{"id":"01KG8AKB7PB60B277EFXB19HH8","cid":"bafkreibdman7tfik5nqcapoqln6423tw3vnhuik2bs5rxemnlkos5rkjdi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3807,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":3753,"text":"CHAPTER XVII.\r\n\r\nTOWARDS THE END OF WHICH THE HERB-DOCTOR PROVES HIMSELF A FORGIVER OF\r\nINJURIES.\r\n\r\n\r\nIn a kind of ante-cabin, a number of respectable looking people, male\r\nand female, way-passengers, recently come on board, are listlessly\r\nsitting in a mutually shy sort of silence.\r\n\r\nHolding up a small, square bottle, ovally labeled with the engraving of\r\na countenance full of soft pity as that of the Romish-painted Madonna,\r\nthe herb-doctor passes slowly among them, benignly urbane, turning this\r\nway and that, saying:--\r\n\r\n\"Ladies and gentlemen, I hold in my hand here the Samaritan Pain\r\nDissuader, thrice-blessed discovery of that disinterested friend of\r\nhumanity whose portrait you see. Pure vegetable extract. Warranted to\r\nremove the acutest pain within less than ten minutes. Five hundred\r\ndollars to be forfeited on failure. Especially efficacious in heart\r\ndisease and tic-douloureux. Observe the expression of this pledged\r\nfriend of humanity.--Price only fifty cents.\"\r\n\r\nIn vain. After the first idle stare, his auditors--in pretty good\r\nhealth, it seemed--instead of encouraging his politeness, appeared, if\r\nanything, impatient of it; and, perhaps, only diffidence, or some small\r\nregard for his feelings, prevented them from telling him so. But,\r\ninsensible to their coldness, or charitably overlooking it, he more\r\nwooingly than ever resumed: \"May I venture upon a small supposition?\r\nHave I your kind leave, ladies and gentlemen?\"\r\n\r\nTo which modest appeal, no one had the kindness to answer a syllable.\r\n\r\n\"Well,\" said he, resignedly, \"silence is at least not denial, and may be\r\nconsent. My supposition is this: possibly some lady, here present, has a\r\ndear friend at home, a bed-ridden sufferer from spinal complaint. If so,\r\nwhat gift more appropriate to that sufferer than this tasteful little\r\nbottle of Pain Dissuader?\"\r\n\r\nAgain he glanced about him, but met much the same reception as before.\r\nThose faces, alien alike to sympathy or surprise, seemed patiently to\r\nsay, \"We are travelers; and, as such, must expect to meet, and quietly\r\nput up with, many antic fools, and more antic quacks.\"\r\n\r\n\"Ladies and gentlemen,\" (deferentially fixing his eyes upon their now\r\nself-complacent faces) \"ladies and gentlemen, might I, by your kind\r\nleave, venture upon one other small supposition? It is this: that there\r\nis scarce a sufferer, this noonday, writhing on his bed, but in his hour\r\nhe sat satisfactorily healthy and happy; that the Samaritan Pain\r\nDissuader is the one only balm for that to which each living\r\ncreature--who knows?--may be a draughted victim, present or prospective.\r\nIn short:--Oh, Happiness on my right hand, and oh, Security on my left,\r\ncan ye wisely adore a Providence, and not think it wisdom to\r\nprovide?--Provide!\" (Uplifting the bottle.)\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJKFFWK119C29H84DSW9M","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKB8EVC7KX78A22GM8SXE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:01.270Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:08.740Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}