Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1877 — JOSH, BILLINGS. [ARTICLE]

JOSH, BILLINGS.

Jk Man Wh» bailed in EveryOiing Rise, anti Suldfeeded »s a Writ [Ne# York Cor, Chicago If you were asked to guess who, of all American authors, makes thediost taoney with the least work, the chances are a hundred to one that you would not hit upon the right man. He is of the humorous tribe, and is generally known as Josh Billings, though his real name is Henry W- Shaw. Cultured people have heard of him. of course; many regard him as a kind of clown ; but they have little acquaintance with his writings, which are really to their liking. With the masses, however, he is a favorite; they never tire of reading and repeating his quaint sayings, often clever, but oftener flat He has had a curious career, having tried everything and failed before he tried’ literature—if his peculiar sort of composition can be so designated—and in that he has had exceptional success. He is a native of Berkshire county, Mass., and 58 years old. His father was a fanner, and, remembering that he was a New Englander, it is superfluous to say he-was j>oor. Considerable attention was paid to Henry’s education until he was 11, when he grew tired of restraint, and, desirous of seeking his fortune in the far West, he journeyed to the frontier. He seems to have enjoyed rough life, though he did Dot profit by it in a pecuniary sense. He turned his hand to anything he found in his way. First, he opened a country store, keeping a stock of goods more remarkable for variety than richness, including grindstones, needles, scythes, cathartic pills, calico, cheap confectionery, jewsharps, bl-easLpins and jujube paste. In a year or so, lie closed the establishment, but not without the Sheriff’s 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 means to carry it on. Next, lie hired himself out to drive cattle, and, having driven himself into rags and semi-starvation, he determined to change his element.

Having obtained the place of master of a small steamboat on the Missouri, he navigated the river for two years, having, in that time, sunk three vessels, and lost, according to his own calcula - tion, SB,OOO or SIO,OOO, which was all the more deplorable, 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 unintelligible to the common mind. Teaching was his next enterprise, and such was his success that at the close of the third term three of his pupils were promoted to the county lunatic asylum, and the remainder were pronounced deserving of the honor, with a little more encouragement. Having convinced himself of his capacity as a public instructor, he decided to open a bank—not with a jiminy and outsider, as a man of genius would have done—and opened one. But, having neither capital nor credit, he suspended indefinitely after the second week, and published a statement, his assets and liabilities both being represented by 0. He had expected the statement to create a sensation, but, as he had no creditors except himself, whom he had no hope of paying, he found that the public excitement very soon subsided. Having exhausted himself and his resources, and, having attained his -10th year, when, if ever, a man is presumed to learn wisdom, be decided that the West was not his proper field, and so lie set his face toward the East. He made his new home at Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, and determined, as a last and desperate resource, to write ; wisely judging that a man who could do nothing else might prosper in literature, just as a man who jirospers in literature is usually disqualified for any other occupation. He was encouraged to this step by long observation that his queer speeches made people laugh, and he felt sure if he could produce the same effect on paper it would bo better for him than to keep store or teach school.

Turned of 45 he wrote his first things for print, being some of the layings by which he has since made his reputation. They were published in one of the city weeklies, and were not much liked, it is said, until he began to missqiell them. Tuen they rose in popularity, and he was set down as a humorist. After two or three years be issued a volume entitled “Sayings of Josh Billings.” It had a good sale in tins country and a moderate one m Great Britain. His n -xt book, “Josh Billings on Ice,” was iu still more demand, and put a fair amount of money in his purse. It soon o curred to him to get out an almanac—lis called it “Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Alminax ” and the almanac proved highly remunerative. From 100,000 to 135,000 copies have been, sold annually, and it is reported to be growing in favor. Shaw still continues his connection with the weekly he began on. It is a story paper, claiming a circulation of 300,000, and having perhaps nearly half that. The proprietors give him $4,000 a yenr for his sayings, furnished exclusively to that sheet. He is in request as a lecturer, his terms being from SIOO to $l5O a night. If Shaw is an ordinary clown, he is a clown to some purpose. It is said that by his newspaper contributions, his al manac, his books and his lectures he has earned in good years from $30,000 to $35,000, which is as much as Hawthorne, Emerson, Holmes, Lowell, Bryant, and other famous authors have made by their combined works.