187 lines
9.8 KiB
Plaintext
187 lines
9.8 KiB
Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 11 Num. 21
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=======================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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LINCOLN POST-ASSASSINATION BODY COUNT
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=====================================
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Suspicious Deaths and Circumstances
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-----------------------------------
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LAFAYETTE BAKER: In his book, *History of the United States
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Secret Service* (1867), Baker "recalled many of the
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post-assassination blunders which [Edwin] Stanton would most
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certainly have preferred to remain forgotten. More embarrassing
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to Stanton, it aroused new interest in [John Wilkes] Booth's
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suppressed diary which, Baker claimed, had been mutilated since
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it had left his possession." (*Anatomy of an Assassination* by
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John Cottrell. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1966) The existence
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of Booth's diary had been kept secret. Baker's book revealed its
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existence. The disclosure created a storm in Congress: Why had
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it been hidden? Booth's diary was recovered from the War
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Department, but 18 pages were missing. (See CN 3.90) In the
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previous issue of Conspiracy Nation (CN 11.20) is shown how Baker
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seems to have persisted in trying to expose a wide conspiracy
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involving Stanton and other very powerful persons as behind the
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death of Abraham Lincoln. Baker feared for his life. In 1867 he
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was "shot at and attacked by someone with a knife on several
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occasions." (Cottrell) In December of 1867, Baker was shot at
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and injured by splinters caused by the bullet striking the door
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of his carriage. By early January of 1868, Baker was complaining
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of being under constant surveillance. This surveillance was
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confirmed by his physician; according to Dr. William Rickards, "I
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saw a man who was skulking up an alley and carefully watching
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General Baker... As I walked along the street I saw another man
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step from an alley further down the street... They were
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definitely following the General." (qtd. in Cottrell) Baker died
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in 1868. He may have been poisoned. Here is part of Dr.
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Rickard's testimony (qtd. in Cottrell):
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Q: Did his symptoms fit the symptoms observed with any
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known poison?
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A: Yes.
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Q: Which poison?
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A: Arsenic.
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Q: In other words, the symptoms shown by General Baker
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show more similarity to arsenic poisoning than they do
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to typhoid fever?
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A: Yes.
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Q: Is it then possible that General Baker died of arsenic
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poisoning?
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A: From a medical standpoint, yes. But I know that he was
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not poisoned.
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Q: How do you know this?
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A: No one had the opportunity.
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MAJOR HENRY RATHBONE AND CLARA HARRIS: They accompanied Mr. and
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Mrs. Lincoln to Ford's Theater on the fatal evening of April 14,
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1865. (The occupants of the box at Ford's Theater did not number
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four, but five. The fifth occupant of the box was Charles
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Forbes, Lincoln's footman and personal attendant. See books by
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Otto Eisenschiml.) Rathbone later married Ms. Harris, then later
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murdered her. Major Rathbone was committed to a lunatic asylum,
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where he remained for the rest of his life.
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PRESTON KING AND SENATOR JAMES HENRY LANE: Mrs. Mary Surratt,
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scapegoated as one of the prime conspirators, was sentenced to
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death by hanging. Her daughter, Anna Surratt, tried to reach
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President Andrew Johnson at the White House to petition for
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clemency. On July 7, 1865 -- execution day -- Anna Surratt,
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weeping for mercy, threw herself on the White House stairs. She
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was turned away by King and Lane. It is likely that, had Anna
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Surratt been able to see Johnson, clemency for Mrs. Mary Surratt
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would have been granted. Conditional to the death sentence
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pronounced against Mrs. Surratt was a provision that a petition
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for mercy would be attached and sent to President Andrew Johnson.
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But Johnson later said he had never received any such petition.
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Writes Cottrell, "Some person or persons were apparently
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determined that Mary Surratt should not live." As to King and
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Lane, who had roadblocked the weeping Anna Surratt from seeing
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President Johnson: Four months after July 7, 1865, Preston King
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tied weights to himself, jumped off a ferry boat, and drowned.
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Eight months after July 7, 1865, Senator Lane shot himself.
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JOHN WILKES BOOTH: There's no question that Booth shot Lincoln.
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There is much doubt, however, whether it was indeed Booth who was
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subsequently shot dead by Sergeant Boston Corbett at Garrett's
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Farm on April 26, 1865. (Corbett, later employed as a doorman by
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the Kansas State Legislature, brought two revolvers to work and
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opened fire on the legislators. He was committed to an insane
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asylum, escaped, then disappeared.) The real John Wilkes Booth
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most likely committed suicide at Enid, Oklahoma, in June of 1903.
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(See past issues of Conspiracy Nation, e.g., CN 3.89, 3.90,
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3.91.) Descendants of Booth obviously had doubts whether it was
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really Booth buried in "Booth's grave": in June of 1995, a
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Baltimore judge refused permission to exhume the supposed body of
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Booth. "Twenty-two descendants of the Booth family asked for the
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exhumations after being contacted by attorneys for two
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researchers who have spent years challenging history books that
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say Booth died of gunshot wounds outside a burning barn in
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Caroline County, Va., on April 26, 1865." (Washington Times
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National Weekly Edition, June 5-11, 1995)
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LOUIS PAINE: On April 17, 1865, Louis Paine, a common laborer,
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innocently knocked on the front door of Mrs. Mary Surratt's
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boarding-house. Perhaps some work needed to be done, thought
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Paine. But poor Mr. Paine knocked at the wrong door at the wrong
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time. Government detectives investigating the Lincoln
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assassination were on the premises. Paine was arrested and later
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charged with conspiring to assassinate Lincoln, Vice-President
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Andrew Johnson, General Grant, and Secretary of State Seward.
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Writes Vaughan Shelton in *Mask for Treason* (Stackpole Books,
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Harrisburg, PA, 1965), "Even today, a century later [1965], his
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[Paine's] image is unchanged from that given him by the
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prosecution at the Conspiracy Trial: A homicidal, half-witted
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brute without a flicker of remorse... But the persistence of the
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prejudice against this young man for a full century... is a
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phenomenon of mass thought-conditioning that has no parallel...
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Of the eight defendants at the Conspiracy Trial HE WAS THE MOST
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INNOCENT."
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MRS. MARY TODD LINCOLN: President Lincoln's widow believed that
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there had been a larger conspiracy, a plot within a plot, behind
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her husband's death. "Ever since her husband's murder, Mary had
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been convinced that John Wilkes Booth was part of a larger
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conspiracy." ("Mary Lincoln's Insanity File," broadcast on The
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Discovery Channel (TDC), 12/29/96) She was far from alone in this
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belief: "It was widely believed in 1865 and during the years
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that followed that President Lincoln was the victim of a gigantic
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conspiracy. Many held that he had been betrayed by his own
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government. Far fewer accepted the official explanation that his
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death was merely the work of a mentally disturbed actor and a
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tiny band of fanatical conspirators." (Cottrell, inside jacket
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cover) On June 30, 1865, when the military tribunal reached its
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verdict and sentenced David E. Herold, Louis Paine, Mrs. Surratt,
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and George A. Atzerodt to be hung, a crowd of citizens outside
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responded to the verdict with angry shouts of "Judicial murder!"
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Mrs. Lincoln, a potential voice to challenge the cover-up, was
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savagely attacked by the newspapers. Said the Chicago Journal,
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"She is insane." Mrs. Lincoln is quoted as follows (TDC): "A
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piece in the Morning Tribune says there is no doubt I'm deranged,
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have been for years past, and will end up in a lunatic asylum."
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But an expert on the TDC program says now that Mary's so-called
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"insanity" was in a 19th-century context: "We're talking about a
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society that's getting less and less willing to deal with
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eccentrics... For some reason, this sense of tolerance
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disappears in the United States." By around 1875, Mrs. Lincoln
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was "hearing strange voices" and had "fears of murder." She had
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reportedly said to her son, Robert Lincoln, "You're going to
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murder me." Through treachery and trickery involving her son,
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Robert, and others, Mary Lincoln was involuntarily committed to
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an insane asylum. But within 10 months, thanks largely to the
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efforts of a pioneering female attorney in Illinois, Myra
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Bradwell, Mary Lincoln was released. Said Bradwell: "She is no
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more insane than you or I." Mary Lincoln died, a recluse, in
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Springfield, Illinois, on July 16, 1882.
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(This has been a preliminary report. Other names may be added in
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the future.)
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+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
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For related stories, visit:
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http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
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http://feustel.mixi.net
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those
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of Conspiracy Nation, nor of its Editor in Chief.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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New mailing list: leave message in the old hollow tree stump.
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc?
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(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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