Of course you have heard of myth-making and legend-making.

Well, anecdote-making is a process of a similar nature, a process of accumulation and development.

The only difference between the process in the first two cases and that in the third is, that the former is carried on by races, the latter by individuals.

A seed-corn of fact falls on the generous soil of the poetic imagination, and forthwith it begins to expand, to sprout, and to grow into flower, shrub, or tree.
But there are well and ill-shapen plants, and monstrosities too.

The above anecdote is a specimen of the first kind.