"Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease"

[Fred Shapiro]

The proverb "the squeaky (or squeaking) wheel gets the grease" is often
said to come from a Josh Billings poem entitled "The Kicker" (ca. 1870).
But I am unable to find any evidence of such a poem by Billings.
Newspaperarchive comes up with the poem, but without connection to
Billings:

It rarely pays to kick, it doesn't bring one peace,
But the wheel that does the squeaking, is the one that gets the grease.
        Evening Capital and Maryland Gazette (Annapolis), 17 Sept. 1918

Can Barry or Ben or one of our other research masters come up with any
earlier evidence?

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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