{"id":"01KG8AKZ9HRY1A5EVF0W50X5QD","cid":"bafkreieww5bj2cvsta7otagpovdff5rdp64bcnwjnvgsdaxp3mv6yq66t4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11141,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.843Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":11068,"text":"you have hit it, you have,” and then he went on to mention, that in\r\nsome places in England, it was customary for two or three young men of\r\nhighly respectable families, of undoubted antiquity, but unfortunately\r\nin lamentably decayed circumstances, and thread-bare coats—it was\r\ncustomary for two or three young gentlemen, so situated, to obtain\r\ntheir livelihood by their voices: coining their silvery songs into\r\nsilvery shillings.\r\n\r\nThey wandered from door to door, and rang the bell—Are _the ladies and\r\ngentlemen in?_ Seeing them at least gentlemanly looking, if not\r\nsumptuously appareled, the servant generally admitted them at once; and\r\nwhen the people entered to greet them, their spokesman would rise with\r\na gentle bow, and a smile, and say, _We come, ladies and gentlemen, to\r\nsing you a song: we are singers, at your service._ And so, without\r\nwaiting reply, forth they burst into song; and having most mellifluous\r\nvoices, enchanted and transported all auditors; so much so, that at the\r\nconclusion of the entertainment, they very seldom failed to be well\r\nrecompensed, and departed with an invitation to return again, and make\r\nthe occupants of that dwelling once more delighted and happy.\r\n\r\n“Could not something of this kind now, be done in New York?” said\r\nHarry, “or are there no parlors with ladies in them, there?” he\r\nanxiously added.\r\n\r\nAgain I assured him, as I had often done before, that New York was a\r\ncivilized and enlightened town; with a large population, fine streets,\r\nfine houses, nay, plenty of omnibuses; and that for the most part, he\r\nwould almost think himself in England; so similar to England, in\r\nessentials, was this outlandish America that haunted him.\r\n\r\nI could not but be struck—and had I not been, from my birth, as it\r\nwere, a cosmopolite—I had been amazed at his skepticism with regard to\r\nthe civilization of my native land. A greater patriot than myself might\r\nhave resented his insinuations. He seemed to think that we Yankees\r\nlived in wigwams, and wore bear-skins. After all, Harry was a spice of\r\na Cockney, and had shut up his Christendom in London.\r\n\r\nHaving then assured him, that I could see no reason, why he should not\r\nplay the troubadour in New York, as well as elsewhere; he suddenly\r\npopped upon me the question, whether I would not join him in the\r\nenterprise; as it would be quite out of the question to go alone on\r\nsuch a business.\r\n\r\nSaid I, “My dear Bury, I have no more voice for a ditty, than a dumb\r\nman has for an oration. Sing? Such Macadamized lungs have I, that I\r\nthink myself well off, that I can talk; let alone nightingaling.”\r\n\r\nSo that plan was quashed; and by-and-by Harry began to give up the idea\r\nof singing himself into a livelihood.\r\n\r\n“No, I won’t sing for my mutton,” said he—“what would Lady Georgiana\r\nsay?”\r\n\r\n“If I could see her ladyship once, I might tell you, Harry,” returned\r\nI, who did not exactly doubt him, but felt ill at ease for my bosom\r\nfriend’s conscience, when he alluded to his various noble and right\r\nhonorable friends and relations.\r\n\r\n“But surely, Bury, my friend, you must write a clerkly hand, among your\r\nother accomplishments; and _that_ at least, will be sure to help you.”\r\n\r\n“I _do_ write a hand,” he gladly rejoined—“there, look at the\r\nimplement!—do you not think, that such a hand as _that_ might dot an\r\n_i,_ or cross a _t,_ with a touching grace and tenderness?”\r\n\r\nIndeed, but it did betoken a most excellent penmanship. It was small;\r\nand the fingers were long and thin; the knuckles softly rounded; the\r\nnails hemispherical at the base; and the smooth palm furnishing few\r\ncharacters for an Egyptian fortune-teller to read. It was not as the\r\nsturdy farmer’s hand of Cincinnatus, who followed the plough and guided\r\nthe state; but it was as the perfumed hand of Petronius Arbiter, that\r\nelegant young buck of a Roman, who once cut great Seneca dead in the\r\nforum.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJT5SDHGB7VJ4ZTE6NX8P","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKZ9RGG1EQ6D36PM6E6DC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKZ9HH418SS6APNKH2DRE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:21.809Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:34.659Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}