Page:When You Write a Letter (1922).pdf/75

 A married woman in signing her name to a letter addressed to any one excepting her most intimate friends should indicate the fact that she is married. She should sign her own name, as "Elizabeth B. Jones," followed by her husband's name (Mrs. John L.) in parentheses.

Any woman, married or single, should in some way indicate the fact of her sex, when writing to strangers, either by signing her name in full or giving at least one full given name, as "Edith L. White" or "Mary Jane Gray," and by prefixing "Miss" or "Mrs," in parentheses. It is usually confusing and often leads to embarrassing situations for a woman to sign merely her initials, as "M. L. Brown," in her business correspondence, or in correspondence with strangers. Women are not yet so regularly and familiarly addressed in business nor does their correspondence so unerringly show the feminine touch as to reveal their sex in correspondence without a little mechanical help.

What came very nearly being for me an epistolary tragedy not long ago arose from the fact that I had received a business