To break the seal of a letter directed to another person is punishable by law. To read secretly the letter of another is morally as felonious. A woman who would act thus meanly is worse than those who apply their eyes or ears to key-holes or door cracks, or who listen under windows, or who, in a dusky parlor, before the lamps are lighted, ensconce them- selves in a corner, and give no note of their presence while listening to a conversation not intended for them to hear. We do not conceive that, unless he authorizes her to do so 44 ETIQUETTE. (which he had best not), a wife has a right to open her hus- band's letters, or he to read hers. Neither wife nor husband has any right to entrust to the other the secrets of their friends; and letters may contain such secrets. Unless under extraor- dinary circumstances, parents should not consider themselves privileged to inspect the correspondence of grown-up chil- dren. Brothers and sisters always take care that their epistles shall not be unceremoniously opened by each other. In short, a letter is the property of the person to whom it is addressed, and nobody has a right to read it without permission. If you are shown an autograph signature at the bottom of a letter, be satisfied to look at that only, and do not open out and read the whole, unless desired. The letters of a regular correspondent should be endorsed and filed as regularly by young ladies as by merchants; this facilitates your reference to any one of them, prevents their being lost or mislaid, or exposed to curious eyes, saves your table from being strewn, and your letter-case from being crowded with them. The letters of past years should either be destroyed or care- fully locked up, with directions on the box that in case of your death they are to be returned unread to the writers, or if that cannot be done, that they should be burnt unread. This dis- posal of letters after death is often the only important part of a young girl's last wishes, and yet it is rarely provided for. It is best to be always so prepared by making the necessary arrangements whilst in health. The letters of very young persons rarely have any interest beyond the period in which they are written; they are very seldom read after they are a year old; and the idea of keeping them for future perusal is altogether chimerical. Life is too much crowded with novel interests to allow time for reading over quires of paper filled with the chat of young girls, how- ever good it may have been in its day; and, therefore, the wisest plan is to agree with your correspondent to make each a bonfire of the other's letters when they shall be more than a year old. A year's letters are enough for a memorial of your friend, if she be taken from you; and by keeping the latest you will have her most mature compositions^ ETIQUETTE. 45 Notes of invitation should always designate both the day of the week and that of the month. If that of the month only is specified, one figure may, perhaps, be mistaken for another; for instance, the 13th may look like the i8th, or the 25th like the 26th. We know instances where, from this cause, some of the guests did not come till the day after the party.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

To break the seal of a letter directed to another person is punishable by law. To read secretly the letter of another is morally as felonious. A woman who would act thus meanly is worse than those who apply their eyes or ears to key-holes or door cracks, or who listen under windows, or who, in a dusky parlor, before the lamps are lighted, ensconce themselves in a corner, and give no note of their presence while listening to a conversation not intended for them to hear. We do not conceive that, unless he authorizes her to do so (which he had best not), a wife has a right to open her husband's letters, or he to read hers. Neither wife nor husband has any right to entrust to the other the secrets of their friends; and letters may contain such secrets. Unless under extraordinary circumstances, parents should not consider themselves privileged to inspect the correspondence of grown-up children. Brothers and sisters always take care that their epistles shall not be unceremoniously opened by each other. In short, a letter is the property of the person to whom it is addressed, and nobody has a right to read it without permission. If you are shown an autograph signature at the bottom of a letter, be satisfied to look at that only, and do not open out and read the whole, unless desired. The letters of a regular correspondent should be endorsed and filed as regularly by young ladies as by merchants; this facilitates your reference to any one of them, prevents their being lost or mislaid, or exposed to curious eyes, saves your table from being strewn, and your letter-case from being crowded with them. The letters of past years should either be destroyed or carefully locked up, with directions on the box that in case of your death they are to be returned unread to the writers, or if that cannot be done, that they should be burnt unread. This disposal of letters after death is often the only important part of a young girl's last wishes, and yet it is rarely provided for. It is best to be always so prepared by making the necessary arrangements whilst in health. The letters of very young persons rarely have any interest beyond the period in which they are written; they are very seldom read after they are a year old; and the idea of keeping them for future perusal is altogether chimerical. Life is too much crowded with novel interests to allow time for reading over quires of paper filled with the chat of young girls, however good it may have been in its day; and, therefore, the wisest plan is to agree with your correspondent to make each a bonfire of the other's letters when they shall be more than a year old. A year's letters are enough for a memorial of your friend, if she be taken from you; and by keeping the latest you will have her most mature compositions. Notes of invitation should always designate both the day of the week and that of the month. If that of the month only is specified, one figure may, perhaps, be mistaken for another; for instance, the 13th may look like the i8th, or the 25th like the 26th. We know instances where, from this cause, some of the guests did not come till the day after the party.

The housekeeper's companion