Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-02
JOSH BILLINGS.
Il Eacy sketef. Of the Humoyist's -sdren-
fuxOKs Cureer

4 Eacy sketef. Of the Hsnnorist's -sdrcn-
tuSOss Career.
Mr.. Redpath gives. IN his illustrated
Weekly. an interesting account Of one of
the noted characters of our day, modern
edition of poor Richard" with various
Improvements. We abridge the following
biographical notes:
Josh Billings was born in Lanesboro,
Berkshire county, Mass, sixty-two or sixty
three years ago. Both his grandfather
and father were members of congress.
His name is Henry w. Shaw. His father
was an intimate friend of Henry Clay and
his political manager in New England.
Josh once asked me to introduce him to
Wendell Phillips to get his advice about
publishing the correspondence between
Clay and his father. Phillips advised him
to publish. Josh says he never dared to
enter the political arena because both his
father and grandfather had left such pure
records in it! His father added farming
to politics. or politics to farming. 1 have
forgotten which was horse and which cart
with him.
Josh went to school until he was four
teen, when he started out on his own hook
for the west. He spent the next twenty
five years of his life mostly out west. He
turned his hand 10 verything, but fortune
turned it's back On him. Most of what know
about Mr.. Shaw's life up to the age of
forty-tive did not learn from him, but
chiefly from his friends. One of them
wrote that Josh first opened country
store, keeping stock of goods more re-
markabie for variety than riches, includ-
ing grindstores, needles, scythes, cathartic
pills, calico, cheap confectionery, jews
harps, breast-pumps and iujube paste. In
year or SO he closed the establishment,
but not without the sherifTs assistance %
Then he took a farm On credit without
gaining any credit by farming, and was
obliged at the end of the third season to
discontinue the noble occupation for lack
OF money to carry it on. Next, he hired
himself out TO drive cattle; and, having
driven himself into rags and semi-starva-
tion, he determined to change his element.
Having obtained the place of master on a
small steamboat on the Missouri, he navi-
gated the river for two years, having in
that time sunk three vessels and lost, ac-
cording to his own calculation, $4,000 or
$10,e8O, which was all the more deploreble
as he had no money to begin with. How
he made the loss he could never explain,
except on paper, and his arithmetic Is SO
abstruse as to be unintelhgible to the COM
mon mind. Teaching was his next enter
prise, and his success was such that at the
close Of the third term three of his pupils
were promoted to the county lunatic asy-
lum, and the remainder were pronounced
deserving of the honor, with little more
encouragement. Having convinced him
self Of his capacity as public instructor,
he decided TO open bank-1ot with a
jimmy and outsider, as man of genius
would have done-and he opened one. But
cd indefinitely after the second week and
published statement-his assets and la
bilities both being represented by-O.
once showed this account to Josh. His
eyes twinkled as he read it, and then he
said there was good deal of truth in it.
His steamboat enterprise was confined to
the Ohio river, not the Missouri. It was
undertaken at the instance Of New York
spectators, by whom he was sent to open
a mine in western Virginia. He bought a
steamboat at Pittsburgh, and it took him
three months to get it to Charlestown, Vir-
ginia-the town made famous, many years
afterward, az the scene of John Browns
execution. His steamer piled between
Gharlestown and GaAipolis, until the COM
pany became bankrupt In the course of
his western wanderings Josh found him
self in California, In 1849-he was one of
your oldest and best-but he did not stay
on the coast any length of time.
He married at the age of twenty-seve
when on visit to his father in Massachu-
sets. At the age of forty he moved east
in order to educate his two daughters. He
found good schools at Poughkeepsie, on the
Hudson, and he settled there. Az he had
no regular profession, he took up the trades
of auctioneer and dealer in real estate.
Ha had dabbled in both of these callings
in the west. He had great success as an
anstioneer in Poughkeepsie; but as the
town lie small one, his professionaSincome