Excerpt from 1808-1908 Centennial History of the Town of Nunda: With a Preliminary Recital of the Winning of Western New York, From the Fort Builders Age to the Last Conquest by Our Revolutionary Forefathers I. Be intensely interested in your subject matter; let persons and places reflect the interest of the writer. II. Investigate, get to the bottom facts; remember your investigations will save thousands of others personal research. III. Persevere; the persistent plodder alone succeeds; miracles are wrought by perseverance. IV. Be human, - have a sense of humor. Man is the only animal that smiles; the Pioneers had a rich fund of humor, and transmitted it through inheritance to their offspring. Young readers also crave it wit wins with them when wisdom wearies. V. Give, when possible, personal knowledge of localities and events; it adds something new from personal testimony, and is, at least, original. Even fish stories lose half their fishiness if the fisherman himself tells them. This application is not specific: there are others. VI. Familiarize yourself with what has already been written, and, like a soldier, "appropriate" every "scrap" and turn it into edible "scrap pie." VII. See the beauty in every scene, the good in every life; then lend the public your spectacles that they may see what you see. VIII. Avoid pessimism and slander; leave each skeleton in its closet, years of retirement have not improved its aroma; leave out the bad when possible; just assume that our forebears were as "bearish" as their posterity, (don't say descendants, it implies too much). Hunger and toothache bring back the original savage. At our worst "we are all poor critters." At our best - well, we live in paradise - i. c., Nunda. IX. Be intensely in earnest when dealing with life's realities. Death is as real as birth; pathos as essential as humor. "Oakwood" is more densely populated than the village or town we live in. X. Don't fear the critics; criticism, not commendation, is their stunt. Banish fear, for the common man who writes Is brother hero to the man who fights, Neither are seeking wealth, fame or renown For good of others shall their acts redound, Then banish fear of blame, or critics frown. Who does his best merits the victor's crown. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.