Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1875 — Pithy Items by Josh Billings. [ARTICLE]

Pithy Items by Josh Billings.

. The fear or the rod iz more powerphull than the use ov it. Truth iz simple —so simple that the pboolish often mistake it for weakness. If a man could git rid ov himself solitude would be a good, place for menny ovlhem-to go to. If yu expekt to win with a lie yu have got \p play it quick.* Don’t antisipate trnbbles; if we will only wait until they cum we can dodge haff «v .them and other hafl may dodge us. 1

Thare iz such a thing az being too aktive in bizzness; thare iz a certain kind qv lazy ness that often sukceedt the best. The basest kind ov servitude iz to be obliged to flatter thoze whom we kant help but despize. Diffikultys are like spooks —when yu cum to run them down they don’t amount to mutch. I never hav cum akrost a man yet so modest who didn’t think he waz entitled to all the fame he possesst, and, if ennything, a little more. Thare are but fu people who ever git ritch enuff to enjoy their welth. Common Report (i am not acquainted with the person individually) iz one ov the gratest liars the world haz ev'er produced, and yet Common Report haz been known to tell the truth when it could not be got at in ennv other way. If a man sukeeeds yu lean find hundreds ov people who predikted it, and if he fails, the same ones predikted that, too. Whi iz it that we kan all ov us giv .sutch good advice to others, and follow it so poorly ourself? If yu don’t want to make yure child a liar, don’t learn him to fear yu. Old men are too apt to think that about all they are fit for iz to make munny and save it. It requires more art to tell a thing well than it duz to kreate it. Thare are but phew honest enuff to fiv good luk the share ov kredit that iz ue it in their sukcesses. We are told that “ virtew iz its own reward,” and what a blessed thing it would be if wickedness would always git its pay in the same coin.