* * * * * 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. [Illustration: 30 YORK TERRACE LONDON. N.W. With Mrs. Alec Tweedie’s Compliments of the Season The Theatre Finland Morocco Norway Mexico Sicily Iceland Harry Furniss ] _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. Everyone read it, everyone talked about it. It had dabs at everyone, but only three women were included—Mrs. Humphry Ward, Marie Corelli, and myself. This latter take-off on my style appeared under the title of: In Romantic Rouen By Mrs. Alec Tweedie The same sort of quip had appeared about me a year or two before in _Wisdom While You Wait_, but I cannot lay my hands on it. Colonel Selfe, R.A., who wrote so many of the acrostics for _The World_, one day sent me the following double acrostic on myself: Where now will this lady go Greece, Japan, Fernando Po, Honolulu, Mexico? Whatsoe’er her goal, we look For another charming book Telling of the route she took. Ere she starts for foreign climes With this wish we send these rhymes _Bon voyage_ and pleasant times.