262 SELLING LATIN AMERICA 
are, unless he knows you exceedingly well, that 
he will construe your letters as brusque and far 
from courteous. His letters will be filled with 
the sentimental phrases of past ages. This is 
his idea of politeness and should be your guide 
in addressing him. You cannot be too verbose 
in your communications. He comes from a 
race noted for its grandiloquent declamations 
and this typical characteristic, this desire to 
figuratively gild refined gold, add a perfume 
to the violet and a whiteness to the lily, means 
much to him. It is one of his ways of estimat 
ing your educational worth and of calibrating 
your standing as a gentleman. I know of no 
better exemplification of this than a compari 
son between the flowery way Latin American 
letters are terminated and our own. It is 
more personal, more deferential and more im 
pressive to sign yourself, “Your attentive and 
secure servant who kisses your hand,” than 
briefly and harshly, “Yours very truly,” yet 
the former method is the one in which prac 
tically all letters close coming from these 
sunny lands.