<h2>THE SOCIETY UPON THE STANISLAUS</h2>
<h3>BY BRET HARTE</h3>
<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">I reside at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">I am not up to small deceit, or any sinful games;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And I'll tell in simple language what I know about the row<br/></span>
<span class="i0">That broke up our society upon the Stanislow.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">But first I would remark, that it is not a proper plan<br/></span>
<span class="i0">For any scientific man to whale his fellow-man,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And, if a member don't agree with his peculiar whim,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">To lay for that same member for to "put a head" on him.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Now, nothing could be finer or more beautiful to see<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Than the first six months' proceedings of that same society,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Till Brown of Calaveras brought a lot of fossil bones<br/></span>
<span class="i0">That he found within a tunnel near the tenement of Jones.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Then Brown he read a paper, and he reconstructed there,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">From those same bones, an animal that was extremely rare;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And Jones then asked the Chair for a suspension of the rules,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Till he could prove that those same bones was one of his lost mules.</span><span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1079" id="Page_1079"></SPAN></span><br/></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Then Brown he smiled a bitter smile and said he was at fault,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">It seemed he had been trespassing on Jones's family vault;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">He was a most sarcastic man, this quiet Mr. Brown,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And on several occasions he had cleaned out the town.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Now, I hold it is not decent for a scientific gent<br/></span>
<span class="i0">To say another is an ass—at least, to all intent;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Nor should the individual who happens to be meant<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Reply by heaving rocks at him to any great extent.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">Then Abner Dean of Angel's raised a point of order, when<br/></span>
<span class="i0">A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And he smiled a kind of sickly smile, and curled up on the floor,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">For, in less time than I write it, every member did engage<br/></span>
<span class="i0">In a warfare with the remnants of a palæozoic age;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And the way they heaved those fossils in their anger was a sin,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">Till the skull of an old mammoth caved the head of Thompson in.<br/></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<span class="i0">And this is all I have to say of these improper games,<br/></span>
<span class="i0">For I live at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James;<br/></span>
<span class="i0">And I've told, in simple language, what I know about the row<br/></span>
<span class="i0">That broke up our society upon the Stanislow.<br/></span>
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN name="Page_1080" id="Page_1080"></SPAN></span></div>
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