54. LIV.
FAST MEN.
I hav alwus loved “Fast men;” not those who
are fast in their morals, but the sudden kind, those
who think fast, and ackt fast.
I never knu a verry slow Amerikan who amounted
tew ennything.
Put a man onto an island, (like Nova Scosha,) and
he will learn how tew be slow; it iz like chaining a
bull tarrier tew a post; after a while he will just
straighten the chain, that's all.
But on a Hemispheer like ours, even mud turkles
learn how tew show a good gait.
Whare natur setts the exampel, whare she iz vast,
and magestick, men soon git in the habit ov reckoning
bi the millyuns, and a man ain't enny more apt
tew make a big mistake, than he iz a small one;
thare iz more game mist at 100 feet, than thar iz at
100 yards.
Fast men make most ov the blunders that are
made; but they also make most ov the good hits
that are made.
It don't hurt mi feelings (occasionally) tew hear
that a man has fell his whole length, and even
ploughed up the ground whare he struck, for then i
kno he couldn't hav bin standing still, nor hanging
onto sumboddy's picket fence.
Methusila lived a 1000 years, but i serpose he
could hav seen aul he saw, and dun aul he did in 5
years, if he had lived in New York city.
I never knu a peace ov machinery tew prove a
failure bekause it was tew fast; and who iz thare
who has ever turned one bi hand, that has not wept
for joy tew see a grindstone git round 500 times in a
minnitt, driven bi steam?
Fast men sumtimes kollide, but experience has
proved that it iz better for a locomotiff tew strike a
rock at 40 miles an hour, than at 15, for at 490 miles
the rock may be displased, but at 15 the locomotiff
iz sartin tew be.
I alwus did think well ov the konneticut vagrant,
who was confined in the poor house bekauze he
hadn't ennything tew do, and hearing ov a basswood
shoe-peg spekulashun, that was raging outside,
broke out ov the poor-house, and made 1500 dollars
before they could ketch him.
“Life iz short,” and this iz one grate reason whi it
ought tew be fast.
