The superscription may be arranged in three or four lines, each line beginning a little to the right of the preceding line.  The name should be written about midway between the upper and lower edges of the envelope, and there should be nearly an equal amount of space left at each side.  If there is any difference, there should be less space at the right than at the left.  The street and number may be written below the name, and the city or town and state below.  The street and number may be properly written in the lower left-hand corner.  This is also the place for any special direction that may be necessary for the speedy transmission of the letter; for example, “In care of Mr. Charles R. Brown.”

Women should be addressed as Miss or Mrs. In case the woman is married, her husband’s first name and middle initial are commonly used, unless it is known that she prefers to have her own first name used.  Men should be addressed as Mr., and a firm may in many cases be addressed as Messrs. It is considered proper to use the titles Dr., Rev., etc., in directing an envelope to a man bearing such a title, but it would be entirely out of place to address the wife of a physician or clergyman as Mrs. Dr. or Mrs. Rev.

The names of states may be abbreviated, but care should be taken that these abbreviations be plainly written, especially when there are other similar abbreviations.  In compound names, as North Dakota and West Virginia, do not abbreviate one part of the compound and write out the other.  Either abbreviate both or write out both.  If any punctuation besides the period after abbreviations is used, it consists of a comma after each line.  It is the custom now to omit such punctuation.  Either form is in good taste, but whichever form is adopted, it should be employed throughout the entire superscription.  The comma should not be used in one line and omitted in another.

Notice the following forms of correct superscriptions:—­

(1)
______________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
|             Mr. Milo R. Maltbie
|                   85 West 118th St.
|                             New York.
|______________________________________________________
>
(2)
______________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
|             Mr. John D. Clark
|                          New York
|                             N.Y.
|
|  Teachers College
|    Columbia University.
|______________________________________________________
>
(3)
______________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
|            Mrs. Edgar N. Foster
|                      South Haven
|                              Mich.
|
| Avery Beach Hotel.
| ______________________________________________________
e>
(4)
______________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
|            Miss Louise M. Baker
|                        Nottingham