Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1879 — “ Don’t Bite Off More’n You Kin Chaw.’’ [ARTICLE]

“ Don’t Bite Off More’n You Kin Chaw.’’

The janitor was as proud as a boy with a new pair of red mittens. Some kind soul in Hartford, Ct., had forwarded the club a jaw-bone of a shark as a relic to hang on the walls, and he had fastened it up between the beartrap and the coffee-mill, and placed under its sharp teeth the legend : “ Don’t bite off more’n you kin chaw.” “ Gem’len,” said Brother Gardner, as he pointed to the legend, “ de languidge of dat motto am not elegant, but de words convey a heap of solid common sense, an’ we doan’ hev to go down ober fo’teen feet to fin de moral. De man who bites off more’n he kin chaw is gwine to git hisself in an embarrassin’ sityouashun. De motto doan’ apply altogeder to de eatin’ of meat an’ taters. It means dat de pusson who wants to fling on gorgeousness hez got to hev de rocks right down in his pockets or faM kerchunk in de road. It applies to a young man on a salary of $8 a week who am courtin’ a gal who kin use up $2 a day an’ not half try. It applies to de man who finks he kin sell out a ward caucus and deliber de wotes in a collarbox. It applies to de man who buys up delegates an’ depends on de honest voters to push him frew. It applies to de chap who sails along de avenew wid de ideah in his head dat all business would suddenly stop in case death took him away.”— Brother Gardner, in Detroit Free Press.