Few persons, except professional writers, have the least idea of the value of words and the effect that they produce, and the thoughtless letters of emotional women and underbred men add sensation to news items in the press almost daily.

Of course the best advice to a young girl who is impelled to write letters to men, can be put in one word, don’t!

However, if you are a young girl or woman, and are determined to write letters to an especial—­or any other—­man, no matter how innocent your intention may be, there are some things you must remember—­remember so intensely that no situation in life, no circumstances, no temptation, can ever make you forget.  They are a few set rules, not of etiquette, but of the laws of self-respect: 

Never send a letter without reading it over and making sure that you have said nothing that can possibly “sound different” from what you intend to say.

Never so long as you live, write a letter to a man—­no matter who he is—­that you would be ashamed to see in a newspaper above your signature.

Remember that every word of writing is immutable evidence for or against you, and words which are thoughtlessly put on paper may exist a hundred years hence.

Never write anything that can be construed as sentimental.

Never take a man to task about anything; never ask for explanations; to do so implies too great an intimacy.

Never put a single clinging tentacle into writing.  Say nothing ever, that can be construed as demanding, asking, or even being eager for, his attentions!

Always keep in mind and never for one instant forget that a third person, and that the very one you would most object to, may find and read the letter.

One word more:  It is not alone “bad form” but laying yourself open to every sort of embarrassment and danger, to “correspond with” a man you slightly know.

=PROPER LETTERS OF LOVE OR AFFECTION=

If you are engaged, of course you should write love letters—­the most beautiful that you can—­but don’t write baby-talk and other sillinesses that would make you feel idiotic if the letter were to fall into strange hands.

On the other hand, few can find objection to the natural, friendly and even affectionate letter from a young girl to a young man she has been “brought up” with.  It is such a letter as she would write to her brother.  There is no hint of coquetry or self-consciousness, no word from first to last that might not be shouted aloud before her whole family.  Her letter may begin “Dear” or even “Dearest Jack.”  Then follows all the “home news” she can think of that might possibly interest him; about the Simpsons’ dance, Tom and Pauline’s engagement, how many trout Bill Henderson got at Duck Brook, how furious Mrs. Davis was because some distinguished visitor accepted Mrs. Brown’s dinner instead of hers, how the new people who have moved onto the Rush farm don’t know the first thing about farming, and so on.