Futility Closet posts a purported rejection letter written to an aspiring author in the 19th century. That's politeness!

Wow. That is quite the rejection. I can say, from first-hand experience, that's not what is done today.

Yeah, Kalleh, today the rejections seem to come from the water closet.

I just got a manuscript back where they first wanted me to decrease it from 7,000 words to 5,000 words. Once I did that, they then complained that there were too many references for the length of the article! I pointed out that it was they who asked me to decrease it by 2,000 words! Oy vey.