Black Beetles in Amber

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Black Beetles in Amber, by Ambrose 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
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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 ?TERNITATIS?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 A?RONAUT?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 not hesitated to reprint even certain "epitaphs" which, once of the living, are now of the dead, as all the others