{"id":"01KG8AK7YK8NQ6C6Z011H1DHD5","cid":"bafkreibzqdxta43y7ihrrjxjpwiwlwzg4axid2eglvdruc25vfkqwvqeiq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":823,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":740,"text":"question of a bystander, umbrella in hand; a middle-aged person, a\r\ncountry merchant apparently, whose natural good-feeling had been made at\r\nleast cautious by the unnatural ill-feeling of the discharged\r\ncustom-house officer.\r\n\r\n\"Where are we to find them?\" half-rebukefully echoed the young Episcopal\r\nclergymen. \"I will go find one to begin with,\" he quickly added, and,\r\nwith kind haste suiting the action to the word, away he went.\r\n\r\n\"Wild goose chase!\" croaked he with the wooden leg, now again drawing\r\nnigh. \"Don't believe there's a soul of them aboard. Did ever beggar have\r\nsuch heaps of fine friends? He can walk fast enough when he tries, a\r\ngood deal faster than I; but he can lie yet faster. He's some white\r\noperator, betwisted and painted up for a decoy. He and his friends are\r\nall humbugs.\"\r\n\r\n\"Have you no charity, friend?\" here in self-subdued tones, singularly\r\ncontrasted with his unsubdued person, said a Methodist minister,\r\nadvancing; a tall, muscular, martial-looking man, a Tennessean by birth,\r\nwho in the Mexican war had been volunteer chaplain to a volunteer\r\nrifle-regiment.\r\n\r\n\"Charity is one thing, and truth is another,\" rejoined he with the\r\nwooden leg: \"he's a rascal, I say.\"\r\n\r\n\"But why not, friend, put as charitable a construction as one can upon\r\nthe poor fellow?\" said the soldierlike Methodist, with increased\r\ndifficulty maintaining a pacific demeanor towards one whose own asperity\r\nseemed so little to entitle him to it: \"he looks honest, don't he?\"\r\n\r\n\"Looks are one thing, and facts are another,\" snapped out the other\r\nperversely; \"and as to your constructions, what construction can you put\r\nupon a rascal, but that a rascal he is?\"\r\n\r\n\"Be not such a Canada thistle,\" urged the Methodist, with something less\r\nof patience than before. \"Charity, man, charity.\"\r\n\r\n\"To where it belongs with your charity! to heaven with it!\" again\r\nsnapped out the other, diabolically; \"here on earth, true charity dotes,\r\nand false charity plots. Who betrays a fool with a kiss, the charitable\r\nfool has the charity to believe is in love with him, and the charitable\r\nknave on the stand gives charitable testimony for his comrade in the\r\nbox.\"\r\n\r\n\"Surely, friend,\" returned the noble Methodist, with much ado\r\nrestraining his still waxing indignation--\"surely, to say the least, you\r\nforget yourself. Apply it home,\" he continued, with exterior calmness\r\ntremulous with inkept emotion. \"Suppose, now, I should exercise no\r\ncharity in judging your own character by the words which have fallen\r\nfrom you; what sort of vile, pitiless man do you think I would take you\r\nfor?\"\r\n\r\n\"No doubt\"--with a grin--\"some such pitiless man as has lost his piety\r\nin much the same way that the jockey loses his honesty.\"\r\n\r\n\"And how is that, friend?\" still conscientiously holding back the old\r\nAdam in him, as if it were a mastiff he had by the neck.\r\n\r\n\"Never you mind how it is\"--with a sneer; \"but all horses aint virtuous,\r\nno more than all men kind; and come close to, and much dealt with, some\r\nthings are catching. When you find me a virtuous jockey, I will find you\r\na benevolent wise man.\"\r\n\r\n\"Some insinuation there.\"\r\n\r\n\"More fool you that are puzzled by it.\"\r\n\r\n\"Reprobate!\" cried the other, his indignation now at last almost boiling\r\nover; \"godless reprobate! if charity did not restrain me, I could call\r\nyou by names you deserve.\"\r\n\r\n\"Could you, indeed?\" with an insolent sneer.\r\n\r\n\"Yea, and teach you charity on the spot,\" cried the goaded Methodist,\r\nsuddenly catching this exasperating opponent by his shabby coat-collar,\r\nand shaking him till his timber-toe clattered on the deck like a\r\nnine-pin. \"You took me for a non-combatant did you?--thought, seedy\r\ncoward that you are, that you could abuse a Christian with impunity. You\r\nfind your mistake\"--with another hearty shake.\r\n\r\n\"Well said and better done, church militant!\" cried a voice.\r\n\r\n\"The white cravat against the world!\" cried another.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRSNK48TP0DBRXSP9PH","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK7Y9WXDN417JDMQBAD7G","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK7YK1M53NCSY90J4J601","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.907Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.358Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}