Page:When You Write a Letter (1922).pdf/79

 angles to the lines on pages one and four. This would bring the signature and the end of the letter on the side of page three as the folded sheet lies before you. There is no particular sense or reason in this method of procedure; it is a good deal like always having the bow on the left side of one's hat, or a mourning band on one's left sleeve, but it is nevertheless a custom from which it is not wise to deviate.

One should always be careful with his signature. I say this with the more feeling knowing that my own must be a great trial to many people to whom I write and who have never before heard of me. Perhaps the military method of signing the letter over the typewritten name might be a good system to employ in all business letters. It is, in fact, being employed very much more generally in recent years than it was before the war, and it is a practice which may well be encouraged. In social letters, however, written in longhand, there is no such opportunity and here special care should be observed. Even in letters between friends it is not a bad practice to sign one's full name and to do it carefully. At Christmas time I spend