, 1905-02-16
BY Josh BILLINGS"
LETTER OF FAMOUS HUMORIST,
WRITTEN YEARS AGO.
New York Editor Recently Unearthed
Epistle for Which Collectors Will
ScrambIe-Pathos and Wit in Pro-
fusion.

In looking Owe old records to write
the t~wenty-fourth anniversary article
for the Canajoharie Courier, Willet f.
Cook, its editor. says the New York
Tribune, came across the following
curious and quaint letter to his part
ner. Charles Bowen, by II. w. Shaw,
better known as Josh Billings:
New York, Jan. 20, 1S67.-Dear
Bowen: If you can get me a few calls
to lektur out your way it will be clev-
err in You. Sorry that | have no pic
YOU. The fact is | am so cussed
'humbly' that | cannot be taken.
| have sent to England for
n of the Book Billings. Those pub
fishers are worse han resurrection
ists-they steal a man while living.
| ought to have had at least $500 from
the London publishers. but have new
err had a cent. My iektur on Milk
has been skinned for lyceum taste.
There amt anything in it thai reed
make amy body faint away, and |
believe there is some nervous truth
in 1t.
AS regards the catastrophys of my
biography: Thus far | can only state
that | was born in Massachusetts be
tween two mountains in the year 1890.
At the age Of Is the first business |
attacked was the wool business-dTiv-
ing sheep. I had rever been away
from home before and everybody
seemed to know more than | did. |
7 saved myself. but lost the flock of
sheep pretty thoroughly.
AT 16 | brought up on the west
bank of the Mississippi, ever them
days quite "A stream, and the past
thirty years has beer divided, multi
piled and subtracted in and amonS
tie various schemes of a vagrant ten.
permanent. implanted in a strong nat
ural constitution. such as husbandry
in Il wilderness where there were
more wild bees to hunt than oats to
cut: matchmaking at the forks of a
mud turnpike with a stock of brogan
boots. Lowell calico and whisky by
the quart: running a high-pressure
steamboat on the Ohio river, a lively
life. where nan can see human ma
ture with the bark Oh and learn how
to swear with great precision.
Also specialized in West India
stoves and potash. the two first crops
Of a new country: an auctioneer and
for eight years a land hunter on Indi.
an trails. and made tough by riding a
hog saddle and eating acorn-fed pork
ard corn dodgers.
"My life has been a success thus
far. for | am still alive, but ~pecuniarily
dead. Who evcr made money and
played the eccentric wandered from
enc rude vocation 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
AIRY man who eve lived, and when I
reflect that it is bat little more than
five years since | first put comic ink
on paper. | can certainly feel that if
| have not made much coin. I have the
quiet satisfaction of knowing I have
never written a line in malice against
the truth of virtue of the world.
| might have gathered more
wisdom sleeping in a cloister. but
would Rave missed the lark's wild
song in the morning and the sober
boot of the midnight owl in the will
derness.
Il was never sick all day in my life,
never saw a 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 a
krife or a pistol. Excuse this if it
looks like sgotism-I only mean to
brag on tho Joy the world has fur
nished ne. Yours tenderly.
III. w. Shaw.-'Josh Billings"