Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 May 1916 — SUPERFLUOUS WORDS [ARTICLE]

SUPERFLUOUS WORDS

(By Walt Mason) Bill Jinks can’t say, “It’s a pleasant day,” in just that many words; he has to talk clear round the clock, till he scares away the birds. He’ll go way back to the almanac of the year when Adam died, to find a day that was bright and gay like the one that’s about to slide. He’ll talk nine hours to describe the showers that fell on the ninth of June, and to prove to you that all rains are due to the changes of the’ moon. He’ll talk three weeks, till his jawbone creaks, and his larynx slips a cog, to show that sleet will destroy the wdieat, that snow is but frozen fog. Now, you and I, as we teeter by, can say, “It’s a pleasant morn,” and we will not stop to discuss the crop, the pumpkins and oats and corn. But old Bill Jinks, he is full of kinks, and he simply can’t be brief, and his tongue must clack till the welkins crack, and he causes lots of grief. It grieves Bill Jinks that the whole world shrinks with pain from his dance and song; and he wonders why all the people shy whenever he comes along.