Twentieth Century Culture and Deportment / Or the Lady and Gentleman at Home and Abroad; Containing Rules of Etiquette for All Occasions, Including Calls; Invitations; Parties; Weddings; Receptions; Dinners and Teas; Etiquette of the Street; Public Places, Etc., Etc. Forming a Complete Guide to Self-Culture; the Art of Dressing Well; Conversation; Courtship; Etiquette for Children; Letter-Writing; Artistic Home and Interior Decorations, Etc.

by Maud C. Cooke

Proposals, Engagements, “Naming the Day,”

And other letters of this description are important affairs that may all be transacted through the medium of correspondence, but it is to be hoped that a matter so closely personal will quicken the imagination and inspire the pen of the dullest swain.

Let him woo his Dulcinea swiftly and tempestuously, as King Hal wooed Kate, or let him serve twice seven years as Jacob served for Rachel, but let him never search out printed forms whereby to declare his passion: nor fit the measure of his love to the lines of the “Model Letter-Writer.” As to “naming the day,” ’twere a wordless lover indeed who could not say, as the poet says:

“Sun comes, moon comes,

Time slips away.

Sun sets, moon sets,

Love, fix a day.”

The note has become a factor in modern social life. We send a note when we send a gift, when we ask a favor, when we acknowledge a favor, when we offer an apology, when we postpone an engagement, and when we give, accept, or refuse an informal invitation. These forms will be given here for reference, excepting those pertaining to invitations, which are discussed in their place.