{"id":"01KG8AKSG7EKV1P241BMZ3JX86","cid":"bafkreieh7aqae54fsrwuviupekvym4em7jtu632xfiretzmzfjew6teh7u","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1139,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.023Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","start_line":1066,"text":"in reveries concerning the probable effects upon the human constitution\r\nof living entirely on ginger-nuts. Ginger-nuts are so called, because\r\nthey contain ginger as one of their peculiar constituents, and the\r\nfinal flavoring one. Now, what was ginger? A hot, spicy thing. Was\r\nBartleby hot and spicy? Not at all. Ginger, then, had no effect upon\r\nBartleby. Probably, he preferred it should have none.\r\n\r\nNothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. If the\r\nindividual so resisted be of a not inhumane temper, and the resisting\r\none perfectly harmless in his passivity, then, in the better moods of\r\nthe former, he will endeavor charitably to construe to his imagination\r\nwhat proves impossible to be solved by his judgment. Even so, for the\r\nmost part, I regarded Bartleby and his ways. Poor fellow! thought I, he\r\nmeans no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence; his aspect\r\nsufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary. He is\r\nuseful to me. I can get along with him. If I turn him away, the chances\r\nare he will fall in with some less-indulgent employer, and then he will\r\nbe rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to starve. Yes.\r\nHere I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To befriend\r\nBartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me little\r\nor nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a\r\nsweet morsel for my conscience. But this mood was not invariable, with\r\nme. The passiveness of Bartleby sometimes irritated me. I felt\r\nstrangely goaded on to encounter him in new opposition—to elicit some\r\nangry spark from him answerable to my own. But, indeed, I might as well\r\nhave essayed to strike fire with my knuckles against a bit of Windsor\r\nsoap. But one afternoon the evil impulse in me mastered me, and the\r\nfollowing little scene ensued:\r\n\r\n“Bartleby,” said I, “when those papers are all copied, I will compare\r\nthem with you.”\r\n\r\n“I would prefer not to.”\r\n\r\n“How? Surely you do not mean to persist in that mulish vagary?”\r\n\r\nNo answer.\r\n\r\nI threw open the folding-doors near by, and, turning upon Turkey and\r\nNippers, exclaimed:\r\n\r\n“Bartleby a second time says, he won’t examine his papers. What do you\r\nthink of it, Turkey?”\r\n\r\nIt was afternoon, be it remembered. Turkey sat glowing like a brass\r\nboiler; his bald head steaming; his hands reeling among his blotted\r\npapers.\r\n\r\n“Think of it?” roared Turkey; “I think I’ll just step behind his\r\nscreen, and black his eyes for him!”\r\n\r\nSo saying, Turkey rose to his feet and threw his arms into a pugilistic\r\nposition. He was hurrying away to make good his promise, when I\r\ndetained him, alarmed at the effect of incautiously rousing Turkey’s\r\ncombativeness after dinner.\r\n\r\n“Sit down, Turkey,” said I, “and hear what Nippers has to say. What do\r\nyou think of it, Nippers? Would I not be justified in immediately\r\ndismissing Bartleby?”\r\n\r\n“Excuse me, that is for you to decide, sir. I think his conduct quite\r\nunusual, and, indeed, unjust, as regards Turkey and myself. But it may\r\nonly be a passing whim.”\r\n\r\n“Ah,” exclaimed I, “you have strangely changed your mind, then—you\r\nspeak very gently of him now.”\r\n\r\n“All beer,” cried Turkey; “gentleness is effects of beer—Nippers and I\r\ndined together to-day. You see how gentle _I_ am, sir. Shall I go and\r\nblack his eyes?”\r\n\r\n“You refer to Bartleby, I suppose. No, not to-day, Turkey,” I replied;\r\n“pray, put up your fists.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AK3EJHGZFAPPMWQ9JDEPM","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1F4D8P9BBX9AMGZ7TX7","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSG7CBX56XARGA9H1XQ5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.879Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.091Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}