{"id":"01KG6GMTCDX9C19XHN7MJ4X8E7","cid":"bafkreibtcm72gjyuet3ujfaxrdwjv2b5kd36eg72c2oa4oifbelp4fofia","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11589,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.883Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 17","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":11548,"text":"orthodox Calvinist can with any adequacy appreciate the sublime\r\ndisinterestedness of their patriotism, since from his point of view, not\r\nalone did our heroes jeopardise their lives for us, but mortally\r\nendangered their souls. And for what? Oh futility! in the attempts to\r\nterrorise enemies who, being our own countrymen, of course, refused to\r\nbe terrified, though in the end fate, working through force, made them\r\nsuccumb.\r\n\r\nThough of all men Jack be the least exclusive as to the company he\r\nkeeps, and is anything but bumptious in his manner, there have not been\r\nwanting detractors who have insinuated a charge against him rather\r\nserious in a democratic community, namely, not alone a tendency to the\r\naristocratic in general, but a weakness for certain gewgaws, that savour\r\nof the monarchical. True, at certain grand banquets, where as an\r\nhonorary guest he sits at the high table, banquets more especially of\r\nthose national societies wherewith our cosmopolitan city abounds--the\r\nSt. Denis, St. Nicholas, St. Patrick, St. George, St. Andrew; on these\r\noccasions the Major a little lays himself open to invidious suspicion by\r\nwearing on his left lapel the eagle wings in gold of the Cincinnati, a\r\nvenerable order whereof he who still reigns ‘first in the hearts of his\r\ncountrymen’ was the original head. This decoration descended to the\r\nMajor from his great-grandfather, a South Carolinian, a white-haired\r\ncaptain of infantry at the battle of Saratoga Springs, who therefore,\r\nbeing eligible as a Revolutionary officer, was enrolled in the order\r\nupon its formation just after the Peace.\r\n\r\nNow, an inherited badge of the Cincinnati, every American, however ultra\r\nin his democracy, must allow to be something of which no other American\r\nneed be ashamed. As the Major himself once demanded, and with some\r\nanimation--‘Compared with this bit of old gold,’ tapping it with his\r\nhand, ‘what is the insignia of the Knights of the Golden Fleece or the\r\nKnights of the Spanish Order of the Holy Ghost? Gimcracks, sir! and the\r\nlast, in fact as in name, but a ghostly sort of vanity.’\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n            TO MAJOR JOHN GENTIAN, DEAN OF THE BURGUNDY CLUB\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 17"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK9PNVA7517VNR0NXKXAW","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMTCAW2EEZA26B87HJRZ1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMTCGX0B5XYY035VZY3NZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:12.141Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:21.949Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}