LETTER ENDINGS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1523, 19 March 1886, Page 3

LETTER ENDINGS.

There is a good deal of philosophy in small things, for thoee who carp to look for it; and I have often thought what an interesting chapter might be written on letter endings if anybody would take the trouble to collect, classify, and compare them with the character of the inditers. Between the " hoping this finds you well as it loaves me at present" of the kitchen, and the state* ly, di*taol, aud untruthful "I am, sir, your mo<t obedient servant *' of officialdom, what a wealth of variety is to be found ! There are the lovey-dovey epistles of the foolish state with their altnoßt infinite variety of extravagant endearments. There are the cautiously.worded (and deeply pondered) subscript ions where the understanding between the pair is but tentative and uncertain. There are the curt, cutting, and unfamiliar terms which mark the .bitter quarrel. Then with different people what a different significance the.same wordu seem to have ! I have seen letters between warm friends with the formal "yours truly/' and others between total st angers with the gushing " yours affectionately "at the end. And the words themselves are put to quc<f uses What does such a phrase as " your tincefe friend " mean, when to be a friend implies sincerity first of all and above all thine* ? As for the falc* ity and hypocrisy of letter en 1 in?s, the less said about it the better. The fact would appear to he that moat people into the habit of putting one or other of the conventional phrases to «heir letters, and never give the matter a serious thoucht If some of us had occasion to write to the Kvil 0n« himself we would likely enough subscribe ourselves "yours very truly"—by sheer force of habit, of course. Well, it is not a point of very gr< at importance, but why should we mak« ourpe'ves more of automatons than wo are of necessity ?