Josh Billings on Ice, and Other ThingsBillings, Josh
General
Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things
Billings, Josh
American wit and humor
Lieing is said tew be constitushionall in sum folks,--so is the itch
constitushionall, because folks hang around whare it is, and won't
doktor for it after they git caught by it.
Finally--I might as well own it--I hav told a few very fair lies
myself, but i kant reckollect ov one that I feel proud ov now.
XXIV.
PERKUSSION CAPS.
I hold that a man has jist as mutch rite tew spel a word as it is
pronounsed, as he has tew pronounse it the way it aint spelt.
Sticking up our nose don't prove enny thing, for the most sensitiff
person in the world, when he is away from his kittles, is a bone biler.
But fu sights, in this life, are more sublime and pathetick, than tew
see a poor, but virtuous yung man, full ov christian fortitude,
struggling with a mustatch.
Common sense is most ginnerally dispised bi those who haint got it.
If I was asked which was the best way, in these days ov temptashun, tew
bring up a boy, i should say--bring him up the back way.
It don't require enny edukashun tew tell the truth, but tew lie well
dus.
We are told "that an honest man is the noblest _work_ ov God"--but the
demand for the _work_ has been so limited, that i hav thought a large
share ov the fust edishun must still be in the author's hands.
Men don't seem never tew git tired ov talking about themselfs, but i
hav heard them when i thought they showed signs ov weekness.
If yu would make yurself agreeable, wherever yu go, listen tew the
grivences ov others, but never relate yure own.
Sum folks are always trieing tew see thru a millstone edgeways, when,
if they would only turn it over on the flat side, they could look rite
thru the hole.
Buty is like a ranebow--full ov promis, but short lived.
It aint best tu swop with yure relashuns, unless yu kan afford tew giv
them the butt end ov the trade.
Amung the blu laws ov Konnekticut, (which are now obsolute,) are
this--"No man shall chaw turbakker on Sunday, unless he swallers the
spit."
Also, "No yung woman shal hav a rite tew git marrid, who kant make a
donut that will keep at least one year, without loseing its twist."
I beleave in the universal salvashun ov men, but I want tew pick the
men.
I beleave in suggar coated pills.--I also beleave that virtue and
wisdum kan be smuggled into a man's soul bi a good natured proverb,
better and deeper than tew be mortised into it with a wormwood mallet
and chissell.
The pure don't gro old enny more than a mountain spring dus.
I don't think thare is enny rule for long life. I hav known men tew die
before they was 40, from the effek ov a vegatabel diet, and i hav known
others tew liv 75 years on salt pork and sider brandy, and then quit
the pork on akount ov their helths, and live 15 years longer on the
sider brandy alone.
"Give me liberty, or giv me deth"--but ov the 2 I prefer the liberty.
As in a game ov cards, so in the game ov life, we must play what is
dealt tew us, and the glory consists, not so mutch in winning, as in
playing a poor hand well.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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