{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/one-of-the-saints",
 "title": "One of the Saints",
 "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": null,
 "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": {
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  "file": "black-beetles-in-amber.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",
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    "date": "2026-08-20"
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 "stats": {
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Big Smith is an Oakland School Board man,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And he looks as good as ever he can;",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And he’s such a cold and a chaste Big Smith",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That snowflakes all are his kin and kith.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wherever his eye he chances to throw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The crystals of ice begin to grow;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the fruits and flowers he sees are lost",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the singeing touch of a sudden frost.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The women all shiver whenever he’s near,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And look upon us with a look austere⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Effect of the Smithian atmosphere.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such, in a word, is the moral plan",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the Big, Big Smith, the School Board man.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When told that Madame Ferrier had taught",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hernani in school, his fist he brought",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a trip-hammer down on his bulbous knee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he roared: “Her Nanny? By gum, we’ll see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If the public’s time she dares devote",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the educatin’ of any dam goat!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“You do not entirely comprehend⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hernani’s a play,” said his learned friend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“By Victor Hugo⁠—immoral and bad.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What’s worse, it’s French!” “Well, well, my lad,”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Said Smith, “if he cuts a swath so wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll have him took re’glar up and tried!”",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he smiled so sweetly the other chap",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thought that himself was a Finn or Lapp",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Caught in a storm of his native snows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a purple ear and an azure nose.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Smith continued: “I never pursue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Immoral readin’.” And that is true:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He’s a saint of remarkably high degree,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a mind as chaste as a mind can be;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But read!⁠—the devil a word can he.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}