{"id":"01KG8AK8NCQBTGWQ4TAC9H9GEQ","cid":"bafkreiaqmcdsbtnmgiazjvttzmafvp55jzyx4fqlipzgl5xiuuuw6rtewm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7379,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.725Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":7309,"text":"that the least lovable men in history seem to have had for humor not\r\nonly a disrelish, but a hatred; and this, in some cases, along with an\r\nextraordinary dry taste for practical punning. I remember it is related\r\nof Phalaris, the capricious tyrant of Sicily, that he once caused a poor\r\nfellow to be beheaded on a horse-block, for no other cause than having a\r\nhorse-laugh.\"\r\n\r\n\"Funny Phalaris!\"\r\n\r\n\"Cruel Phalaris!\"\r\n\r\nAs after fire-crackers, there was a pause, both looking downward on the\r\ntable as if mutually struck by the contrast of exclamations, and\r\npondering upon its significance, if any. So, at least, it seemed; but on\r\none side it might have been otherwise: for presently glancing up, the\r\ncosmopolitan said: \"In the instance of the moral, drolly cynic, drawn\r\nfrom the queer bacchanalian fellow we were speaking of, who had his\r\nreasons for still drinking spurious wine, though knowing it to be\r\nsuch--there, I say, we have an example of what is certainly a wicked\r\nthought, but conceived in humor. I will now give you one of a wicked\r\nthought conceived in wickedness. You shall compare the two, and answer,\r\nwhether in the one case the sting is not neutralized by the humor, and\r\nwhether in the other the absence of humor does not leave the sting free\r\nplay. I once heard a wit, a mere wit, mind, an irreligious Parisian wit,\r\nsay, with regard to the temperance movement, that none, to their\r\npersonal benefit, joined it sooner than niggards and knaves; because, as\r\nhe affirmed, the one by it saved money and the other made money, as in\r\nship-owners cutting off the spirit ration without giving its equivalent,\r\nand gamblers and all sorts of subtle tricksters sticking to cold water,\r\nthe better to keep a cool head for business.\"\r\n\r\n\"A wicked thought, indeed!\" cried the stranger, feelingly.\r\n\r\n\"Yes,\" leaning over the table on his elbow and genially gesturing at him\r\nwith his forefinger: \"yes, and, as I said, you don't remark the sting of\r\nit?\"\r\n\r\n\"I do, indeed. Most calumnious thought, Frank!\"\r\n\r\n\"No humor in it?\"\r\n\r\n\"Not a bit!\"\r\n\r\n\"Well now, Charlie,\" eying him with moist regard, \"let us drink. It\r\nappears to me you don't drink freely.\"\r\n\r\n\"Oh, oh--indeed, indeed--I am not backward there. I protest, a freer\r\ndrinker than friend Charlie you will find nowhere,\" with feverish zeal\r\nsnatching his glass, but only in the sequel to dally with it.\r\n\"By-the-way, Frank,\" said he, perhaps, or perhaps not, to draw attention\r\nfrom himself, \"by-the-way, I saw a good thing the other day; capital\r\nthing; a panegyric on the press, It pleased me so, I got it by heart at\r\ntwo readings. It is a kind of poetry, but in a form which stands in\r\nsomething the same relation to blank verse which that does to rhyme. A\r\nsort of free-and-easy chant with refrains to it. Shall I recite it?\"\r\n\r\n\"Anything in praise of the press I shall be happy to hear,\" rejoined the\r\ncosmopolitan, \"the more so,\" he gravely proceeded, \"as of late I have\r\nobserved in some quarters a disposition to disparage the press.\"\r\n\r\n\"Disparage the press?\"\r\n\r\n\"Even so; some gloomy souls affirming that it is proving with that great\r\ninvention as with brandy or eau-de-vie, which, upon its first discovery,\r\nwas believed by the doctors to be, as its French name implies, a\r\npanacea--a notion which experience, it may be thought, has not fully\r\nverified.\"\r\n\r\n\"You surprise me, Frank. Are there really those who so decry the press?\r\nTell me more. Their reasons.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJMVDVBGMNVX6KTEX6BBC","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8N60KZBH9FMAFF3JMQJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8N6Z4JGNMXW03NPRQ24","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.636Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:12.232Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}