It Pays to Talk

From the Rock Island Argus, April 24, 1913.
 By S. E. Kiser.
 

 Sim Watson’s stock of wit was small,
 But he let on he knew it all;
     He held his head up mighty high;
     The word he spoke the most was “I;”
 He had a large amount of gall,
     And never let a chance go by
 Whenever he was in a crowd
 To make his conversation loud.
 
 You’d hear his voice above the rest
 He’d strut and he’d stick out his chest
     He never “guessed,” he always KNEW;
     Or, leastwise, he pretended to;
 He always seemed to worry lest
     He might be hidden from the view;
 When taller men than Sim were there
 You’d see him standin’ on a chair.
 
 We all knew his talk was guff,
 That he was puttin’ up a bluff,
     And yet, somehow, we kind of got
     To thinkin’ that he knew a lot;
 The jokes he told were old and tough—
     Most of them tales that we’d forgot—
 But still we’d laugh at what he said,
 And so his reputation spread.
 
 Well, as I see the case today,
 Sim taught a lesson, anyway;
     Your stock of knowledge may be small,
     But don’t stand back against the wall
 And listen to what others say.
     Speak up and claim to know it all;
 Most people will believe you do—
 The wiser ones are mighty few.