{"id":"01KG6G86G0DH3XZPBTGZWD8E7Q","cid":"bafkreiawm4lbykt36qia2p2t3g4mpdgl5ierpdviw25hbsgf3jqckbcvc4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8152,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.153Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":8076,"text":"beseechingly, yet unresistingly, they gleamed along, their agony dimly\r\noutlined on the imperfect paper, like the print of the tormented face on\r\nthe handkerchief of Saint Veronica.\r\n\r\n‘Halloa! the heat of the room is too much for you,’ cried Cupid, staring\r\nat me.\r\n\r\n‘No--I am rather chill, if anything.’\r\n\r\n‘Come out, sir--out--out,’ and, with the protecting air of a careful\r\nfather, the precocious lad hurried me outside.\r\n\r\nIn a few moments, feeling revived a little, I went into the\r\nfolding-room--the first room I had entered, and where the desk for\r\ntransacting business stood, surrounded by the blank counters and blank\r\ngirls engaged at them.\r\n\r\n‘Cupid here has led me a strange tour,’ said I to the dark-complexioned\r\nman before mentioned, whom I had ere this discovered not only to be an\r\nold bachelor, but also the principal proprietor. ‘Yours is a most\r\nwonderful factory. Your great machine is a miracle of inscrutable\r\nintricacy.’\r\n\r\n‘Yes, all our visitors think it so. But we don’t have many. We are in a\r\nvery out-of-the-way corner here. Few inhabitants, too. Most of our girls\r\ncome from far-off villages.’\r\n\r\n‘The girls,’ echoed I, glancing round at their silent forms. ‘Why is it,\r\nsir, that in most factories, female operatives, of whatever age, are\r\nindiscriminately called girls, never women?’\r\n\r\n‘Oh! as to that--why, I suppose, the fact of their being generally\r\nunmarried--that’s the reason, I should think. But it never struck me\r\nbefore. For our factory here, we will not have married women; they are\r\napt to be off-and-on too much. We want none but steady workers: twelve\r\nhours to the day, day after day, through the three hundred and\r\nsixty-five days, excepting Sundays, Thanksgiving, and Fast-days. That’s\r\nour rule. And so, having no married women, what females we have are\r\nrightly enough called girls.’\r\n\r\n‘Then these are all maids,’ said I, while some pained homage to their\r\npale virginity made me involuntarily bow.\r\n\r\n‘All maids.’\r\n\r\nAgain the strange emotion filled me.\r\n\r\n‘Your cheeks look whitish yet, sir,’ said the man, gazing at me\r\nnarrowly. ‘You must be careful going home. Do they pain you at all now?\r\nIt’s a bad sign, if they do.’\r\n\r\n‘No doubt, sir,’ answered I, ‘when once I have got out of the Devil’s\r\nDungeon, I shall feel them mending.’\r\n\r\n‘Ah, yes; the winter air in valleys, or gorges, or any sunken place, is\r\nfar colder and more bitter than elsewhere. You would hardly believe it\r\nnow, but it is colder here than at the top of Woedolor Mountain.’\r\n\r\n‘I dare say it is, sir. But time presses me; I must depart.’\r\n\r\nWith that, remuffling myself in dreadnaught and tippet, thrusting my\r\nhands into my huge sealskin mittens, I sallied out into the nipping air,\r\nand found poor Black, my horse, all cringing and doubled up with the\r\ncold.\r\n\r\nSoon, wrapped in furs and meditations, I ascended from the Devil’s\r\nDungeon.\r\n\r\nAt the Black Notch I paused, and once more bethought me of Temple Bar.\r\nThen, shooting through the pass, all alone with inscrutable nature, I\r\nexclaimed--Oh! Paradise of Bachelors! and oh! Tartarus of Maids!\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6QRMJ08SP4KE07FET8A2","peer_type":"article","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G86G0KGKYWVN5GK2KAFY9","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:18.560Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:29.654Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}