Josh Billings on Ice, and Other ThingsBillings, Josh
General
Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things
Billings, Josh
American wit and humor
They keep up a kind ov running fight, all their lives, with evry thing
they cum across, but seldum ever win a battle; they are like a
second-rate bull terrier, alwus a fighting and alwus a gitting licked.
LXXIV.
JOSH DOES UP HIS CORRESPONDENCE.
"_Bushrod._"--I got yure faver bi this morning's mail, and taking oph
mi cut, and rooling up mi sleeves, and spitting on mi hands, repli az
follers:
If yu have got plenty ov brains, and no money, Nu York citty iz a good
place tew cum to, but if yu hav got plenty ov money, and no brains,
stay right whare yu are, and keep in the house most always.
A ritch phool, in this citty, iz soon smelt out, and then don't last
enny longer than a nuzeboy's brekfast.
If you haint got enny money, nor enny brains, steal a cow, the fust
good chance yu kan git, and live quietly on the milk.
"_Deacon._"'--Yure question iz too big; i kant tell which i think iz
the most preacher, Chapin or Beecher.
They kan, either ov them, preach the gospel up a heavier grade than
enny men i kno ov, in North Amerika, including our rushing possessions.
Sum folks think that religion consists in preaching the gospel thru
yure noze, and that piety iz a kind ov moral jandies, but i don't; i
beleave the Lord iz not angry at a lively christian, provided he iz
level, and duz bizz square, after dark.
Sum people are down on sensashun preachers, but i aint. Paul waz a
sensashioner ov the best brand, and i kno ov lots ov places now, whare
a man could preach the gospel, with one hand on hiz revolver, and do a
good bizzness.
The world iz choked up with human beings, who hav either got tew be
skared or drove into heaven, if they ever git thare.
I kan imagine that it iz hard work for a man, with a head full ov
lightning, not tew flash once in a while, but lightning don't skare me;
I had rather be struk with it, than tew be strangled with sawdust.
Thare iz plenty of churches in the United States left, whare yu kan
have religion measured out to yu by the small meazure, and whare piety
sits like an owl on its roost. If yu are afrade ov lightning, tend one
ov theze.
I have sot under dull and under lively preeching, and i say, (if thare
iz enny to spare,) give me the lively.
"_Molly._"--Street dresses are worn here almost unanimously; in fackt,
it iz impossibel tew see enny kind ov a femail in the streets without
sum kind of a dress on--i mean street dress.
They are made in the shape ov a dinner-bell, and fit just about az
tight.
Waterfalls are a peg higher than they waz, and soon will be worn on the
top ov the hed, like a rooster's comb.
Hoop skirts are close-reefed, and tilters are on their last leggs.
Kid gloves are the rage in lavender; the more lavender the better, and
the hair eddys in front, like a nest ov yung whirlpools just hatched
out, and drops down behind from the waterfall in one link a foot long,
about the size ov a rope, with the pucker coming out ov it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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