{"id":"01KG8AK8MY4WE1ETW0CKMNQ4H6","cid":"bafkreiaba3kw6v7well7y4rvyv4shhrywu3fjnifb72g5q45drymsd3f7m","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1205,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":1141,"text":"Assistance being received, the stranger's manner assumed a kind and\r\ndegree of decorum which, under the circumstances, seemed almost\r\ncoldness. After some words, not over ardent, and yet not exactly\r\ninappropriate, he took leave, making a bow which had one knows not what\r\nof a certain chastened independence about it; as if misery, however\r\nburdensome, could not break down self-respect, nor gratitude, however\r\ndeep, humiliate a gentleman.\r\n\r\nHe was hardly yet out of sight, when he paused as if thinking; then with\r\nhastened steps returning to the merchant, \"I am just reminded that the\r\npresident, who is also transfer-agent, of the Black Rapids Coal Company,\r\nhappens to be on board here, and, having been subpoenaed as witness in a\r\nstock case on the docket in Kentucky, has his transfer-book with him. A\r\nmonth since, in a panic contrived by artful alarmists, some credulous\r\nstock-holders sold out; but, to frustrate the aim of the alarmists, the\r\nCompany, previously advised of their scheme, so managed it as to get\r\ninto its own hands those sacrificed shares, resolved that, since a\r\nspurious panic must be, the panic-makers should be no gainers by it. The\r\nCompany, I hear, is now ready, but not anxious, to redispose of those\r\nshares; and having obtained them at their depressed value, will now sell\r\nthem at par, though, prior to the panic, they were held at a handsome\r\nfigure above. That the readiness of the Company to do this is not\r\ngenerally known, is shown by the fact that the stock still stands on the\r\ntransfer-book in the Company's name, offering to one in funds a rare\r\nchance for investment. For, the panic subsiding more and more every day,\r\nit will daily be seen how it originated; confidence will be more than\r\nrestored; there will be a reaction; from the stock's descent its rise\r\nwill be higher than from no fall, the holders trusting themselves to\r\nfear no second fate.\"\r\n\r\nHaving listened at first with curiosity, at last with interest, the\r\nmerchant replied to the effect, that some time since, through friends\r\nconcerned with it, he had heard of the company, and heard well of it,\r\nbut was ignorant that there had latterly been fluctuations. He added\r\nthat he was no speculator; that hitherto he had avoided having to do\r\nwith stocks of any sort, but in the present case he really felt\r\nsomething like being tempted. \"Pray,\" in conclusion, \"do you think that\r\nupon a pinch anything could be transacted on board here with the\r\ntransfer-agent? Are you acquainted with him?\"\r\n\r\n\"Not personally. I but happened to hear that he was a passenger. For the\r\nrest, though it might be somewhat informal, the gentleman might not\r\nobject to doing a little business on board. Along the Mississippi, you\r\nknow, business is not so ceremonious as at the East.\"\r\n\r\n\"True,\" returned the merchant, and looked down a moment in thought,\r\nthen, raising his head quickly, said, in a tone not so benign as his\r\nwonted one, \"This would seem a rare chance, indeed; why, upon first\r\nhearing it, did you not snatch at it? I mean for yourself!\"\r\n\r\n\"I?--would it had been possible!\"\r\n\r\nNot without some emotion was this said, and not without some\r\nembarrassment was the reply. \"Ah, yes, I had forgotten.\"\r\n\r\nUpon this, the stranger regarded him with mild gravity, not a little\r\ndisconcerting; the more so, as there was in it what seemed the aspect\r\nnot alone of the superior, but, as it were, the rebuker; which sort of\r\nbearing, in a beneficiary towards his benefactor, looked strangely\r\nenough; none the less, that, somehow, it sat not altogether unbecomingly\r\nupon the beneficiary, being free from anything like the appearance of\r\nassumption, and mixed with a kind of painful conscientiousness, as\r\nthough nothing but a proper sense of what he owed to himself swayed him.\r\nAt length he spoke:\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRS9JWFH12MSZTF7QA5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8MY566832WKV3CXK116","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8N5E3T8ES11TEP3Z027","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.622Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.509Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}