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Society Upon The Stanislaus

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<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h3>THE SOCIETY UPON THE STANISLAUS</h3> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">I reside at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James;</div> <div class="verse">I am not up to small deceit, or any sinful games;</div> <div class="verse">And I’ll tell in simple language what I know about the row</div> <div class="verse">That broke up our Society upon the Stanislow.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">But first I would remark, that it is not a proper plan</div> <div class="verse">For any scientific gent to whale his fellow-man,</div> <div class="verse">And, if a member don’t agree with his peculiar whim,</div> <div class="verse">To lay for that same member for to “put a head” on him.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now, nothing could be finer or more beautiful to see</div> <div class="verse">Than the first six months’ proceedings of that same society,</div> <div class="verse">Till Brown of Calaveras brought a lot of fossil bones</div> <div class="verse">That he found within a tunnel near the tenement of Jones.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse"><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</SPAN></span>Then Brown he read a paper, and he reconstructed there,</div> <div class="verse">From those same bones an animal that was extremely rare,</div> <div class="verse">And Jones then asked the chair for a suspension of the rules,</div> <div class="verse">Till he could prove that those same bones was one of his lost mules.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then Brown he smiled a bitter smile, and said he was at fault;</div> <div class="verse">It seemed he had been trespassing on Jones’s family vault:</div> <div class="verse">He was a most sarcastic man, this quiet Mr. Brown,</div> <div class="verse">And on several occasions he had cleaned out the town.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Now, I hold it is not decent for a scientific gent</div> <div class="verse">To say another is an ass—at least, to all intent;</div> <div class="verse">Nor should the individual who happens to be meant</div> <div class="verse">Reply by heaving rocks at him to any great extent.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Then Abner Dean of Angel’s raised a point of order—when</div> <div class="verse">A chunk of old red sandstone took him in the abdomen,</div> <div class="verse">And he smiled a kind of sickly smile, and curled up on the floor,</div> <div class="verse">And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">For, in less time than I write it, every member did engage</div> <div class="verse">In a warfare with the remnants of a palæozoic age;</div> <div class="verse">And the way they heaved those fossils in their anger was a sin,</div> <div class="verse">Till the skull of an old mammoth caved the head of Thompson in.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">And this is all I have to say of these improper games,</div> <div class="verse">For I live at Table Mountain, and my name is Truthful James;</div> <div class="verse">And I’ve told in simple language what I know about the row</div> <div class="verse">That broke up our Society upon the Stanislow.</div> </div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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