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Territorial Enterprise, circa December 1865

Tom Maguire
Roused to ire,
Lighted on McDougal;
Tore his coat;
Clutched his throat,
And split him in the bugle.

For shame! oh, fie!
Maguire, why
Will you thus skyugle?
Why curse and swear,
And rip and tear
The innocent McDougal?

Of bones bereft,
Almost, you've left
Vestvale, gentle Jew gal;
And now you've smashed
And almost hashed
The form of poor McDougal!

[reprinted in Mark Twain: A Biography, Albert Bigelow Paine, (Harper and Brothers, 1912), pp. 275-76.]

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