The Story of My Life

Excerpt from Chapter I: Before the Beginning: "It may seem absurd that I should be sitting here trying to write about myself in an age when only a mystery story has any chance as a best-seller. I can think of nothing about myself to distort into any such popular fiction. If I tell anything it will be but a plan unvarnished account of how things really have happened, as nearly as I can possibly hold to the the truth. First of all, I have noticed that most autobiographers begin with ancestors. As a rule they start out with the purpose of linking themselves by blood and birth to some well-known family of personage. No doubt this is due to egotism, and the hazy, unscientific notions that people have about heredity. For my part, I seldom think about my ancestors; but I had them; plenty of course. In fact, I could fill this book with their names if I knew them all, and deemed it of the least worth...."