{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/something-in-the-papers",
 "title": "Something in the Papers",
 "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": 193,
 "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": 22,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 51,
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“What’s in the paper?” Oh, it’s dev’lish dull:",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "There’s nothing happening at all⁠—a lull",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "After the war-storm. Mr. Someone’s wife",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Killed by her lover with, I think, a knife.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A fire on Blank Street and some babies⁠—one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Two, three or four, I don’t remember, done",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To quite a delicate and lovely brown.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A husband shot by woman of the town⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The same old story. Shipwreck somewhere south.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The crew, all saved⁠—or lost. Uncommon drouth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Makes hundreds homeless up the River Mud⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Though, come to think, I guess it was a flood.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis feared some bank will burst⁠—or else it won’t;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "They always burst, I fancy⁠—or they don’t;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who cares a cent?⁠—the banker pays his coin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And takes his chances: bullet in the groin⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But that’s another item. Suicide⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fool lost his money (serve him right) and died.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heigh-ho! there’s noth⁠—Jerusalem! what’s this?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tom Jones has failed! My God, what an abyss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of ruin!⁠—owes me seven hundred, clear!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Was ever such a damned disastrous year!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}