The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-13
From the Galaxy.

@HE Billysloth bears no relation
 \N whatever to the horse, ox mule
 or the ass, for the Billysloth never works. Nevertheless the Billysloth is always tired, 1t gets exhausted doing nothing and rests up the balance or the time The name is derived from the Latin-Billicus meaning Tired, making the Anglo-Saxon Billysloth 1. e. Tired VIII liam. The Billysloths have two feet which they use to great advantage. They are migratory beasts and need their rect In their business. The Billysloths always seeks a congenial climate, he summers among the Thousand Isles and Canada. and during the fall he makes his easy way to Florida and the pleasant country that borders upon the balmy Gulf or Mexico taking a look in upon the towns along his route. There are lew III Norfolk at this writing. and with the ap- proach of winter they will become quite numerous. They feed as they travel on the "catch as catch can" order, and are very partial to hand outs" Some unl,,nd neople work of their rusty beef steak and stale bread in this way ana thus get to be known as "charitaoie
 among their neighbors The Billysloth IS osgreat walker and though they seldom wear socks they generally wear smlie of contentment, especially when things are coming their way, slow freight train for instance. In moving from place to place they as a rule follow the rail- way track. and when an opportunity presents they exhibit amazing inteiii- gence and activity In jumping freight
 or hitting the blind baggage Many different names have been given to the Billysloth, such as Knights of the Hoan' Tramps, Hobos, Weary Willies, etc.. put R,llysloth Is the proper scientific name according to Audubon, the man who went looking for birds and always found them.
 The Billysloth Is the innocent cause of fully one-half of the rank jokes in- flicted upon the nation through the col umns of the funny papers. These 'oAes have appeared for the last 50 years witn A regularity that Is appalling reao "trampN joke" in the virginian Pilot the other day that my grandfather had pasted in his scrapbook when boy. iheln i'- erary fellers" on the comic sheets nAVe A lasting faith in the Biliysiotn as ~ mirth provoker, he is their s'ocA III trade. first and last chance, and HIS III ,,orv a elaring void. They ought 10 h. .rrestedi The New York Journal has hssn running a continued tramp joke Tor inc mast 10 years and any day MT. Dooiey or D,nkinspiel may break out Tor they aon,t like water and they have strange ont,nathv to soap. There are cases m record where Bnlysloth has delib- .rats,vl washed. but the incident was so ,,y,usual as to call forth comments from the entire press of the country ana esnecially from the funny sheets afore- said These claimed that the Billysloth in question must have dreamed he was cake of sapolio in Spotted Town. It Ia safe to say that myriad jokes founded unon this single incident are good for the next 25 years. While the Billysloth has no use for soap and water, he has no grievance whatever against porter bouse steak and hot rolls and when they
 rim against a set out of this kind they can pick their teeth after meals with all the SduB HUI oA o o-ASSSoA o~ ~--> Billion Dollar Steel trust. Porterhouse steak, however, is something they see more often on the hoof than in the
 plate and like the simple summer board CT they will eat almost anything-ex- cept hay People having a cord or so of wood to saw have tried to grub stake the Billysloth for the job. prac- tice responsible for that eternal joke
 in which certain gay Billysloth after
 getting away with the grub, left sign
 which read, "Tell them that you saw me, but you didn't see me saw" An other perennial piece of pleasantry h
 that in which the Billysloth is repre- sented as pathetically calling the kind 1 lady's attention to the fact that his great l hunger compels him to eat grass from of
 her front lawn, she very kindly advises him to eat more as she needs a lawn mower (Patented.) In another instance the kind lady invites him to the back yard where the grass grows higher. when you've had good feed get the ax froy Maria, Poor Man." said she. | This is the only instance where the Bill lysloth had . plentiful supply of the