How to Write Letters (Formerly The Book of Letters) by Mary Owens Crowther (free novel 24 .txt) 📖

beginning of a long, happy, and prosperous life for you both.

On the birth of a child

Love to the dear mother and her little son (daughter).

Heartiest congratulations and love to mother and son (daughter).

We rejoice with you in the happiness that has come into your lives. Love to mother and son (daughter).

My best wishes to the newly arrived son (daughter) and to his (her) mother.

We are all (I am) delighted to hear the news. Hearty congratulations.

A warm welcome to the new arrival and best wishes for his (her) health and happiness.

To the dear mother and her little son (daughter) love and every good wish.

Hearty congratulations on the arrival of the new son (daughter).

Messages of condolence

You have my heartfelt sympathy in this hour of your bereavement. I wish I might find words in which to express my sorrow at your loss which is also mine. May you have the strength to bear this great affliction.

You have my (our) heartfelt sympathy.

My (Our) heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow.

I (We) want you to know with what tender sympathy I am (We are) thinking of you in these days of your bereavement.

My (Our) sincere and heartfelt sympathy.

I (We) have just heard of your great affliction. Let me (us) send to you my (our) heartfelt sympathy.

My (Our) sincere sympathy.

In the death of your dear father (mother—wife—sister—brother) I (we) have lost one whom it was my (our) privilege to call my (our) friend. My (our) heartfelt sympathy goes out to you in your sorrow.

—— joins me in the expression of our deepest sympathy.

My (Our) love and sympathy go out to you in your great sorrow.

I (We) share your sorrow for I (we) have lost a dear friend. All love and sympathy to you and yours.

I (We) send you my (our) heartfelt sympathy. To have enjoyed the friendship of your father (husband—brother) I (we) hold one of the greatest privileges of my life (our lives).

My (Our) sincere sympathy goes out to you in your heavy affliction.

My (Our) love and sympathy in your sudden affliction.

I am (We are) greatly shocked at the sad news. You have my (our) deepest sympathy.

My (Our) deepest sympathy in your great loss. If there is anything I (we) can do, do not hesitate to let me (us) know.

Congratulation to a school or college graduate

May your future be as successful as have been your school (college) days. Heartiest congratulations upon your graduation.

I am (We are) proud of your success. May the future grant you opportunity and the fulfillment of your hopes.

I (We) hear that you have taken class honors. Sincerest congratulations and best wishes.

May your Class Day be favored with sunny skies and your life be full of happiness and success.

Sincerest congratulations upon your graduation.

Congratulations upon your school (college) success, so happily terminated to-day.

I (We) regret that I (we) cannot be with you to-day to see you take your new honors. Sincerest congratulations.

Congratulation to a public man

Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.

We have just heard of your success. Sincere congratulations and best wishes for the future.

Heartiest congratulations on your nomination (election).

Your nomination (election) testifies to the esteem in which you are held by your fellow citizens. Heartiest congratulations.

Congratulations on your victory, a hard fight, well won by the best man.

Your splendid majority must be a great satisfaction to you. Sincerest congratulations on your election.

Congratulations upon your nomination. You will have the support of the best element in the community and your election should be a foregone conclusion. I wish you every success.

You fought a good fight in a good cause. Heartiest congratulations on your splendid success.

Nothing in your career should fill you with greater satisfaction than your successful election. I congratulate you with all my heart.

No man deserves success more than you. You have worked hard for your constituents and they appreciate it. Heartiest congratulations.

Your nomination (election) is received with the greatest enthusiasm by your friends here and by none more than myself. Heartiest congratulations.

I congratulate you upon your new honors won by distinguished services to your fellow citizens.

Your campaign was vigorous and fine. Your victory testifies to the people's confidence in you and your cause. Warmest congratulations.

Congratulations upon your well-won victory and best wishes for your future success.

You deserve your splendid success. Sincerest congratulations.

I cannot refrain from expressing my personal appreciation of your eloquent address. Warmest congratulations.

Your address last night was splendid. What a gift you have. Sincerest congratulations.

Heartiest congratulations on your splendid speech of last night. Everybody is praising it.

Back to contents

CHAPTER XI THE LAW OF LETTERS—CONTRACT LETTERS

There are forty-eight states in this Union, and each of them has its own laws and courts. In addition we have the Federal Government with its own laws and courts. In one class of cases, the Federal courts follow the state laws which govern the particular occasion; in another class of cases, notably in those involving the interpretation or application of the United States statutes, the Federal courts follow Federal law. There is not even a degree of uniformity governing the state laws, and especially is this true in criminal actions, for crimes are purely statutory creations.

Therefore it is extremely misleading to give any but the vaguest and most elementary suggestions on the law which governs letters. To be clear and specific means inevitably to be misleading. I was talking with a lawyer friend not long since about general text-books on law which might be useful to the layman. He was rather a commercially minded person and he spoke fervently:

"If I wanted to build up a practice and I did not care how I did it, I should select one hundred well-to-do people and see that each of them got a copy of a compendium of business law. Then I should sit back and wait for them to come in—and come in they would, for every mother's son of them would decide that he had a knowledge of the law and cheerfully go ahead getting himself into trouble."

Sharpen up a man's knowledge of the law and he is sure to cut himself. For the law is rarely absolute. Most questions are of mixed fact and law. Were it otherwise, there would be no occasion for juries, for, roughly, juries decide facts. The court decides the application of the law. The layman tends to think that laws are rules, when more often they are only guides. The cheapest and best way to decide points of law is to refer them to counsel for decision. Unless a layman will take the time and the trouble most exhaustively to read works of law and gain something in the nature of a working legal knowledge, he had best take for granted that he knows nothing whatsoever of law and refer all legal matters to counsel.

There are, however, a few principles of general application that may serve, not in the stead of legal knowledge, but to acquaint one with the fact that a legal question may be involved, for legal questions by no means always formally present themselves in barristers' gowns. They spring up casually and unexpectedly.

Take the whole question of contract. A contract is not of necessity a formal instrument. A contract is a meeting of minds. If I say to a man: "Will you cut my lawn for ten dollars?" and he answers, "Yes," as valid a contract is established as though we had gone to a scrivener and had covered a folio of parchment with "Whereases" and "Know all men by these presents" and "Be it therefore" and had wound up with red seals and ribbons. But of course many legal questions could spring out of this oral agreement. We might dispute as to what was meant by cutting the lawn. And then, again, the time element would enter. Was the agreement that the lawn should be cut the next day, or the next month, or the next year? Contracts do not have to be in writing. All that the writing does is to make the proof of the exact contract easier.

If we have the entirety of a contract within the four corners of a sheet of paper, then we need no further evidence as to the existence of the contract, although we may be in just as hopeless a mess trying to define what the words of the contract mean. If we have not a written contract, we have the bother of introducing oral evidence to show that there was a contract. Most contracts nowadays are formed by the interchange of letters, and the general point to remember is that the acceptance must be in terms of the offer. If X writes saying: "I will sell you twenty tons of coal at fifteen dollars a ton," and Y replies: "I will take thirty tons of coal at thirteen dollars a ton," there is no contract, but merely a series of offers. If, however, X ships the thirty tons of coal, he can hold Y only at thirteen dollars a ton for he has abandoned his original offer and accepted Y's offer. It can be taken as a general principle that if an offer be not accepted in its terms and a new condition be introduced, then the acceptance really becomes an offer, and if the one who made the original offer goes ahead, it can be assumed that he has agreed to the modifications of the unresponsive acceptance. If X writes to Y making an offer, one of the conditions of which is that it must be accepted within ten days, and Y accepts in fifteen days, then X can, if he likes, disregard the acceptance, but he can waive his ten-day time limit and take Y's acceptance as a really binding agreement.

Another point, sometimes of considerable importance, concerns the time when a letter takes effect, and this is governed by the question of fact as to whom the Post Office Department is acting for. If, in making an offer, I ask for a reply by mail or simply for a reply, I constitute the mail as my agent, and the acceptor of that offer will be presumed to have communicated with me at the moment when he consigns his letter to the mails. He must give the letter into proper custody—that is, it must go into the regular and authorized channels for the reception of mail. That done, it makes no difference whether or not the letter ever reaches the offerer. It has been delivered to his agent, and delivery to an agent is delivery to the principal. Therefore, it is wise to specify in an offer that the acceptance has to be actually received.

The law with respect to the agency of the mails varies and turns principally upon questions of fact.

Letters may, of course, be libelous. The law of libel varies widely among the several states, and there are also Federal laws as well as Postal Regulations covering matters which are akin to libel. The answer to libel is truth, but not always, for sometimes the truth may be spread with so malicious an intent as to support an action. It is not well to put into a letter any derogatory or subversive statement that cannot be fully proved. This becomes of particular importance in answering inquiries concerning character or credit, but in practically every case libel is a question of fact.

Another point that arises concerns the property in a letter. Does he who receives a letter acquire full property in it? May he publish it without permission? In general he does not acquire full