{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/a-society-leader",
 "title": "A Society Leader",
 "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": 40,
 "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": 56,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 53,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“The Social World”! O what a world it is⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where full-grown men cut capers in the German,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Cotillion, waltz, or what you will, and whizz",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And spin and hop and sprawl about like mermen!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I wonder if our future Grant or Sherman,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As these youths pass their time, is passing his⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If eagles ever come from painted eggs,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Or deeds of arms succeed to deeds of legs.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I know they tell us about Waterloo:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How, “foremost fighting,” fell the evening’s dancers.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I don’t believe it: I regard it true",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That soldiers who are skillful in the Lancers",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Less often die of cannon than of cancers.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Moreover, I am half-persuaded, too,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That David when he danced before the Ark",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Had the reporter’s word to keep it dark.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ed Greenway, you fatigue. Your hateful name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like maiden’s curls, is in the papers daily.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "You think it, doubtless, honorable fame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And contemplate the cheap distinction gaily,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "As does the monkey the blue-painted tail he",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Believes becoming to him. ’Tis the same",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With men as other monkeys: all their souls",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Crave eminence on any kind of poles.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But cynics (barking tribe!) are all agreed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That monkeys upon poles performing capers",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are not exalted, they are only “treed.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A glory that is kindled by the papers",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Is transient as the phosphorescent vapors",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That shine in graveyards and are seen, indeed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But while the bodies that supply the gas",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Are turning into weeds to feed an ass.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "One can but wonder sometimes how it feels",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To be an ass⁠—a beast we beat condignly",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Because, like yours, his life is in his heels",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he is prone to use them unbenignly.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The ladies (bless them!) say you dance divinely.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I like St. Vitus better, though, who deals",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His feet about him with a grace more just,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And hops, not for he will, but for he must.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Doubtless it gratifies you to observe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Elbowy girls and adipose mamas",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All looking adoration as you swerve",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This way and that; but prosperous papas",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Laugh in their sleeves at you, and their ha-has,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If heard, would somewhat agitate your nerve.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And dames and maids who keep you on their shelves",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t seem to want a closer tie themselves.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gods! what a life you live!⁠—by day a slave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To your exacting back and urgent belly;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Intent to earn and vigilant to save;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By night, attired so sightly and so smelly,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "With countenance as luminous as jelly,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bobbing and bowing! King of hearts and knave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of diamonds, I’d bet a silver brick",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If brains were trumps you’d never take a trick.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}