The Complete Works of Josh Billings Part 11
It iz hard work to phool a dog once, and it iz next to impossible to phool him the sekond time.
I aint afraid to trust enny man for a small amount who iz a good whissler.
I wouldn't want to sell him a farm on credit, for i should expekt to hav to take the farm back after awhile and remove the mortgage miself.
Yu cant whissell a mortgage oph from a farm.
A fust rate whissler iz like a middling sized fiddler, good for nothing else, and tho whissling may keep a man from gitting lonesum, it wont keep him from gitting ragged.
I never knu a bee hunter but what waz a good whissler, and i dont kno ov enny bizzness on the breast ov the earth that will make a man so lazy and useless, without acktually killing him, az hunting bees in the wilderness.
Hunting bees and writing seckond rate verses are evidences ov sum genius, but either of them will unfit a man for doing a good square day's work.
HOTELS.
Hotels are houses ov refuge, homes for the vagrants, the married man's retreat, and the bachelor's fireside.
They are kept in all sorts ov ways, sum on the European plan, and menny ov them on no plan at all.
A good landlord iz like a good stepmother, he knows hiz bizzness and means to do hiz duty.
He knows how to rub hiz hands with joy when the traveler draws nigh, he knows how to smile, he knew yure wife's father when he waz living, and yure wife's fust husband, but he don't speak about him.
He kan tell whether it will rain to-morrow or not, he hears yure komplaints with a tear in hiz eye, he blows up the servants at yure suggestion, and stands around reddy, with a shirt collar az stiff az broken china.
A man may be a good supream court judge and at the same time be a miserable landlord.
Most evrybody thinks they kan keep a hotel (and they kan), but this ackounts for the grate number ov hotels that are kept on the same principle that a justiss ov the peace offiss iz kept in the country during a six-days' jury trial for killing sumboddy's yello dorg.
A hotel wont keep itself and keep the landlord too, and ever kure a traveler from the habit ov profane swareing.
I hav had this experiment tried on me several times, and it alwus makes the swares, wuss.
It iz too often the kase that landlords go into the bizzness ov hash az ministers go into the professhun, with the very best ov motives, but the poorest kind ov prospecks.
I dont know ov enny bizzness more flattersum than the tavern bizzness, there dont seem to be ennything to do but to stand in front ov the register with a pen behind the ear and see that the guests enter themselfs az soon az they enter the house, then yank a bell-rope six or seven times, and then tell John to sho the gentleman to 976, and then take four dollars and fifty cents next morning from the poor devil ov a traveler and let him went.
This seems to be the whole thing (and it iz the whole thing) in most cases.
Yu will diskover the following deskripshun a mild one, ov about 9 hotels out ov 10 between the Atlantik and Pacifick Oshuns akrost the United States in a straight line:
Yure room iz 13 foot 6 inches, by 9 foot 7 inches, parallelogramly.
It being court week (az usual), all the good rooms are employed bi the lawyers and judges.
Yure room iz on the uttermost floor.
The carpet iz ingrain--ingrained with the dust, kerosene ile, and ink-spots ov four generashuns.
Thare iz two pegs in the room tew hitch coats onto, one ov them broke oph, and the other pulled out, and missing.
The buro haz three legs, and one brick.
The gla.s.s to the buro swings on two pivots, which hav lost their grip.
Thare iz one towel on the rack, thin, but wet. The rain water in the pitcher c.u.m out ov the well.
The soap iz az tuff tew wear az a whetstone.
The soap iz scented with cinnamon ile, and variagated with spots.
Thare iz three chairs, kane setters, one iz a rocker, and all three are busted.
Thare iz a match-box, empty.
Thare iz no kurtin to the windo, and thare don't want to be any, yu kant see out, and who kan see in?
The bel rope iz c.u.m oph about 6 inches this side ov the ceiling.
The bed iz a modern slat bottom, with two mattra.s.ses, one cotton, and one husk, and both harder, and about az thick az a sea biskitt.
Yu enter the bed sideways and kan feel evry slat at once az eazy az yu could the ribs ov a grid iron.
The bed iz inhabited.
Yu sleep sum, but rool over a good deal.
For breakfast you have a gong, and rhy coffee too kold to melt b.u.t.ter, fride potatoze which resemble the chips a two inch auger makes in its journey through an oak log.
Bread solid, beef stake about az thik az a blister plaster, and so tuff az a hound's ear.
Table covered with plates, a few scared to death pickles on one ov them, and 6 fly endorsed crackers on another.
A pewterinktom caster with three bottles in it, one without enny pepper in it, one without enny mustard, and one with two inches ov drowned flies, and vinegar in it.
Servant gall, with hoops on, hangs around you earnestly, and wants to know if yu will take another cup ov coffee.
Yu say "_No mom, i thank yu_," and push back yure chair.
Yu haven't eat enuff tew pay for picking yure teeth.