A conqueror as provident as brave,
He robbed the cradle to supply the grave.
His reign laid quantities of human dust:
He fell upon the just and the unjust.
Ambrose Bierce, (born June 24, 1842, Meigs county, Ohio, U.S.—died 1914, Mexico?), American newspaperman, wit, satirist, poet, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes of death and horror. His life ended in an unsolved mystery. He disappeared in Mexico during Mexico’s horrific civil war.