{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-railroad-lackey",
 "title": "A Railroad Lackey",
 "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": null,
 "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": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4793",
   "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": 54,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ben Truman, you’re a genius and can write,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though one would not suspect it from your looks.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You lack that certain spareness which is quite",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Distinctive of the persons who make books.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You show the workmanship of Stanford’s cooks",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "About the region of the appetite,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where geniuses are singularly slight.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your friends the Chinamen are understood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Indeed, to speak of you as “belly good.”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Still, you can write⁠—spell, too, I understand⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though how two such accomplishments can go,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Like sentimental schoolgirls, hand in hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is more than ever I can hope to know.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To have one talent good enough to show",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Has always been sufficient to command",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The veneration of the brilliant band",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of railroad scholars, who themselves, indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Although they cannot write, can mostly read.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "There’s Towne, with Fillmore, Goodman and Steve Gage",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ned Curtis of Napoleonic face,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Who used to dash his name on glory’s page,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“A. M.” appended to denote his place",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Among the learned. Now the last faint trace",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Nap, is all obliterate with age,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And Ned’s degree less precious than his wage.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He says: “I done it,” with his every breath.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Thou canst not say I did it,” says Macbeth.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Good land! how I run on! I quite forgot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whom this was meant to be about; for when",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I think upon that odd, unearthly lot⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not quite Creed Haymonds, yet not wholly men⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m dominated by my rebel pen",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That, like the stubborn bird from which ’twas got,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Goes waddling forward if I will or not.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To leave your comrades, Ben, I’m now content:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll meet them later if I don’t repent.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You’ve writ a letter, I observe⁠—nay, more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ve published it⁠—to say how good you think",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The coolies, and invite them to come o’er",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In thicker quantity. Perhaps you drink",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No corporation’s wine, but love its ink;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or when you signed away your soul and swore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On railrogue battle-fields to shed your gore",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You mentally reserved the right to shed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The raiment of your character instead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You’re naked, anyhow: unragged you stand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In frank and stark simplicity of shame.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And here upon your flank, in letters grand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The iron has marked you with your owner’s name⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Needless, for none would steal and none reclaim.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But “£eland $tanford” is a pretty brand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wrought by an artist with a cunning hand.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But come⁠—this naked unreserve is flat:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don your habiliment⁠—you’re fat, you’re fat!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}