{"id":"01KG8AKTZBBD711D6EZ5SEFW1P","cid":"bafkreib6xmib67tsc7xricd7wapfgvnwf6npvbzp5ra4x6nlaerlygsbm4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7485,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":7429,"text":"CHAPTER XXXIX.\r\nTHE BOOBLE-ALLEYS OF THE TOWN\r\n\r\n\r\nThe same sights that are to be met with along the dock walls at noon,\r\nin a less degree, though diversified with other scenes, are continually\r\nencountered in the narrow streets where the sailor boarding-houses are\r\nkept.\r\n\r\nIn the evening, especially when the sailors are gathered in great\r\nnumbers, these streets present a most singular spectacle, the entire\r\npopulation of the vicinity being seemingly turned into them.\r\nHand-organs, fiddles, and cymbals, plied by strolling musicians, mix\r\nwith the songs of the seamen, the babble of women and children, and the\r\ngroaning and whining of beggars. From the various boarding-houses, each\r\ndistinguished by gilded emblems outside—an anchor, a crown, a ship, a\r\nwindlass, or a dolphin—proceeds the noise of revelry and dancing; and\r\nfrom the open casements lean young girls and old women, chattering and\r\nlaughing with the crowds in the middle of the street. Every moment\r\nstrange greetings are exchanged between old sailors who chance to\r\nstumble upon a shipmate, last seen in Calcutta or Savannah; and the\r\ninvariable courtesy that takes place upon these occasions, is to go to\r\nthe next spirit-vault, and drink each other’s health.\r\n\r\nThere are particular paupers who frequent particular sections of these\r\nstreets, and who, I was told, resented the intrusion of mendicants from\r\nother parts of the town.\r\n\r\nChief among them was a white-haired old man, stone-blind; who was led\r\nup and down through the long tumult by a woman holding a little saucer\r\nto receive contributions. This old man sang, or rather chanted, certain\r\nwords in a peculiarly long-drawn, guttural manner, throwing back his\r\nhead, and turning up his sightless eyeballs to the sky. His chant was a\r\nlamentation upon his infirmity; and at the time it produced the same\r\neffect upon me, that my first reading of Milton’s Invocation to the Sun\r\ndid, years afterward. I can not recall it all; but it was something\r\nlike this, drawn out in an endless groan—\r\n\r\n“Here goes the blind old man; blind, blind, blind; no more will he see\r\nsun nor moon—no more see sun nor moon!” And thus would he pass through\r\nthe middle of the street; the woman going on in advance, holding his\r\nhand, and dragging him through all obstructions; now and then leaving\r\nhim standing, while she went among the crowd soliciting coppers.\r\n\r\nBut one of the most curious features of the scene is the number of\r\nsailor ballad-singers, who, after singing their verses, hand you a\r\nprinted copy, and beg you to buy. One of these persons, dressed like a\r\nman-of-war’s-man, I observed every day standing at a corner in the\r\nmiddle of the street. He had a full, noble voice, like a church-organ;\r\nand his notes rose high above the surrounding din. But the remarkable\r\nthing about this ballad-singer was one of his arms, which, while\r\nsinging, he somehow swung vertically round and round in the air, as if\r\nit revolved on a pivot. The feat was unnaturally unaccountable; and he\r\nperformed it with the view of attracting sympathy; since he said that\r\nin falling from a frigate’s mast-head to the deck, he had met with an\r\ninjury, which had resulted in making his wonderful arm what it was.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS9WA8Y2C5NE7P4RWM95","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTZCQBMK23XDXM6VCHBZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.387Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:31.231Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}