{"id":"01KG6YH92MQ1AJSGSG6SW8KGN0","cid":"bafkreianysqbjw6sl2iep2ornelgnynhwhtc36od5nduovyjj6jsnxrjau","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":716,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":655,"text":"abrogation 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\nMy chambers were up stairs, at No. —— Wall street. At one end, they\r\nlooked upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious skylight\r\nshaft, penetrating the building from top to bottom.\r\n\r\nThis view might have been considered rather tame than otherwise,\r\ndeficient in what landscape painters call “life.” But, if so, the view\r\nfrom the other end of my chambers offered, at least, a contrast, if\r\nnothing more. In that direction, my windows commanded an unobstructed\r\nview of a lofty brick wall, black by age and everlasting shade; which\r\nwall required no spy-glass to bring out its lurking beauties, but, for\r\nthe benefit of all near-sighted spectators, was pushed up to within ten\r\nfeet of my window panes. Owing to the great height of the surrounding\r\nbuildings, and my chambers being on the second floor, the interval\r\nbetween this wall and mine not a little resembled a huge square\r\ncistern.\r\n\r\nAt the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons\r\nas copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy.\r\nFirst, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut. These may seem\r\nnames, the like of which are not usually found in the Directory. In\r\ntruth, they were nicknames, mutually conferred upon each other by my\r\nthree clerks, and were deemed expressive of their respective persons or\r\ncharacters. Turkey was a short, pursy Englishman, of about my own\r\nage—that is, somewhere not far from sixty. In the morning, one might\r\nsay, his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o’clock,\r\nmeridian—his dinner hour—it blazed like a grate full of Christmas\r\ncoals; and continued blazing—but, as it were, with a gradual wane—till\r\nsix o’clock, P.M., or thereabouts; after which, I saw no more of the\r\nproprietor of the face, which, gaining its meridian with the sun,\r\nseemed to set with it, to rise, culminate, and decline the following\r\nday, with the like regularity and undiminished glory. There are many\r\nsingular coincidences I have known in the course of my life, not the\r\nleast among which was the fact, that, exactly when Turkey displayed his\r\nfullest beams from his red and radiant countenance, just then, too, at\r\nthat critical moment, began the daily period when I considered his\r\nbusiness capacities as seriously disturbed for the remainder of the\r\ntwenty-four hours. Not that he was absolutely idle, or averse to\r\nbusiness, then; far from it. The difficulty was, he was apt to be\r\naltogether too energetic. There was a strange, inflamed, flurried,\r\nflighty recklessness of activity about him. He would be incautious in\r\ndipping his pen into his inkstand. All his blots upon my documents were\r\ndropped there after twelve o’clock, meridian. Indeed, not only would he\r\nbe reckless, and sadly given to making blots in the afternoon, but,\r\nsome days, he went further, and was rather noisy. At such times, too,\r\nhis face flamed with augmented blazonry, as if cannel coal had been\r\nheaped on anthracite. He made an unpleasant racket with his chair;\r\nspilled his sand-box; in mending his pens, impatiently split them all\r\nto pieces, and threw them on the floor in a sudden passion; stood up,\r\nand leaned over his table, boxing his papers about in a most indecorous\r\nmanner, very sad to behold in an elderly man like him. Nevertheless, as\r\nhe was in many ways a most valuable person to me, and all the time\r\nbefore twelve o’clock, meridian, was the quickest, steadiest creature,\r\ntoo, accomplishing a great deal of work in a style not easily to be\r\nmatched—for these reasons, I was willing to overlook his\r\neccentricities, though, indeed, occasionally, I remonstrated with him.\r\nI did this very gently, however, because, though the civilest, nay, the\r\nblandest and most reverential of men in the morning, yet, in the\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGB7ZQ9TDECCV6B9DR6PT","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YH92DDD7EXTHWF4ZBYAY7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YH92D8AHGCVRE4P7NCXZ6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:56.180Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:02.242Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}