{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/for-president-leland-stanford",
 "title": "For President, Leland Stanford",
 "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": 73,
 "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": 3,
    "why": "Indentation absent from the source markup and measured from the scan: this line starts 7.7 character advances (~3.8 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": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 50,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Mahomet Stanford, with covetous stare,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gazed on a vision surpassingly fair:",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Far on the desert’s remote extreme",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A mountain of gold with a mellow gleam",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Reared its high pinnacles into the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The work of mirage to delude the eye.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pixley Pasha, at the Prophet’s feet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Piously licking them, swearing them sweet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ventured, observing his master’s glance,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To beg that he order the mountain’s advance.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mahomet Stanford exerted his will,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Commanding: “In Allah’s name, hither, hill!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never an inch the mountain came.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mahomet Stanford, with face aflame,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lifted his foot and kicked, alack!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pixley Pasha on the end of the back.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mollified thus and smiling free,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He said: “Since the mountain won’t come to me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll go to the mountain.” With infinite pains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Camels in caravans, negroes in trains,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Warriors, workmen, women, and fools,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Food and water and mining tools",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He gathered about him, a mighty array,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the journey began at the close of day.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All night they traveled⁠—at early dawn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Many a wearisome league had gone.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Morning broke fair with a golden sheen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mountain, alas, was nowhere seen!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mahomet Stanford pounded his breast,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pixley Pasha he thus addressed:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Dog of mendacity, cheat and slave,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May jackasses sing o’er your grandfather’s grave!”",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}