{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/business",
 "title": "Business",
 "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": 32,
 "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",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 23,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 6.8 character advances (~3.4 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/collectedworksof04bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 24,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 6.8 character advances (~3.4 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/collectedworksof04bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   },
   {
    "line": 25,
    "field": "indent",
    "was": 0,
    "now": 2,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 6.8 character advances (~3.4 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/collectedworksof04bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 25,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 2
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Two villains of the highest rank",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Set out one night to rob a bank.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They found the building, looked it o’er,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Each window noted, tried each door,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scanned carefully the lidded hole",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For minstrels to cascade the coal⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In short, examined five-and-twenty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shortcuts from poverty to plenty.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But all were sealed, they saw full soon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Against the minions of the moon.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Enough,” said one: “I’m satisfied.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The other, smiling fair and wide,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said: “I’m as highly pleased as you:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No burglar ever can get through.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fate surely prospers our design⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The booty all is yours and mine.”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, full of hope, the following day",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the exchange they took their way",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bought, with manner free and frank,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Some stock of that devoted bank;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And they became, inside the year,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "One President and one Cashier.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their crime I can no further trace⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The means of safety to embrace,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I overdrew and left the place.",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}