<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">The Damnedest Finest Ruins</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">Put me somewhere west of East Street where there's nothin' left but dust,</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">Where the lads are all a hustlin' and where everything's gone bust,</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">Where the buildin's that are standin' sort of blink and blindly stare</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">At the damndest finest ruins ever gazed on anywhere.</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">Bully ruins - bricks and wall - through the night I've heard you call</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">Sort of sorry for each other cause you had to burn and fall.</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">From the Ferries to Van Ness you're a God-forsaken mess,</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">But the damndest finest ruins - nothin' more or nothin' less.</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">The strangers who come rubberin' and a huntin' souvenirs,</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">The fools they try to tell us it will take a million years</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">Before we can get started, so why don't we come and live</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">And build our homes and factories upon land they've got to give.</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">"Got to give"! why, on my soul, I would rather bore a hole</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">And live right in the ashes than even move to Oakland's mole,</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">If they'd all give me my pick of their buildin's proud and slick</div>
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<td valign="middle" style="width: 982.0px" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class="">In the damndest finest ruins still I'd rather be a brick!</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35); min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div>
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</table><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- L. W. Harris</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: rgb(35, 35, 35);" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>(After the San Francisco earthquake April 18, 1906)</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div>
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