On Christmas cards.
Some folk affect to dislike or despise Christmas cards, but I find them most useful, often most welcome, always a kindly remembrance.
People in strange lands have been good to me. They have taken me about, invited me to their houses, have helped me in my work, and many introductions, obtained originally for practical purposes, have ended in real friendships.
It is impossible to keep up a correspondence with all one’s friends, however, and yet one likes them to know they are not forgotten.
Hence the idea of my Christmas cards originated. For many years now I have sent these cards of greeting to the furthermost corner of the earth, and thanks to the talent of my friends, or the practical use of my own camera, they have been somewhat original.
Here is a delightful card Harry Furniss designed for me among my earlier ones. I had just written Behind the Footlights, hence the lady with comedy and tragedy on her cap, pulling aside the curtain to reveal sketches of the different books. Needless to say, this clever idea was his own.
Hustled History, one of that series of clever little booklets that have appeared annually for some time, was the talk of the town when it came out in the spring of 1908. My publisher rang me up the next morning to congratulate me on the advertisement of myself that it contained. Rather a curious way of putting it, I thought.