Page:A Desk Book on the Etiquette of Social Stationary.djvu/44

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SOCIAL STATIONERY

remembrance. One offers the best of good wishes to a bride, but never congratulations—these are for the bridegroom only. A letter of congratulation to the bridegroom, if an intimate friend, is a pleasing attention. Such a letter includes well wishes for the bride.

Congratulatory telegrams are addressed to the newly wedded pair on the day of the wedding, and should be received as soon after the ceremony as possible.

Letters of CondolenceLetters of condolence are by far the most difficult form of written etiquette. One shrinks from touching another's grief, and yet there is no other way of sympathetic expression. Even between closest friends the presence of death seems to draw a wordless veil and leaves one dumb and inarticulate, but this would not exist if we could realize how much the sorrowing one needs and wants our sympathy. A word coming at such a time, if but from the merest acquaintance, brings an unquestionable relief and help, for it bears the comforting touch of a human hand.

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