{"id":"01KG8AKDAG4E6KTF31X4T17F80","cid":"bafkreiesxoxhasi6yh3afxsnbpnkx7cygxkqxt2fifjfzkntcp4kjphzmi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5870,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.722Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 11","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":5785,"text":"Some boys know not virtue only for the same reason they know not French;\r\nit was never taught them. Established upon the basis of parental\r\ncharity, juvenile asylums exist by law for the benefit of lads convicted\r\nof acts which, in adults, would have received other requital. Why?\r\nBecause, do what they will, society, like our office, at bottom has a\r\nChristian confidence in boys. And all this we say to our patrons.\"\r\n\r\n\"Your patrons, sir, seem your marines to whom you may say anything,\"\r\nsaid the other, relapsing. \"Why do knowing employers shun youths from\r\nasylums, though offered them at the smallest wages? I'll none of your\r\nreformado boys.\"\r\n\r\n\"Such a boy, respected sir, I would not get for you, but a boy that\r\nnever needed reform. Do not smile, for as whooping-cough and measles are\r\njuvenile diseases, and yet some juveniles never have them, so are there\r\nboys equally free from juvenile vices. True, for the best of boys'\r\nmeasles may be contagious, and evil communications corrupt good manners;\r\nbut a boy with a sound mind in a sound body--such is the boy I would get\r\nyou. If hitherto, sir, you have struck upon a peculiarly bad vein of\r\nboys, so much the more hope now of your hitting a good one.\"\r\n\r\n\"That sounds a kind of reasonable, as it were--a little so, really. In\r\nfact, though you have said a great many foolish things, very foolish and\r\nabsurd things, yet, upon the whole, your conversation has been such as\r\nmight almost lead one less distrustful than I to repose a certain\r\nconditional confidence in you, I had almost added in your office, also.\r\nNow, for the humor of it, supposing that even I, I myself, really had\r\nthis sort of conditional confidence, though but a grain, what sort of a\r\nboy, in sober fact, could you send me? And what would be your fee?\"\r\n\r\n\"Conducted,\" replied the other somewhat loftily, rising now in eloquence\r\nas his proselyte, for all his pretenses, sunk in conviction, \"conducted\r\nupon principles involving care, learning, and labor, exceeding what is\r\nusual in kindred institutions, the Philosophical Intelligence Office is\r\nforced to charge somewhat higher than customary. Briefly, our fee is\r\nthree dollars in advance. As for the boy, by a lucky chance, I have a\r\nvery promising little fellow now in my eye--a very likely little fellow,\r\nindeed.\"\r\n\r\n\"Honest?\"\r\n\r\n\"As the day is long. Might trust him with untold millions. Such, at\r\nleast, were the marginal observations on the phrenological chart of his\r\nhead, submitted to me by the mother.\"\r\n\r\n\"How old?\"\r\n\r\n\"Just fifteen.\"\r\n\r\n\"Tall? Stout?\"\r\n\r\n\"Uncommonly so, for his age, his mother remarked.\"\r\n\r\n\"Industrious?\"\r\n\r\n\"The busy bee.\"\r\n\r\nThe bachelor fell into a troubled reverie. At last, with much hesitancy,\r\nhe spoke:\r\n\r\n\"Do you think now, candidly, that--I say candidly--candidly--could I\r\nhave some small, limited--some faint, conditional degree of confidence\r\nin that boy? Candidly, now?\"\r\n\r\n\"Candidly, you could.\"\r\n\r\n\"A sound boy? A good boy?\"\r\n\r\n\"Never knew one more so.\"\r\n\r\nThe bachelor fell into another irresolute reverie; then said: \"Well,\r\nnow, you have suggested some rather new views of boys, and men, too.\r\nUpon those views in the concrete I at present decline to determine.\r\nNevertheless, for the sake purely of a scientific experiment, I will try\r\nthat boy. I don't think him an angel, mind. No, no. But I'll try him.\r\nThere are my three dollars, and here is my address. Send him along this\r\nday two weeks. Hold, you will be wanting the money for his passage.\r\nThere,\" handing it somewhat reluctantly.\r\n\r\n\"Ah, thank you. I had forgotten his passage;\" then, altering in manner,\r\nand gravely holding the bills, continued: \"Respected sir, never\r\nwillingly do I handle money not with perfect willingness, nay, with a\r\ncertain alacrity, paid. Either tell me that you have a perfect and\r\nunquestioning confidence in me (never mind the boy now) or permit me\r\nrespectfully to return these bills.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 11"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJM4RS4GSX8JEXTB47AGF","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKDA41H1G37GNHX9QMS64","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKDA4QH7SEV7TC6HCBNK8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:03.408Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:10.577Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}