AMERICANS are, in general, an articulate and garrulous
people. They like to talk; the legend of the tight-lipped
New Englander is overstrained. They also like to write let-
ters, as witness the millions of letters the people send to movie
and radio stars, and the thousands that daily go to newspapers
and magazines. Americans, moreover, delight in reading let-
ters written by others -- a form of pleasure capitalized, for
example, by Time magazine, which weekly prints as a fea-
ture some of the letters it receives from readers.

It is consequently understandable, therefore, that Sears
should annually receive millions of letters, because it counts
its customers by millions of families. All letters received are
answered, whatever their contents. The majority are about
business and are to the point. But what of many of the
others?

The manifold reasons why men and women write letters
to movie, radio, literary, stage, and other personalities would
lead to an extended inquiry beyond the scope of this book.
The reasons why many letters are written to Sears are clear.
One is the loneliness of the writers. In this country, there are
hundreds of thousands of wifeless, husbandless, childless, un-
loved men and women. They often live in the isolation of re-
mote villages or farms, or in the greater isolation of cities.
They write to Sears frequently because they want to assuage
their loneliness; because they want to say something to some-
body, and, in turn, experience the excitement of getting a
letter, even though it is written by an anonymous corporation.
It is not an uncommon thing, as rural postmasters will testify,

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