{"id":"01KG8AK7Y95SSAYG668FSFNZXT","cid":"bafkreicpm2hpajr56firljwyrvsxzhlsepdk3hnxkw4hziuzry5mtmatda","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":536,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":439,"text":"CHAPTER II.\r\n\r\nSHOWING THAT MANY MEN HAVE MANY MINDS.\r\n\r\n\r\n\"Odd fish!\"\r\n\r\n\"Poor fellow!\"\r\n\r\n\"Who can he be?\"\r\n\r\n\"Casper Hauser.\"\r\n\r\n\"Bless my soul!\"\r\n\r\n\"Uncommon countenance.\"\r\n\r\n\"Green prophet from Utah.\"\r\n\r\n\"Humbug!\"\r\n\r\n\"Singular innocence.\"\r\n\r\n\"Means something.\"\r\n\r\n\"Spirit-rapper.\"\r\n\r\n\"Moon-calf.\"\r\n\r\n\"Piteous.\"\r\n\r\n\"Trying to enlist interest.\"\r\n\r\n\"Beware of him.\"\r\n\r\n\"Fast asleep here, and, doubtless, pick-pockets on board.\"\r\n\r\n\"Kind of daylight Endymion.\"\r\n\r\n\"Escaped convict, worn out with dodging.\"\r\n\r\n\"Jacob dreaming at Luz.\"\r\n\r\nSuch the epitaphic comments, conflictingly spoken or thought, of a\r\nmiscellaneous company, who, assembled on the overlooking, cross-wise\r\nbalcony at the forward end of the upper deck near by, had not witnessed\r\npreceding occurrences.\r\n\r\nMeantime, like some enchanted man in his grave, happily oblivious of all\r\ngossip, whether chiseled or chatted, the deaf and dumb stranger still\r\ntranquilly slept, while now the boat started on her voyage.\r\n\r\nThe great ship-canal of Ving-King-Ching, in the Flowery Kingdom, seems\r\nthe Mississippi in parts, where, amply flowing between low, vine-tangled\r\nbanks, flat as tow-paths, it bears the huge toppling steamers, bedizened\r\nand lacquered within like imperial junks.\r\n\r\nPierced along its great white bulk with two tiers of small\r\nembrasure-like windows, well above the waterline, the Fiddle, though,\r\nmight at distance have been taken by strangers for some whitewashed fort\r\non a floating isle.\r\n\r\nMerchants on 'change seem the passengers that buzz on her decks, while,\r\nfrom quarters unseen, comes a murmur as of bees in the comb. Fine\r\npromenades, domed saloons, long galleries, sunny balconies, confidential\r\npassages, bridal chambers, state-rooms plenty as pigeon-holes, and\r\nout-of-the-way retreats like secret drawers in an escritoire, present\r\nlike facilities for publicity or privacy. Auctioneer or coiner, with\r\nequal ease, might somewhere here drive his trade.\r\n\r\nThough her voyage of twelve hundred miles extends from apple to orange,\r\nfrom clime to clime, yet, like any small ferry-boat, to right and left,\r\nat every landing, the huge Fidèle still receives additional passengers\r\nin exchange for those that disembark; so that, though always full of\r\nstrangers, she continually, in some degree, adds to, or replaces them\r\nwith strangers still more strange; like Rio Janeiro fountain, fed from\r\nthe Cocovarde mountains, which is ever overflowing with strange waters,\r\nbut never with the same strange particles in every part.\r\n\r\nThough hitherto, as has been seen, the man in cream-colors had by no\r\nmeans passed unobserved, yet by stealing into retirement, and there\r\ngoing asleep and continuing so, he seemed to have courted oblivion, a\r\nboon not often withheld from so humble an applicant as he. Those staring\r\ncrowds on the shore were now left far behind, seen dimly clustering like\r\nswallows on eaves; while the passengers' attention was soon drawn away\r\nto the rapidly shooting high bluffs and shot-towers on the Missouri\r\nshore, or the bluff-looking Missourians and towering Kentuckians among\r\nthe throngs on the decks.\r\n\r\nBy-and-by--two or three random stoppages having been made, and the last\r\ntransient memory of the slumberer vanished, and he himself, not\r\nunlikely, waked up and landed ere now--the crowd, as is usual, began in\r\nall parts to break up from a concourse into various clusters or squads,\r\nwhich in some cases disintegrated again into quartettes, trios, and\r\ncouples, or even solitaires; involuntarily submitting to that natural\r\nlaw which ordains dissolution equally to the mass, as in time to the\r\nmember.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRS66HJN1RR57K9T3AE","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK7Y9NWXK2VY8T0KEQQVR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.897Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:06.063Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}