{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/bimetalism",
 "title": "Bimetalism",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 169,
 "container": "Shapes of Clay",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry",
  "file": "shapes-of-clay.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": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 10,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 42,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Ben Bulger was a silver man,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though not a mine had he:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He thought it were a noble plan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To make the coinage free.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“There hain’t for years been sech a time,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Ben to his bull pup,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“For biz⁠—the country’s broke and I’m",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The hardest kind of up.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The paper says that that’s because",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The silver coins is sca’ce,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And that the chaps which makes the laws",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Puts gold ones in their place.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“They says them nations always be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Most prosperatin’ where",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The wolume of the currency",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ain’t so disgustin’ rare.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "His dog, which hadn’t breakfasted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dissented from his view,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And wished that he could swell, instead,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The volume of cold stew.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Nobody’d put me up,” said Ben,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“With patriot galoots",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which benefits their feller men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By playin’ warious roots;",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“But havin’ all the tools about,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m goin’ to commence",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A-turnin’ silver dollars out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wuth eighty-seven cents.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“The feller takin’ ’em can’t whine:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "(No more, likewise, can I):",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "They’re better than the genooine,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which mostly satisfy.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“It’s only makin’ coinage free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mebby might augment",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The wolume of the currency",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A noomerous percent”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I don’t quite see his error nor",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Malevolence prepense,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But fifteen years they gave him for",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That technical offense.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}