{"id":"01KG6YHC7E7AYCV4ZZJM4Z6CH4","cid":"bafkreid66xpvyzdkbtcqtpbheubp5xgiuz5on7oyc2dqstvvbew7vyl7fa","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3982,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 16","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":3930,"text":"employment, with a marvelous, noiseless, gliding briskness, not\r\nungraceful in its way, singularly pleasing to behold, and still more so\r\nto be the manipulated subject of. And above all is the great gift of\r\ngood-humor. Not the mere grin or laugh is here meant. Those were\r\nunsuitable. But a certain easy cheerfulness, harmonious in every glance\r\nand gesture; as though God had set the whole negro to some pleasant\r\ntune.\r\n\r\nWhen to this is added the docility arising from the unaspiring\r\ncontentment of a limited mind and that susceptibility of blind\r\nattachment sometimes inhering in indisputable inferiors, one readily\r\nperceives why those hypochondriacs, Johnson and Byron—it may be,\r\nsomething like the hypochondriac Benito Cereno—took to their hearts,\r\nalmost to the exclusion of the entire white race, their serving men,\r\nthe negroes, Barber and Fletcher. But if there be that in the negro\r\nwhich exempts him from the inflicted sourness of the morbid or cynical\r\nmind, how, in his most prepossessing aspects, must he appear to a\r\nbenevolent one? When at ease with respect to exterior things, Captain\r\nDelano’s nature was not only benign, but familiarly and humorously so.\r\nAt home, he had often taken rare satisfaction in sitting in his door,\r\nwatching some free man of color at his work or play. If on a voyage he\r\nchanced to have a black sailor, invariably he was on chatty and\r\nhalf-gamesome terms with him. In fact, like most men of a good, blithe\r\nheart, Captain Delano took to negroes, not philanthropically, but\r\ngenially, just as other men to Newfoundland dogs.\r\n\r\nHitherto, the circumstances in which he found the San Dominick had\r\nrepressed the tendency. But in the cuddy, relieved from his former\r\nuneasiness, and, for various reasons, more sociably inclined than at\r\nany previous period of the day, and seeing the colored servant, napkin\r\non arm, so debonair about his master, in a business so familiar as that\r\nof shaving, too, all his old weakness for negroes returned.\r\n\r\nAmong other things, he was amused with an odd instance of the African\r\nlove of bright colors and fine shows, in the black’s informally taking\r\nfrom the flag-locker a great piece of bunting of all hues, and lavishly\r\ntucking it under his master’s chin for an apron.\r\n\r\nThe mode of shaving among the Spaniards is a little different from what\r\nit is with other nations. They have a basin, specifically called a\r\nbarber’s basin, which on one side is scooped out, so as accurately to\r\nreceive the chin, against which it is closely held in lathering; which\r\nis done, not with a brush, but with soap dipped in the water of the\r\nbasin and rubbed on the face.\r\n\r\nIn the present instance salt-water was used for lack of better; and the\r\nparts lathered were only the upper lip, and low down under the throat,\r\nall the rest being cultivated beard.\r\n\r\nThe preliminaries being somewhat novel to Captain Delano, he sat\r\ncuriously eying them, so that no conversation took place, nor, for the\r\npresent, did Don Benito appear disposed to renew any.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 16"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGRZTEE5859WYJDPVXVM1","peer_type":"intro","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHC7EZ9ZC7FZ7JN4NCEGE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHCV7JJ83AQXAKK8XCDEJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:59.406Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:04.907Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}