Old Style contractions should follow the original even if special sorts have to be obtained for the purpose.
Abbreviations like dept, dep't, gov't, sec, sec'y, sect'y, pres't, and treas. are indefensible. Even in letter heads and the like it is better to spell out the words in two lines.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
Correct Composition. By Theodore Low De Vinne. Oswald Publishing Co., New York.
The Writer's Desk Book. By William Dana Orcutt.
The list of abbreviations and signs in many of the principal dictionaries may be studied with profit.
Scientific text-books may be profitably used to study the abbreviations and signs used in mathematics and the sciences.
QUESTIONS
1. How and why were abbreviations used before typography?