It is narrated of a well-known English lady (who is noted on the
other side of the Atlantic for the sharpness of her wit) that on
one occasion, when a vainglorious American was boasting of his
country’s prowess in digging the Panama Canal, she calmly waited
until he had finished and then replied, with an indescribable
smile, “Ah—but you Americans do not know how to write letters.”
Needless to say the discomfited young man took himself off at the
earliest opportunity.
There is much truth, alas, in the English lady’s clever retort,
for the automatic typewriter, the telegraph, and the penny postal
card have done much to cause a gradual decline in the gentle art
of correspondence. As one American woman recently remarked to a
visitor (with more wit, however, than good taste), “Yes, we do
have correspondents here—but they are all in the divorce courts.”