“THE PROPHESY OF DOOM”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 88, 21 April 1913, Page 5

“THE PROPHESY OF DOOM”

SIR RIDER HAGGARD’S WARNING. GET ON THE LAND. [By Ei-ectric Telegraph—Copyright] [United Press Association.] (Received 8.0 a.m.) Sydney, April 21. Speaking at the Journalists’ Association’s supper, Sir Rider Haggard said he would not recommend any young man to take up the practice of writing. It was a heart-breaking trade. The very greatest names in a generation were quickly forgotten. Therefore, he was proud to know that the books he wrote 30 years ago were selling better to-d.ay than when they came out.

In condemning base books, which he was sorry to say were mostly written by women, who, if they quit© understood what they were doing, would turn off the tap. Sir iwder declared that there was nothing easier than to write books of that sort. “I would undertake to write a book which would sell by the 100,000, and yet avoid the law, but not for one million pounds would I do it.” In explaining his reasons for turning farmer, he said he came to a time when he was not satjjsfied with the output of fictional and imaginative matter. He would like to do something practical in the world—something that would affect those who followed—and lie resolved to devote himself to preaching Uo the peoples of the world that their safety lies upon* the land. If they desert The land for the cities, so surely will they bring upon the world the prophesy of their own doom.”