The Deed Vs. Assessment Rolls Poem by Samuel Alfred Beadle

The real estate assessment roll
Would be but plundering per se,
If still the courts did not control
And hold that deeds convey the fee.


Like holy writ and creed of fane,
Heart to heart, and cheek by jowl,
The courts their virtues still retain,
And keep the deed above the roll.


By it they stand, by it they fall,
What e'er the ambiguities,
They look to its intrinsic call,
For metes and bounds efficiencies.


And if they should consult a clue,
The deed itself must furnish that;
That rolls are not the points of view,
The courts stand uniformly 'pat.'