He did so, and found a polite refusal of his suit.
The secret of letter writing consists in writing as you would speak. Thus, if you speak well, you will write well; if you speak ill, you will also write ill.
Endeavor always to write as correctly and properly as possible. If you have reason to doubt your own spelling, carefully read and correct every letter before you fold it. An ill-formed letter is, however, better let alone. You will not improve it by trying to reform it, and the effort will be plainly visible.
Let your style be simple, concise, and clear, entirely void of pretension, without any phrases written merely for effect, without useless flowery language, respectful towards superiors, women, and older persons, and it will be well.
Abbreviations are only permitted in business letters, and in friendly correspondence must never be used.
Figures are never to be used excepting when putting a date or a sum of money. In a business letter the money is generally specified both in figures and words, thus; $500 Five hundred dollars.
You may put the name, date, and address of a letter either at the top of the page or at the end. I give a specimen of each style to show my meaning.
Philadelphia, June 25th, 1855.
Mr. James Smith,
Dear Sir,