be picked for their obtuseness, and do not often understand a letter which is phrased in other than commonplace terms. Once I overheard a conversation between an Italian shoemaker and a Boston woman over the repairing of a pair of shoes. The woman wanted the soles fastened on with nails. The only word she knew for that operation was "tapped." The only word the shoemaker knew was "nailed." They were absolutely at a deadlock until the shoemaker, knowing that the woman did not want the soles sewed on, proceeded to demonstrate with hammer and nail just what he meant by "nailed." It is well to remember that motion pictures do not accompany letters and hence to take for granted that if a way exists for getting what you mean wrong that way will be found. It is unfortunately safe to take for granted that a personal business letter is going to be read by a moron.

Ordering goods from a department store

500 Park Avenue,

April 3, 1922.

L. Burton & Company,

Fifth Ave. & 39th St.,

New York

Gentlemen:

Please send me as soon as possible and charge to my account the following goods:

1 doz. hemstitched huck towels, large size, from $12.00 to $15.00 a dozen

2 pairs infants' laced shoes, sizes 4 D and 4-1/2 D. One pair to be returned as I am not certain of the correct size.

3 pairs children's rompers, size 2 years, band knee, 1 all white, 1 white with blue collar, 1 white with pink collar.

Very truly yours,

Katherine G. Evans

(Mrs. John Evans)

To correct an error

500 Park Avenue,

April 3, 1922.

Caldwell Sons Co.,

8941 Fifth Avenue,

New York, N. Y.

Gentlemen:

May I call your attention to my account rendered on April 1st? There would seem to be two errors, as follows:

Under date of March 18th I am charged with four pairs of silk stockings at $3.50 a pair, although I purchased only three pairs.

On March 22nd I am credited with one pair of children's shoes at $5.00. I had two pairs sent on approval, but returned both of them as neither pair fitted.

I enclose my check in the sum of $148.96 which is the total less the overcharge. To assist in the adjustment I also enclose the original slip for the stockings and the driver's call receipt for the two pairs of shoes.[16]

Very truly yours,

Katherine G. Evans.

(Mrs. John Evans)

Letter to department store requesting charge account

1018 South Elm Street,

Chicago, Ill.,

May 3, 1922.

Marshall Field & Co.,

Chicago, Ill.

Gentlemen:

I have recently come to live in Chicago and I should like to open a charge account with you.

My present accounts are all in New York and I can give you the following references:

Very truly yours,

Alberta T. White.

(Mrs. James White)

Asking for estimate for draperies and furnishings

500 Park Avenue,

May 16, 1922.

Forsythe & White,

438 Fifth Avenue,

New York, N. Y.

Gentlemen:

Will you send me an approximate estimate of the cost of materials and labor necessary for the doing of the following work:

Slip covers with valances of English hand-blocked linen for two large wing chairs and one chaise-longue.

Two reversible portières of the linen for doorways 11 feet high and 8 feet wide.

Three pairs curtains for casement windows 6 feet high and 5 feet wide, with pleated valance. These curtains to be of habutai silk.

Of course I shall understand that this is purely an approximate estimate.

I should like to have this as soon as you can conveniently send it.

Very truly yours,

Katherine G. Evans.

(Mrs. John Evans)

Declining to have work done as estimated

500 Park Avenue,

May 23, 1922.

Forsythe & White,

438 Fifth Avenue,

New York, N. Y.

Gentlemen:

Thank you for your letter of 19th May in answer to mine of the 16th, requesting an estimate for slip covers and curtains.

Your estimate calls for more outlay than I should care to make at the present time, so I shall have to postpone the matter until next year.

Very truly yours,

Katherine G. Evans.

(Mrs. John Evans)

Recommendation for a servant

June 14, 1922.

This is to certify that Katrina Hellman has been in my employ as assistant nurse for one year. During that period I have found her honest, capable, and reliable. I can give her an unqualified recommendation.

K. G. Evans.

(Mrs. John Evans)

For information concerning a servant

5300 Deming Place

Chicago, Ill.,

May 9, 1922.

Mrs. John Evans,

500 Park Avenue,

New York.

Dear Madam:

I hope you will pardon me, but I should be very much indebted to you for any facts concerning Gaston Duval, who has been in your employ as chauffeur. If you will give me this information I shall treat it as confidential.

Yours very truly,

Cecelia B. Duke.

(Mrs. Samuel Duke)

Answers to request for information concerning a servant

500 Park Avenue,

New York City,

May 13, 1922.

Mrs. Samuel Duke,

5300 Deming Place,

Chicago, Ill.

Dear Madam:

I have your inquiry of May the ninth concerning my former chauffeur, Gaston Duval.

I am very glad to recommend him. He is sober and honest, and I always found him thoroughly dependable during his fifteen months in my employ. He drives well and is an expert mechanician.

Yours very truly,

K. G. Evans,

(Mrs. John Evans)

500 Park Avenue,

New York, N. Y.,

May 13, 1922.

Mrs. Samuel Duke,

5300 Deming Place,

Chicago, Ill.

Dear Madam:

I have your inquiry of May the ninth concerning my former chauffeur, Gaston Duval.

I hope that you will not think me discourteous but I should much prefer not to discuss him.

Yours very truly,

K. G. Evans.

(Mrs. John Evans)

(In letters which in effect decline to give a recommendation it is wiser not to set out facts or even actually to decline to give the recommendation. See Chapter XI on the Law of Letters. The following letter to a servant, which is an indirect way of declining to recommend, is on the danger line.)

To a servant

Harbor View,

Long Island,

August 29, 1921.

My dear Margaret,

Mrs. Hubert Forbes has written me concerning your qualifications as cook, and asks if I would recommend you in every way. Also I have your request to me for a reference.

With regard to your skill in cooking there can be no question. I can recommend you as having served me for two years and I can vouch for your honesty. But, as you know, you are not to be depended on—for instance, to return promptly after your days off or to do any work at all during your frequent disputes with the butler.

This I have told Mrs. Forbes. I could not conscientiously do otherwise; but I have asked that she try you in the hope that you have decided to remedy these faults.

Very truly yours,

F. B. Scott.

(Mrs. Harrison Scott)

Harbor View, L. I.,

August 29, 1921.

Mrs. Hubert Forbes,

Bayshore, L. I.

My dear Mrs. Forbes:

I have your letter of August twenty-fifth concerning my former cook, Margaret Dickson. She is an extremely good cook. She was with me for two years, and I can vouch for her honesty, but she is not to be depended on—for instance, to return promptly after her days off or to do any work during her frequent quarrels with the butler. But she seems anxious to improve, and if you would care to give her a trial, I think she might be satisfactory in new surroundings.

I hope this reply will answer your questions.

Very truly yours,

Flora B. Scott.

Letter to a former servant

Dear Delia,

If you will not be too busy next week, will you come out and take care of the children for three or four days? Mr. Stone and I expect to be away. I am sure your husband can spare you. You will be surprised at the way Jack is growing. He often speaks of you.

Let me know immediately.

Cordially yours,

B. L. Stone.

(Note the signature—the use of initials instead of writing the full name.)

Inquiry concerning house for rental

48 Cottage Road,

Somerville, Mass.,

April 8, 1921.

Schuyler Realty Company,

49 Fulton Street,

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Gentlemen:

Will you be good enough to send me the following information concerning the house at 28 Bedford Park which you have advertised for rental:

Location of the house with regard to subway and L station, and the nearest public school. General character of the immediate neighborhood.

Distance to the nearest Methodist Episcopal Church.

Condition and kind of plumbing in each of the three bathrooms.

Make of furnace and the amount of coal necessary to heat the house.

Is the house completely screened? Are there awnings?

The floors—of what wood and in what condition are they?

Is the cellar dry?

Where is the laundry?

When can the house be ready for occupancy?

I should like to have the facts as soon as you can furnish them.

Very truly yours,

George M. Hall.

Inquiry concerning house for purchase

345 Amsterdam Avenue,

Philadelphia, Pa.,

May 10, 1921.

Wheaton Manor Development Co.,

Dobbs Ferry, New York.

Gentlemen:

Will you let me know without delay, if possible, if you have any property in your immediate neighborhood fulfilling the following requirements:

House—Twelve rooms, four bathrooms, and sun porch. A modern house of stucco and half-timber construction preferred.

Ground—about five acres, part woodland, part cleared; lawn, vegetable, and flower garden.

Distance from railroad station—not more than fifteen minutes' ride.

I do not want to pay more than $25,000.

I shall be here until the twentieth of the month. After that a reply will reach me at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York.

Very truly yours,

Jerome Hutchinson.

Inquiry concerning a child at school:

1842 Riverside Drive,

New York, N. Y.,

February 10, 1922.

My dear Professor Ritchie,

My son John's report for the term just closed is far from satisfactory. While I do not expect perfection from him, I think—in fact, I know—he is capable of better work than is shown by his present rating.

I observe that he did not pass in mathematics, a subject in which he was always first in the elementary school. My first thought was that possibly he was not physically well, but his activity in athletics would seem to refute this. This leads me to another thought—perhaps he is giving too much time and interest to athletics. What is your opinion and what course would you recommend?

Would it be possible by coaching to have him make up the required averages?

As I am leaving New York in two weeks for an extended trip, I would like to take some steps toward improving his scholarship status. Will you let me hear from you as soon as possible?

Very truly yours,

John Crandall.

Letter ordering Easter gifts from a magazine shopping service

Quogue, Long Island,

March 27, 1922.

Standard Shopping Service,

100 West 38th Street,

New York, N. Y.

Gentlemen:

I enclose my check for $25.00 for which please send by express the following articles to

Two sterling silver candlesticks in Colonial pattern at $12.50 each, on Page 178, March issue.

Or if you cannot secure them, will you purchase as second choice

Two jars in Kashan ware, with blue as the predominating color?

Very truly yours,

Laura Waite.

(Mrs. Herbert Waite)

Back to contents

CHAPTER VII

THE BUSINESS LETTER

A reporter was sent out on a big story—one of the biggest that had broken in many a day. He came back into the office about eight o'clock all afire with his story. He was going to make a reputation on the writing of it. He wanted to start off with a smashing first paragraph—the kind of lead that could not help being read. He knew just what he was going to say; the first half-dozen lines fairly wrote themselves on the typewriter. Then he read them over. They did not seem quite so clever and compelling as he had thought. He pulled the sheet out and started another. By half-past ten he was in the midst of a sea of copy paper—but he had not yet attained a first paragraph.

The City Editor—one of the famous old Sun school—grew anxious. The paper could not wait until inspiration had matured. He walked quietly over to the young man and touching him on the shoulder he said:

"Just one little word after another, son."

And that is a good thought to carry into the composition of a business or any other kind of letter. The letter is written to convey some sort of idea. It will not perfectly convey the idea. Words have their limitations. It will not invariably produce upon the reader the effect that the writer desires. You may have heard of "irresistible" letters—sales letters that would sell electric fans to Esquimaux or ice skates to Hawaiians, collection letters that make the thickest skinned debtor remit by return mail, and other kinds of resultful, masterful letters that pierce to the very soul. There may be such letters. I doubt it. And certainly it is not worth while trying to concoct them. They are the outpourings of genius. The average letter writer, trying to be a genius, deludes only himself—he just becomes queer, he takes to unusual words, constructions, and arrangements. He puts style before thought—he thinks that the way he writes is more important than what he writes. The writer of the business letter does well to avoid "cleverness"—to avoid it as a frightful and devastating disease.

The purpose of a business letter is to convey a thought that will lead to some kind of action—immediately or remotely. Therefore there are only two rules of importance in the composition of the business letter.

The first is: Know what you want to say.

The second is: Say it.

And the saying is not a complicated affair—it is a matter of "one little word after another."

Business letters may be divided into two general classes:

(1) Where it is assumed that the recipient will want to read the letter,

(2) Where it is assumed that the recipient will not want to read the letter.

The first class comprises the ordinary run of business correspondence. If I write to John Smith asking him for the price of a certain kind of chair, Smith can assume in his reply that I really want that information and hence he will give it to me courteously and concisely with whatever comment on the side may seem necessary, as, for instance, the fact that this particular type of chair is not one that Smith would care to recommend and that Style X, costing $12.00, would be better.

The ordinary business letter is either too wordy or too curt; it either loses the subject in a mass of words or loses the reader by offensive abruptness. Some letters gush upon the most ordinary of subjects; they are interspersed with friendly ejaculations such as "Now, my dear Mr. Jones," and give the impression that if one ever got face to face with the writer he would effervesce all over one's necktie. Many a man takes a page to say what ought to be said in four lines. On the other hand, there are letter writers so uncouth in the handling of words that they seem rude when really they only want to be brief. The only cure for a writer of this sort is for him to spend some months with any good English composition book trying to learn the language.

The second class of letters—those in which it is presumed that the recipient will not want to read—comprises all the circular letters. These are selling or announcement letters and it is hoped that they will play the part of a personal representative. The great bulk of these letters are sales letters. Their characteristic is that the writer and the reader are unknown to each other. It is not quite accurate to say that the reader will never want to read the letters—no one knows how many of the millions of circular letters sent out are read. A farmer will read practically every letter that comes to him; many business men will throw every circular letter into the waste basket unread. It is well to assume in this kind of letter, however, that the recipient does not want to read it but that he will open and glance at it. It is up to you to make such a good letter that the first glance will cause him to read more.

There is no way of catching the man who throws letters away unopened; any attempt to have the envelope tell what the letter should tell is apt to be unfortunate, because it will have no effect upon the inveterate tosser away and may deter even some of those who commonly do open circular mail. The best method is to make the letter look so much like a routine business letter that no one will dare to throw it away without investigation.

The cost of a sales letter is not to be reckoned otherwise than by results. The merit of a sales letter is to be judged solely by the results. Therefore it is not a question of what kind of letter one thinks ought to produce results. The single question is what kind of letter does produce results.

There is only one way to ascertain results, and that is by test. No considerable expenditure in direct mail solicitation and no form letter should be extensively used without an elaborate series of tests. Otherwise the money may be thrown away. The extent of the tests will depend upon the contemplated expenditure. Every concern that sends out many sales letters keeps a careful record of results. These records show the letter itself, the kind of envelope, the typing, the signature, and the kind of list to which it has been sent. Thus a considerable fund of information is obtained for future use. This information, however, has to be very carefully handled because it may easily become misinformation, for we cannot forget the appeal of the product itself. No one as yet has ever been able to gauge in advance the appeal of a product.

Some apparently very bad letters have sold very good products. Some apparently very good letters have quite failed to sell what turned out to be bad products. Therefore, the information that is obtained in the circularizing and sale of one product has to be taken warily when applied to another product. It should be taken only for what it is worth, and that is as a general guide.