{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/justice",
 "title": "Justice",
 "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": 61,
 "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"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "shapes-of-clay.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": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
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  "longest_line_chars": 46,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Jack Doe met Dick Roe, whose wife he loved,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And said: “I will get the best of him.”",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "So pulling a knife from his boot, he shoved",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "It up to the hilt in the breast of him.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then he moved that weapon forth and back,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Enlarging the hole he had made with it,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Till the smoking liver fell out, and Jack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Merrily, merrily played with it.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then he reached within and he seized the slack",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the lesser bowel, and, traveling",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Hither and thither, looked idly back",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On that small intestine, raveling.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The wretched Richard, with many a grin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Laid on with exceeding suavity,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Curled up and died, and they ran John in",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And charged him with sins of gravity.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The case was tried and a verdict found:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The jury, with great humanity,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Acquitted the prisoner on the ground",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of extemporary insanity.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}