Black Beetles in Amber

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Bierce
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Title: Black Beetles in Amber
Author: Ambrose Bierce
Release Date: July 21, 2004 [EBook #12977]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACK
BEETLES IN AMBER ***
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[Illustration: AMBROSE BIERCE.]
BLACK BEETLES IN AMBER
BY
AMBROSE BIERCE
1892
THE ORDER IN WHICH THE BEETLES ARE SHOWN
IN EXPLANATION
THE KEY NOTE
CAIN
AN
OBITUARIAN
A COMMUTED SENTENCE
A LIFTED
FINGER
TWO STATESMEN
MATTER FOR GRATITUDE


THREE KINDS OF A ROGUE
A MAN
YE FOE TO
CATHAYE
SAMUEL SHORTRIDGE
SURPRISED

POSTERITY'S AWARD
AN ART CRITIC
THE SPIRIT OF A
SPONGE
ORNITHANTHROPOS
TO E.S. SALOMON

DENNIS KEARNEY
FINIS ÆTERNITATIS
THE VETERAN

AN "EXHIBIT"
THE TRANSMIGRATIONS OF A SOUL

AN ACTOR
FAMINE'S REALM
THE MACKAIAD
A
SONG IN PRAISE
A POET'S FATHER
A COWARD
TO
MY LIARS
PHIL CRIMMINS
CODEX HONORIS
TO
W.H.L.B.
EMANCIPATION
JOHNDONKEY
HELL
BY
FALSE PRETENSES
LUCIFER OF THE TORCH
THE
"WHIRLIGIG OF TIME"
A RAILROAD LACKEY
THE
LEGATEE
"DIED OF A ROSE"
A LITERARY HANGMAN

AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR
A CONTROVERSIALIST

MENDAX
THE RETROSPECTIVE BIRD
THE OAKLAND
DOG
THE UNFALLEN BRAVE
A CELEBRATED CASE

COUPLETS
A RETORT
A VISION OF RESURRECTION

MASTER OF THREE ARTS

THERSITES
A SOCIETY
LEADER
EXPOSITOR VERITATIS
TO "COLONEL" DAN
BURNS
GEORGE A. KNIGHT
UNARMED
A POLITICAL
VIOLET
THE SUBDUED EDITOR
"BLACK BART, Po8"
A
"SCION OF NOBILITY"
THE NIGHT OF ELECTION
THE
CONVICTS' BALL
A PRAYER
TO ONE DETESTED
THE
BOSS'S CHOICE
A MERCIFUL GOVERNOR
AN
INTERPRETATION
A SOARING TOAD
AN UNDRESS
UNIFORM
THE PERVERTED VILLAGE
MR. SHEETS
A
JACK-AT-ALL-VIEWS
MY LORD POET
TO THE FOOL
KILLER
ONE AND ONE ARE TWO
MONTAGUE
LEVERSON
THE WOFUL TALE OF MR. PETERS
TWIN
UNWORTHIES
ANOTHER PLAN
A POLITICAL
APOSTATE
TINKER DICK
BATS IN SUNSHINE
A WORD
TO THE UNWISE
ON THE PLATFORM
A DAMPENED
ARDOR
ADAIR WELCKER, POET
TO A

WORD-WARRIOR
A CULINARY CANDIDATE
THE
OLEOMARGARINE MAN
GENESIS
LLEWELLEN
POWELL
THE SUNSET GUN
THE "VIDUATE DAME"

FOUR OF A KIND
RECONCILIATION
A VISION OF
CLIMATE
A "MASS" MEETING
FOR PRESIDENT,
LELAND STANFORD
FOR MAYOR
A CHEATING
PREACHER
A CROCODILE
THE AMERICAN PARTY

UNCOLONELED
THE GATES AJAR
TIDINGS OF GOOD

ARBORICULTURE
A SILURIAN HOLIDAY
REJECTED

JUDEX JUDICATUS
ON THE WEDDING OF AN AËRONAUT

A HASTY INFERENCE
A VOLUPTUARY
AD
CATTONUM
THE NATIONAL GUARDSMAN
THE
BARKING WEASEL
A REAR ELEVATION
IN UPPER SAN
FRANCISCO
NIMROD
CENSOR LITERARUM

BORROWED BRAINS
THE FYGHTYNGE SEVENTH

INDICTED
OVER THE BORDER
ONE JUDGE
TO AN
INSOLENT ATTORNEY
ACCEPTED
A PROMISED FAST
TRAIN
ONE OFF THE SAINTS
A MILITARY INCIDENT

SUBSTANCE VERSUS SHADOW
THE COMMITTEE ON
PUBLIC MORALS

CALIFORNIA
DE YOUNG--A
PROPHECY
TO EITHER
DISAPPOINTMENT
THE
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF THEFT
DOWN AMONG
THE DEAD MEN
THE LAST MAN
ARBOR DAY
THE
PIUTE
FAME
ONE OF THE REDEEMED
A CRITIC
A
QUESTION OF ELIGIBILITY
FLEET STROTHER

CALIFORNIAN SUMMER PICTURES
SLANDER
JAMES L.
FLOOD
FOUR CANDIDATES FOR SENATOR
A
GROWLER
AD MOODIUM
AN EPITAPH
A SPADE

THE VAN NESSIAD
A FISH COMMISSIONER
TO A
STRAY DOG
IN HIS HAND
A DEMAGOGUE
IGNIS
FATUUS
FROM TOP TO BOTTOM
AN IDLER
THE
DEAD KING
A PATTER SONG
A CALLER
THE
SHAFTER SHAFTED

THE MUMMERY
THE TWO CAVEES
METEMPSYCHOSIS
SLICKENS

"PEACEABLE EXPULSION"
ASPIRANTS THREE
THE
BIRTH OF THE RAIL
A BAD NIGHT
ON STONE
A WREATH OF IMMORTELLES
IN EXPLANATION
Many of the verses in this book are republished, with considerable
alterations, from various newspapers. The collection includes few not
relating to persons and events more or less familiar to the people of the
Pacific Coast--to whom the volume may be considered as especially
addressed, though, not without a hope that some part of the contents
may be found to have sufficient intrinsic interest to commend it to
others. In that case, doubtless, commentators will be "raised up" to
make exposition of its full meaning, with possibly an added meaning
read into it by themselves.
Of my motives in writing, and in now republishing, I do not care to
make either defense or explanation, except with reference to those
persons who since my first censure of them have passed away. To one
having only a reader's interest in the matter it may easily seem that the
verses relating to those might more properly have been omitted from
this collection. But if these pieces, or, indeed, if any considerable part
of my work in literature, have the intrinsic worth which by this attempt
to preserve some of it I have assumed, their permanent suppression is
impossible, and it is only a question of when and by whom they shall
be republished. Some one will surely search them out and put them in
circulation.
I conceive it the right of an author to have his fugitive work collected in
his lifetime; and this seems to me especially true of one whose work,
necessarily engendering animosities, is peculiarly exposed to challenge
as unjust. That is a charge that can be best examined before time has

effaced the evidence. For the death of a man of whom I may have
written what I venture to think worthy to live I am no way responsible;
and, however sincerely I may regret it, I can hardly be expected to
consent that it shall affect my fortunes. If the satirist who does not
accept the remarkable doctrine that while condemning the sin he should
spare the sinner were bound to let the life of his work be coterminous
with that of his subject his were a lot of peculiar hardship.
Persuaded of the validity of all this, I have