LOVE-LETTERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2716, 22 January 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

LOVE-LETTERS.

ARE THEY GETTING OUT OF FASHION ?

One of the English, ladies’ journals lias been complaining that people nowadays do not write good love letters. In the course of a tender and interesting chse in court, the other day, a love-let-ter was produced. It began: “My Dearest David, —“I am terribly depressed about money matters. You owe me £l7, as far as I can- tell.” If this is the language of passion, then formal civility seems preferable. \ve are'convinced that the' mixture of the two styles in this excerpt is a mistake. Love and f business should be kept in two separate compartments. There is no chance for the Romeo who writes: “Star of my soul, the enclosed account being long p overdue, I must request you to forward dieejue by return without fail.” f • VARIED EXPRESSIONS, p But we are not sure that we can follow the suggestion that the writing, -of love-letters should be taught. Who IK; is to teach it, and to whom ? To teach those of your own'sex would be dull, and i to teach attractive people of the other j ; sex would be dangerous. Parler d’amour i e’est faire l’amour, as Blazac observes. What qualification would the teacher ) require? Varied experience is a fine j thing in a teacher, but a varied exi perience in the composition of love-let-|v ters would be open to criticism. Lastly, ifiS' the literary love-letter is an abomin|v ation. Here, if anywhere, wo must have ly the human document. “I never eat boiled beef but what I think of you,” Ip,,wrote an uneducated man, in a letter g that was read in court a long time ago. It is. amusing, perhaps, but it is more % convincing than if he had said: “The chance repetition of . some trivial deV. tail of. a scene in which we have been i associated unfailingly recalls yofu to my £;;:.mind.” It convinced the girl, at any Lj rate. And, so far as we remember, she pygot her damages. So that it convinced piv the jury, who might have been boiledK beef cn thusiasts.