{"id":"01KG6YGKP9DAQJVQ4MKGRGTNE7","cid":"bafkreiafh4lc5i7iqzhprdh2mlngplkulzo63mlq5jwoaxzwdzwdxwjtxm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":61,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:34.136Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG6YDD8YHX9PCQE3NTAG8XF1","start_line":10,"text":"I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my avocations for the last\r\nthirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what\r\nwould seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as\r\nyet nothing that I know of has ever been written:—I mean the\r\nlaw-copyists or scriveners. I have known very many of them,\r\nprofessionally and privately, and if I pleased, could relate divers\r\nhistories, at which good-natured gentlemen might smile, and sentimental\r\nsouls might weep. But I waive the biographies of all other scriveners\r\nfor a few passages in the life of Bartleby, who was a scrivener of the\r\nstrangest I ever saw or heard of. While of other law-copyists I might\r\nwrite the complete life, of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done.\r\nI believe that no materials exist for a full and satisfactory biography\r\nof this man. It is an irreparable loss to literature. Bartleby was one\r\nof those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except from the\r\noriginal sources, and in his case those are very small. What my own\r\nastonished eyes saw of Bartleby, _that_ is all I know of him, except,\r\nindeed, one vague report which will appear in the sequel.\r\n\r\nEre introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me, it is fit I\r\nmake some mention of myself, my employés, my business, my chambers, and\r\ngeneral surroundings; because some such description is indispensable to\r\nan adequate understanding of the chief character about to be presented.\r\n\r\nImprimis: I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with\r\na profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best. Hence,\r\nthough I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous,\r\neven to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have I ever\r\nsuffered to invade my peace. I am one of those unambitious lawyers who\r\nnever addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but\r\nin the cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among\r\nrich men’s bonds and mortgages and title-deeds. All who know me,\r\nconsider me an eminently _safe_ man. The late John Jacob Astor, a\r\npersonage little given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in\r\npronouncing my first grand point to be prudence; my next, method. I do\r\nnot speak it in vanity, but simply record the fact, that I was not\r\nunemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which,\r\nI admit, I love to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to\r\nit, and rings like unto bullion. I will freely add, that I was not\r\ninsensible to the late John Jacob Astor’s good opinion.\r\n\r\nSome time prior to the period at which this little history begins, my\r\navocations had been largely increased. The good old office, now extinct\r\nin the State of New York, of a Master in Chancery, had been conferred\r\nupon me. It was not a very arduous office, but very pleasantly\r\nremunerative. I seldom lose my temper; much more seldom indulge in\r\ndangerous indignation at wrongs and outrages; but I must be permitted\r\nto be rash here and declare, that I consider the sudden and violent\r\nabrogation of the office of Master in Chancery, by the new\r\nConstitution, as a—premature act; inasmuch as I had counted upon a\r\nlife-lease of the profits, whereas I only received those of a few short\r\nyears. But this is by the way.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGAX1973VQY5RYMW5WPZ3","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDD8YHX9PCQE3NTAG8XF1","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YGKP72HWRE8A6F0NS735E","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:34.281Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:57:35.859Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}