{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/ad-cattonum",
 "title": "Ad Cattonum",
 "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": 85,
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 2,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 5.3 character advances (~2.6 em) right of its own page's base margin, where the verse sets flush. Converted at 3.0 advances per indent level (tools/defects.py indent).",
    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 39,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 48,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I know not, Mr. Catton, who you are,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor very clearly why; but you go far",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To show that you are many things beside",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A Chilean Consul with a tempting hide;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But what they are I hardly could explain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Without afflicting you with mental pain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Your name (gods! what a name the muse to woo⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Suggesting cats, and hinting kittens, too!)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Points to an origin⁠—perhaps Maltese,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps Angoran⁠—where the wicked cease",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From fiddling, and the animals that grow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The strings that groan to the tormenting bow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Live undespoiled of their insides, resigned",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To give their name and nature to mankind.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With Chilean birth your name but poorly tallies;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The test is⁠—Did you ever sell tamales?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "It matters very little, though, my boy,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If you’re from Chile or from Illinois;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You can’t, because you serve a foreign land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spit with impunity on ours, expand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cock-turkeywise, and strut with blind conceit,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All heedless of the hearts beneath your feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fling falsehoods as a sower scatters grain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, for security, invoke disdain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sir, there are laws that men of sense observe,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No matter whence they come nor whom they serve⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The laws of courtesy; and these forbid",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You to malign, as recently you did,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As servant of another State, a State",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherein your duties all are concentrate;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Branding its Ministers as rogues⁠—in short,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Inviting cuffs as suitable retort.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Chileno or American, ’tis one⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of any land a citizen, or none⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If like a new Thersites here you rail,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Loading with libels every western gale,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You’ll feel the cudgel on your scurvy hump",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Impinging with a salutary thump.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Twill make you civil or ’twill make you jump!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}