INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
Here, O Public! here they are! You have been clamoring in the most importunate and flattering fashion for a re-issue of the Cartoons of Grip, and out of pure good humour, I have gone to work and re-drawn them for you, because, you must know, these destiny-shaping pictures were not originally engraved upon wood, but were produced by lithography, and in due time each was utterly erased from the stone to make way for bill-heads and cigar labels. This has been no light task, but of course my good will towards men, together with the anticipation of being an author and writing an “introduction,” made it a labour of love. Now, the fact of the public request aforesaid will spare me the usual editorial humiliation of an introductory apology; and I need say nothing here about the subject matter of the sketches, as I have written an explanatory note (comprehensive and lucid enough I hope) opposite to each, and, therefore, my prefatory remarks are complete—with, by the way, a word to the Critics. Dear Critics, I defy you to do your worst. This work, as you know in your heart of hearts, is above criticism. There are no errata to be found in the text, and no false perspective or other defects in the drawings. If you hit upon anything that may persuade you to the contrary pray don’t write it. Come and see me personally at No. 2 Toronto Street, where I have hung my basket, and every Saturday croak “Never Say Die” to an ever increasing circle of patrons. But what an ungrateful rook I am to be sure, thus impudently chattering to those who have shown me nothing but generosity during my career, and to be thus boring the generous Canadian Public who have, with unexampled goodness, bestowed their favours on
Their humble Raven,
Grip.