{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-jack-at-all-views",
 "title": "A Jack-at-All-Views",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "book_slug": "black-beetles-in-amber",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 56,
 "container": "Black Beetles in Amber",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1892,
  "venue": "Black Beetles in Amber (1892)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 1
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "So, Estee, you are still alive! I thought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That you had died and were a blessed ghost.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I know at least your coffin once was bought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Railroad money; and ’twas said by most",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Historians that Stanford made a boast",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The seller “threw you in.” That goes for naught⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man takes delight in fancy’s fine inventions,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And woman too, ’tis said, if they are French ones.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Do you remember, Estee⁠—ah, ’twas long",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And long ago!⁠—how fierce you grew and hot",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When anything impeded the straight, strong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wild sweep of the great billow you had got",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Atop of, like a swimmer bold? Great Scott!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "How fine your wavemanship! How loud your song",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of “Down with railroads!” When the wave subsided",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And left you stranded you were much divided.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then for a time you were content to wade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The waters of the “robber barons’ ” moat.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To fetch, and carry was your humble trade,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And ferry Stanford over in a boat,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Well paid if he bestowed the kindly groat",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And spoke you fair and called you pretty maid.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when his stomach seemed a bit unsteady",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You got your serviceable basin ready.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Strange man! how odd to see you, smug and spruce,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "There at Chicago, burrowed in a Chair,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Not made to measure and a deal too loose,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And see you lift your little arm and swear",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Democracy shall be no more! If it’s a fair",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And civil question, and not too abstruse,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Were you elected as a “robber baron,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Or as a Communist whose teeth had hair on?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}