Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/180

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166
Small capitals wasteful of space

quite as intelligible, if it were set in a hanging indention after this form:

The Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, Amsterdam Avenue, near 136th Street. Office, 22 Bible House. New York, December 6, 1900.
To the Superintendent of the
Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls.

Dear Madam:

SMALL CAPITALS NEEDLESSLY PREFERRED

Capitals and small capitals continue to be employed for addresses, date-lines, and signatures, but there is an increasing tendency toward the curtailment of display in ordinary matter that does not require distinction for any part. Readers of daily newspapers are now reconciled to the exclusion of italic and small capitals, and it is possible that readers of books will be equally content with plain roman lower-case characters in all places where display is not of real service.

When there are many words in the heading and address of an official letter no attempt should be made to crowd the words in one line or to spread them over many lines, or to arrange them in any arbitrary form for which the types of the text are plainly unfitted. For solid composition the hanging and diagonal indentions of the preceding example will be preferred by all publishers who wish to confine the printed matter within a prescribed