Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1905-02-15
4 JOSH BILLINGS LETTER..
Editor In New York etate Has Inter-
esting Relic Of the Famous p.
$ . 4, Humorist. " *@s&s. i. +:

In looking over old records to write
the twenty-fourth anniversary article
for the Canajoharie Courier, Willet F.
Cook, its editor, says the j New York
Tribune, came across the following
curious and quaint letter to his partner,
Charles Bowen, by H. w. Shaw, better
known as Josh Billings:
p New York, jan. 20, 4 s67.-Dear Bow.
en-: 1fyou can get me few calls to LEX
tur out your way 1t will be clever In you.
Sorry that have no pictorial biography
Of my face to send you. The fact is am
SO cussed 'humbly' that cannot be tax.
en-. 80 I have sent to England for
one of the Book Billings. Those pub
fishers are worse than resurrectionists
they steal man while living. ought
to have had at least $500 from the Lon
don publishers, but have never had a
cent. My lektur on Milk has been
skinned for lyceum taste. There amt
anything in it that need make amy body
faint away, and I believe there is some
nervous truth in it. ,.s
LAS regards the catastrophys of my
biography Thus far can only state
that was born in Massachusetts, be-
tween two mountains in the year 1880.
At the age Of Is the first business at
tackled was the wool misunderstanding
sheep. have never been away from
home before and everybody seemed to
know more than l did. Isaved myself.
but lost the flock Of sheep pretty thor
oughly.
AT 16 brought up on the west bank
of the Mississippi, even them days quite
a stream, and the past 80 years has
been divided, multiplied and subtracted
in and among the VARIOUS schemes OF
vagrant temperament, implanted in
strong natural constitution. such as
husbandry in a wilderness where there
were more wild bees to hunt than oats
to cut; merchandising at the forks of a
mud turnpike with a stock of brogan
boots, Lowell calico and whisky by the
quart; running high-pressure steam
boat on the Ohio river, a lively life,
where man can see human nature with
the bark on and learn how to swear with
great precision.
"Also specialized in West India stoves
and potash, the two first crops of new
country; an auctioneer and for eight
years land hunter on Indian trails, and
made tough by riding hog saddle and
eating acorn-fed pork and corn dodgers.
my life has been success thus far.
Tor l am still alive but pecuniarily dead.
Who ever made money and played the
Observation-Disclosures one rude voca-
ton to another but little better than a
trapper and common honey and venison
hunter? I have had much comfort out
OF all this, and would not take the best
farm in New York state for the sights
have seen.
my literary raid has been short. I
have had as much fun out OF it as any
man who ever lived. and when reflect
that it is but little more than five years
since I first put comic ink on paper, I can
certainly feel that if I have not made
much coin, have had the quiet salts,
faction Of knowing have never writ
ten line in malice against the truth Of
virtue of the world. e l might have
gathered more wisdom sleeping in a
clofster, but would have missed the
lark's wild song in the morning and tn:
sober boot of the midnight oYl in thu
wilderness.
Il was never sick all day in my life
| never saw man in a tight place but !
was willing to'loosen the screws. have
lived among the high and the low and
never put in my pocket Knife or pis
tol. Excuse this if it looks like egotism
- only mean to brag on the JOY of the
world has furnished me. Yours tenderly
| III W. SIIAW.-.Josh Billings y,