other on the same track; it kant be did suckcessfully; the mangled and
ded are kounted bi skores, a searching investigashun takes plase, the
community iz satizfied, bekause it waz, "_an unavoidable katastrophe_."
The Devil furnishes putty and varnish, free ov expense, tew hide the
frauds and guilt ov men. Aul ov which iz respekfully committed Bi
JOSH BILLINGS.
XIX.
MANIFEST DESTINY.
Manifest destiny iz the science ov going tew the devil, or enny other
place before yu git thare. I may be rong in this centiment, but that iz
the way it strikes me, and i am so put together that when enny thing
strikes me i immejiately strike back. Manifest destiny mite perhaps be
blocked out agin az the condishun that man and things find themselfs in
with a ring in their nozes and sumboddy hold ov the ring. I may be rong
agin, but if i am, awl i hav got tew sa iz, i don't kno it, and what
a man don't kno ain't no damage tew enny boddy else. The tru way that
manifess destiny had better be sot down iz, the exact distance that
a frog kan jump down hill with a striped snake after him; i dont kno
but i may be wrong onst more, but if the frog don't git ketcthed the
destiny iz jist what he iz a looking for.
When a man falls into the bottom ov a well and makes up hiz minde tew
stay thare, that ain't manifess destiny enny more than having yure
hair cut short iz; but if he almoste gits out and then falls down in
agin 16 foot deeper and brakes off his neck twice in the same plase
and dies and iz buried thare at low water, that iz manifess destiny
on the square. Standing behind a bull in fly time and gitting kicked
twice at one time, must feel a good deal like manifess destiny. Being
about 10 seckunds tew late tew git an express train, and then chasing
the train with yure wife, and an umbreller in yure hands, in a hot
day, and not getting az near tew the train az you waz when yu started,
looks a leetle like manifess destiny on a rale rode trak. Going into a
tempranse house and calling for a little old Bourbon on ice, and being
told in a mild way that "the Bourbon iz jist out, but they hav got
sum gin that cost 72 cents a gallon in Paris," sounds tew me like the
manifess destiny ovmoste tempranse houses.
Mi dear reader, don't beleave in manifess destiny untill yu see it.
Thare iz such a thing az manifess destiny, but when it occurs it iz
like the number ov rings on the rakoon's tale, ov no grate consequense
onla for ornament. Man wan't made for a machine, if he waz, it waz a
locomotiff machine, and manifess destiny must git oph from the trak
when the bell rings, or git knocked higher than the price ov gold.
Manifess destiny iz a disseaze, but it iz eazy tew heal; i hav seen
it in its wust stages cured bi sawing a cord ov dri hickory wood. I
thought i had it onse, it broke out in the shape ov poetry; i sent a
speciment ov the disseaze tew a magazine, the magazine man wrote me nex
day as follers,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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