story-to-pack: add the corpora and the catalogue v2/v3
Fourteen corpora split and classified: aesop, bierce, chekhov, holmes, keefe, lawson, lorimer, maupassant, nobody, plaintales, poe, torchy, wallingford and winesburg, each with its splitter and the hand-written groups and pages; catalogue v2 and v3; and the shared splitters gutenberg_chunks.py, se_split.py and se_build.py. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_019rwKTmug58sEsJ72AuWsEi
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# Wallingford reference set: *Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford* (1908)
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A hand-made comparison baseline for the story-to-pack pipeline, a sibling of the Jacobs set in
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`../jacobs/` and the Bierce set in `../bierce/`. Claude read every scene and wrote each summary,
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predicament, group and option. **No local inference was used.** Compare the local-model runs against it.
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Do not treat it as ground truth: it is one careful reading.
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| File | What it is |
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| --- | --- |
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| `corpus/get-rich-quick-wallingford.txt` | Project Gutenberg #37010, George Randolph Chester |
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| `split_gutenberg.py` | → `stories.json` (28 chapters, one "story" each) and `chunks.json` (334 scenes, same 320-word paragraph rule as `../chunk.py`) |
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| `dump.py` | `python3 dump.py A B` prints scenes A..B for reading (copied from Jacobs) |
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| `claude/batches/sNN.json` | per chapter: `{chunk, story, summary, predicament}`, the same schema as `../jacobs/claude/batches/` |
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| `claude/groups_src.py` | the schemes (`ARCS`), the groups, options and protagonist standing; `python3 groups_src.py` prints the scheme-level recurrence check |
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| `claude/build.py` | checks everything, then writes `claude/records.json` and `claude/groups.json` (unchanged from Jacobs) |
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| `claude/page.py` | → `claude/REFERENCE.html`, the readable page (Jacobs' page with the title and heading changed) |
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Rebuild: `python3 split_gutenberg.py && cd claude && python3 build.py && python3 page.py && python3 groups_src.py`.
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## What is in it
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- **334 predicaments**: one sentence each (median 21 words, min 16, max 24), written to the
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`redescribe.py` rules: no names, jobs, titles, places or story-only objects. A carpet tack is "a
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trivial product", a patent is "legal protection", a traction line is "the great enterprise". The
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predicament is written from whichever side of the scheme the scene centres on, the schemer's or the
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target's. The `topic_words` leak check flags 141 of 334. Almost all are role words (partner 67,
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employee 17, rival, newcomer, employer, host, guest, widow, clerk), kept on purpose because the
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design's cast is roles. The rest are generic: *house*, *dinner*, *room*, *lunch*, *party* (as in a
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travelling party), *station* (social station), *court* and *judge* (as verbs), *stage* (a stage set).
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- **22 groups**, each a situation that recurs in **three or more schemes** (see below). Each scene sits
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in at most one group: **191 are assigned and 143 fit nothing that recurs**. All 28 chapters and all
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six schemes feed at least one group.
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- **Options**: 4 or 5 per group (12 have 5, 10 have 4), 100 in all. 89 come from what someone in a
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scene did or refused to do (`scene:N`), 6 are archetypes and 5 fill gaps. **11 scene options cite a
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scene outside their own group**, and `groups.json` marks each one `in_group: false`. As in Bierce,
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most are a neighbouring scene where the character acts, or a scene held by a sibling group (the
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old man who cashes out, scene 278, is both the lone sceptic and an option in the speculative fever).
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- **Moves**: spine paths with a direction only (`+`, `-`, `risk`, `set`), no magnitudes. `money` is
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moved 59 times and `standing` 41, against Bierce's 9 and 65. This is the first reference set where
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money carries the weight. Relationship roles are generic (`partner`, `investors`, `promoter`,
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`creditor`, `neighbours`, `newcomer`, `old_friend`, `bosses`, `victims` and others), and flags record
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what the player did (`living_on_credit`, `bill_outstanding`, `bought_in`, `mortgaged`, `complicit`,
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`sold_out`, `bad_check`, `went_straight`).
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- **Skills** proposed for this corpus: `charm`, for the front that makes people trust, lend and give
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credit, and `cunning`, for paper tricks, reading a contract and seeing the catch. Jacobs' `nerve` fits
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less well: the swindler is a physical coward and wins on bearing, not courage.
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- **Stage** comes from protagonist standing, **judged per scheme** and recorded per chapter in `STANDING`
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(`build.py` expects chapter keys). The swindler arrives nearly penniless among small savers (tacks:
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low), runs two mid-sized schemes (insurance, recorder: middle), becomes the great man of a town and
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then of a farmers' movement (traction, wheat: high), and ends broke among cigar-shop keepers (cigars:
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low). The groups come out 8 low, 7 middle and 7 high.
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## Schemes and scheme-level recurrence
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The book is a novel in linked episodes, not a story collection, so the unit for recurrence is the
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**scheme**, not the chapter. A situation seen in three chapters of one scheme has not recurred.
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`ARCS` in `groups_src.py` maps each chapter to one of six schemes, read from the text. The chapter
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titles suggest about seven; the seventh would be the honeymoon trip of chapter 17, but that only
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strands the swindler in the town of the traction scheme, so it belongs there.
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| Scheme | Chapters | Scenes (after overrides) | What happens |
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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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| `tacks` | 0-6 | 83 | A company floated on a worthless covered carpet tack, sold to a careful clerk and his lodge friends |
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| `insurance` | 7-10 | 40 | A fraternal insurance order turned into a stock sale to its own members, a widow included |
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| `recorder` | 11-16 | 62 | A real inventor's machine and his friends' savings, sold behind their backs to the monopoly |
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| `traction` | 17-20 | 61 | A town lured into a land boom by a traction line never meant to be built |
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| `wheat` | 21-24 | 44 | A farmers' association that holds wheat for $1.50 and is steered into buying the promoter out |
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| `cigars` | 25-27 | 44 | A consolidation of small cigar shops, the last scheme, which lands the swindler in jail |
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Four chapters open or close on the neighbouring scheme, so `ARC_OVERRIDE` moves 15 scenes: 78-82 (the
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tack takings, spent and lost at the start of chapter 7) to `tacks`; 120-122 (the insurance takings, at
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the start of chapter 11) to `insurance`; 244-245 (the traction line sold for real, at the start of
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chapter 21) to `traction`; 290-294 (the cigar shop where the next scheme starts, at the end of chapter
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24) to `cigars`.
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**Rule**, applied per group: at least 5 scenes, at least 3 schemes, no scheme over 50% of the group.
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**All 22 groups pass.** 4 groups span 3 schemes, 10 span 4, 5 span 5 and 3 span 6. Seven sit exactly at
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the 50% ceiling (G01, G02, G06, G07, G14, G19, G21): each is a situation one scheme dramatises at
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length and the others touch briefly. Membership was trimmed to reach the ceiling; nothing above it was
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kept. Measured by chapter instead, as `build.py` reports, every group spans at least three chapters,
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which overstates recurrence for a novel. That is why the scheme count is the one to use.
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## Against the catalogue
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The v2 catalogue has 82 entries (`../catalogue/v2/catalogue_v2_src.py`). Money and deals, the thinnest
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area for a career game, are this book's whole subject.
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**Eleven groups match an existing entry.** Seven match closely: G08 partners who mean to cheat each
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other (`your_scheme`, as Jacobs G06), G11 charmed out of your doubts (`sure_thing`), G12 the lone
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sceptic (`against_the_verdict`), G13 cornered by the people you cheated (`caught_out`), G16 courting the
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rich newcomer (`patron`), G18 learning what your partner really does (`what_they_hid`) and G20 an old
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accomplice in trouble (`plea_for_help`). **Four sharpen an entry** rather than duplicate it, and could
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become sub-entries or widen its `includes`:
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- G01 **keeping up a front of wealth on credit** sharpens `pretence`: the front is not vanity but the
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thing that raises the money.
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- G03 **a share in something that does not exist yet** sharpens `sure_thing`: the decision is the fear
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of being left out of a paper venture, not trusting a stranger. With G11 this book gives `sure_thing`
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two distinct sides.
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- G07 **working inside a crooked business** sharpens `compromise_for_money`: you are already on the
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payroll when you understand it, and the options run from silence to staying on to rebuild it.
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- G09 **out-swindled by someone you trusted** sharpens `outmatched`: the sharper one is the placid broker
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or the mark you despised.
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**Eleven are new situation types**:
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- **Raising money:** G04 raising money on a promise you cannot keep; G19 buying in with nothing (paying for
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a full share with a note or a postdated check); G10 let in on the inside (a mark made a partner).
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- **Holding money:** G02 the bill is due and you cannot pay; G06 sunk in, and asked for more; G14 wiped out;
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G22 selling out before the crash.
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- **Markets and rivals:** G05 a town caught in a speculative fever; G15 small against the giant.
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- **Going straight:** G17 a partner who wants to go straight; G21 the sham turns out to be real.
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All nine situations the brief asked about were found and recur across schemes: raising money on a
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promise (G04), a share in what does not exist (G03), the employee who sees it is crooked (G07), the
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partner who wants to go straight (G17), the mark who becomes a partner (G10), the scheme that becomes a
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real business (G21), out-swindled by a supposed mark (G09), a front of wealth on credit (G01, with G02)
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and a speculative fever (G05).
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## How this corpus differs
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It is **one book**, the case DESIGN.md calls hard ("one long novel is the hard case and is not the
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target"). It works better than that warning suggests because the book is built as six near-repeats of
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one plot: arrive broke, look rich, find marks, float a venture, sell out, leave. The same situations
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come round in every scheme, seen from new angles, so recurrence across schemes is real, not an artefact
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of chapter splitting. The cost is **cast concentration**. One schemer, his wife and his confederate are
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in almost every scene, so groups like G17 and G18 are one marriage seen six times. A pack built from it
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should vary the counterpart more than the book does.
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**Both sides of the swindle recur.** Many groups come in pairs: raising money on a promise (G04)
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against buying a share in nothing (G03); the charmed doubter (G11) against the lone sceptic (G12);
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cheating a partner (G08) against being out-swindled (G09). Predicaments are written from the side the
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scene centres on, so a tool should expect a scheme's marks and its promoter in different groups.
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**143 scenes stay unassigned.** Most are one-scheme set pieces with no second instance: the planted
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flaw the recruit "solves" (22-25), the widow's visit (91-94), the drugging of the lawyer (176-182), the
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honeymoon trip and the stranded private car (185-203), the fountain dedication (236-241) and the dice
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game (309-313). The rest are narration: the night drive, the parade speeches, the farm office tour.
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## Known defects
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- `stories.json` titles are `capitalize()`d by the splitter, so names come out lower-case ("In which
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j. rufus wallingford ..."). Left as split.
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- Because `STANDING` is keyed by chapter, the 15 overridden scenes take their chapter's stage, not their
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scheme's: the five cigar-shop scenes at the end of chapter 24 count as `high` (wheat) although the
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cigars scheme is `low`. This changes the stage of three groups. Counted by scheme, G09 would be `low`
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instead of `high`, and G11 and G15 would tie between `low` and `middle` instead of coming out
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`middle`. `build.py` was left unchanged, so `groups.json` carries the chapter-based stage.
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- Scene 116 is a single sentence (the swindler's bearing silencing the room), and scene 41 is two lines.
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Both were summarised anyway; 116 is in G13.
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[
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{"chunk": 0, "story": 0,
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"summary": "A lavishly dressed stranger splashes two plain townsmen with mud as his cab pulls up, and sweeps into the best hotel without a glance at them.",
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"predicament": "A newcomer with nothing behind him makes a grand entrance, counting on his fine front to open every door in town."},
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{"chunk": 1, "story": 0,
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"summary": "He takes a suite though he has under a hundred dollars and no idea where more will come from, and meets an old confederate in the hallway.",
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"predicament": "A man with almost nothing in his pocket takes the finest rooms, trusting his confident bearing to carry him until money turns up."},
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{"chunk": 2, "story": 0,
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"summary": "Over dinner plans, the confederate sulks that he came to fleece a local mark and has been made a fool of himself.",
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"predicament": "A swindler who came to fleece a mark confesses to a fellow schemer that the mark was far too careful to be fooled."},
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{"chunk": 3, "story": 0,
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"summary": "The confederate warns him the town is impossible to swindle; he says he smells soft money and admits he walked away from his last company leaving the stockholders ruined.",
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"predicament": "A promoter fresh from ruining one set of investors is warned off a cautious town and decides it will suit him fine."},
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{"chunk": 4, "story": 0,
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"summary": "He insists he only deals in lawful propositions; they joke about his wife eating up her diamonds, and the confederate vows to go home where money comes to him.",
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"predicament": "A promoter insists all his dealings stay within the law while boasting of the fortunes his past ventures cost other people."},
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{"chunk": 5, "story": 0,
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"summary": "Looking at the carpet, he invents on the spot a cloth-covered tack, saying any patent will do because the company can fight over it after he has gone.",
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"predicament": "A promoter invents a trivial product on the spot, planning to sell shares in it and leave before anyone tests it."},
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{"chunk": 6, "story": 0,
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"summary": "The confederate describes the mark who beat him: a careful clerk with five thousand dollars saved, who demanded proof that the mine existed.",
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"predicament": "A schemer learns that the careful mark who beat his partner has savings and will only trust what he can see."},
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{"chunk": 7, "story": 0,
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"summary": "He resolves to take the mark himself with a 'legitimate business proposition' and arranges for the confederate's sham company addresses to vouch for him.",
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"predicament": "A promoter lines up a string of sham company addresses to vouch for him before approaching a cautious mark."}
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]
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[
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{"chunk": 8, "story": 1,
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"summary": "The careful young man answers an advertisement for a post in the new company; the promoter feigns reluctance and learns the visitor prides himself on his competence.",
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"predicament": "A promoter pretends to hesitate over a prized post so that the proud applicant he wants will push hard to win it."},
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{"chunk": 9, "story": 1,
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"summary": "The promoter describes the immense business to come; the applicant, falling under the spell, insists he has no money to invest.",
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"predicament": "A careful man tempted by a grand new venture announces up front that none of his own savings are on offer."},
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{"chunk": 10, "story": 1,
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"summary": "The promoter says he wants only the man's services, not his money, and turns cool and demanding; the applicant hurries to give references.",
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"predicament": "A promoter swears he wants no investment at all, only skill, and the wary candidate starts eagerly proving his worth instead."},
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{"chunk": 11, "story": 1,
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"summary": "The promoter shows a handful of cloth-covered tacks and holds one against the rusty ones in the carpet; the applicant asks about cost.",
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"predicament": "A promoter puts a pretty sample in a doubter's hand, letting him see and touch what is really nothing much."},
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{"chunk": 12, "story": 1,
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"summary": "He reels off fabulous profits and a giant rival that would buy them out for millions, and the applicant, who had resisted the gold-mine seller, is overwhelmed.",
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"predicament": "A cautious man who resisted a distant fortune is overwhelmed by glowing profit figures for something he can hold in his hand."},
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{"chunk": 13, "story": 1,
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"summary": "The promoter says the stock will go only to a few large holders, and the applicant is disappointed to be shut out of such a sure thing.",
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"predicament": "A promoter says shares will go only to a few big investors, making a cautious man suddenly afraid of being left out."},
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{"chunk": 14, "story": 1,
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"summary": "Sweating from the effort, the promoter sees the man is wholly convinced, and presses him to stay for dinner despite his plain clothes.",
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"predicament": "A modest man, dazzled by a vision of great profits, is pressed to stay for a dinner far above his usual station."},
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{"chunk": 15, "story": 1,
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"summary": "The promoter has a private dinner served and buys the guest fresh linen on the hotel's account; the guest begins to feel himself grand.",
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"predicament": "A modest guest, outfitted and feasted on someone else's credit, starts to feel as grand as the host who is dazzling him."},
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{"chunk": 16, "story": 1,
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"summary": "After champagne, box seats and supper, the guest thinks the host a financial genius and accepts the post in the company.",
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"predicament": "After a lavish evening, a cautious man decides his generous host is beyond question and joins the venture."}
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]
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[
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{"chunk": 17, "story": 2,
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"summary": "The young man quits his secure job of fifteen years and goes to see his old friend; the friend's daughter, who quietly loves him, tells him where her father is.",
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"predicament": "A man leaves a secure post for a glittering new venture, and goes to tell an older friend who has always advised him."},
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{"chunk": 18, "story": 2,
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"summary": "The old friend teases him about gold-mine schemes and marriage; the young man boasts of his big new salary and the friend asks if the new man is a sharper too.",
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"predicament": "An older friend hears of a young man's grand new opening and asks at once whether the newcomer behind it is a swindler."},
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{"chunk": 19, "story": 2,
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"summary": "The young man shows the tack and repeats the giant rival's profits; the old man is impressed but asks whether the promoter wants money.",
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"predicament": "A thrifty older man is shown a trivial product with huge promised profits, and his only question is whether money is wanted."},
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{"chunk": 20, "story": 2,
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"summary": "The old man wishes he could buy some of the stock, envying its promised dividends; he judges the offer too good to miss if the man is honest.",
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"predicament": "A cautious older friend, envying the promised returns, is asked to judge a venture he cannot check and pronounces it too good to miss."},
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{"chunk": 21, "story": 2,
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"summary": "The young man goes through the motions of consulting friends; the promoter keeps him waiting while writing letters, one boasting to his confederate that he is sharpening the shears.",
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"predicament": "A promoter keeps an eager new recruit waiting in silence, putting him back in his place while privately boasting of the fleecing to come."},
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{"chunk": 22, "story": 2,
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"summary": "Seated with his face in shadow, the promoter hands over references and then confides, as a mark of trust, that no patent has been applied for.",
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"predicament": "A promoter confides a weakness in his venture to a recruit, making him feel trusted while steering what he will do next."},
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{"chunk": 23, "story": 2,
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"summary": "He shows a board of tacks with the cloth knocked off and says the problem must be solved before patenting, then leans back smiling while the young man puzzles.",
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"predicament": "A promoter presents an easy problem with his product and waits, hiding a smile, for his recruit to discover the answer himself."},
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{"chunk": 24, "story": 2,
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"summary": "The young man suggests roughening the tack heads; the promoter hails him as a man of remarkable resource.",
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"predicament": "A recruit offers an obvious fix to a planted problem and is flattered as a genius by the promoter who set it up."},
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{"chunk": 25, "story": 2,
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"summary": "The promoter sends for tools and wine, and the two of them roughen and cover tacks with fervour, until his face suddenly clouds over.",
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"predicament": "A recruit, flushed with pride in his idea, works side by side with a promoter who is already planning what it will cost him."}
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]
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[
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{"chunk": 26, "story": 3, "summary": "The test works; the promoter offers the young man a quarter share of the patent as joint inventor, and they go to a lawyer friend of his.", "predicament": "A recruit is offered a quarter share in a worthless invention for one idea, and feels himself risen far above his neighbours."},
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{"chunk": 27, "story": 3, "summary": "A penniless young lawyer draws up the patent agreement and is too timid to ask for his fee, which the promoter, short of cash, does not pay.", "predicament": "A struggling young adviser does work for a rich-seeming client and is too timid to ask to be paid for it."},
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{"chunk": 28, "story": 3, "summary": "The promoter pays a shabby patent agent in cash plus a tip to hurry, leaving him full of golden hopes, then returns frowning.", "predicament": "A promoter spends his last cash showily on a small fee, leaving the man he pays full of hope in his generosity."},
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{"chunk": 29, "story": 3, "summary": "The promoter complains of a bank overdraft and orders champagne in a temper; the young man, now at ease with big sums, offers a loan and is asked for five hundred.", "predicament": "A promoter who is nearly broke plays an irritated rich man, and a dazzled partner offers to lend him cash."},
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{"chunk": 30, "story": 3, "summary": "On the way to the bank the promoter hands over a note written for a thousand instead of five hundred, and the young man reluctantly agrees to lend the larger sum.", "predicament": "A partner lending money finds the borrower has casually doubled the sum, and cannot refuse without looking small."},
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{"chunk": 31, "story": 3, "summary": "He draws out his savings; the promoter mails money to his wife, plans to buy a fine house 'as a front', and takes a costly car on trial without any deposit.", "predicament": "A schemer, with a borrowed stake in hand, orders a fine house and a costly car on credit to look like a wealthy man."},
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{"chunk": 32, "story": 3, "summary": "The young man is fully converted; the promoter warns him they must vote down any buyout offer to hold out for a higher price.", "predicament": "A promoter warns his converted partner to refuse any early offer to buy them out, binding him ever closer to the scheme."},
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{"chunk": 33, "story": 3, "summary": "The young man asks to bring friends in; the promoter proposes a tiny dummy corporation with four friends buying one share each as directors.", "predicament": "A partner asks to let his friends in on a good thing, and the promoter shows him how their small stakes can be used."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 34, "story": 3, "summary": "The promoter explains a chain of recapitalisations that will turn the young man's patent share into a hundred thousand dollars on paper.", "predicament": "A promoter walks an eager partner through a dizzying paper plan that multiplies his share without a single thing being made."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 35, "story": 4, "summary": "The promoter charms the thrifty old man with a compliment on his war service and gets him into the car; the old man's daughter watches uneasily.", "predicament": "A promoter wins over a wary, thrifty elder with one well-aimed compliment, while someone close to the elder watches uneasily."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 36, "story": 4, "summary": "The two townsmen plead a lodge meeting, but the promoter overrides them; the young man tries to bring the daughter, who refuses, worried.", "predicament": "Two plain men with fixed duties are swept along by a charming host who simply refuses to hear that they must go home."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 37, "story": 4, "summary": "The promoter says nothing about the company, letting the two talk themselves into it; after a grand dinner the old man asks whether references were given.", "predicament": "A promoter keeps silent and lets his marks sell each other the venture, until old caution makes one ask for references."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 38, "story": 4, "summary": "The young man says the promoter's credit is reference enough, since he bought a car without paying; the old man agrees to join and bring in three more solid men.", "predicament": "A careful elder decides that a man given credit everywhere must be sound, and agrees to bring his friends into the venture."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 39, "story": 4, "summary": "A reckless night drive back at terrific speed leaves the passengers exhilarated and singing despite a near accident.", "predicament": "Two cautious men, carried along at a reckless pace by a bold host, find the danger thrilling instead of frightening."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 40, "story": 4, "summary": "He delivers them on time, hires the chauffeur with a tip, and deposits six hundred of the borrowed dollars with the hotel to show his solvency.", "predicament": "A schemer spends part of a borrowed stake conspicuously paying down his bills, so that everyone believes he is solvent."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 41, "story": 4, "summary": "He tours the town's night life and is carried to bed by eager servants, the prince who arrived with less than a hundred dollars.", "predicament": "A newcomer who arrived nearly penniless is treated as a prince by everyone who hopes to profit from his spending."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 42, "story": 4, "summary": "The incorporators, small savers past forty, are enchanted by the trick of watering stock they had always condemned in the newspapers.", "predicament": "Small savers who always condemned sharp financial practice discover they approve of it now that it will make them rich."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 43, "story": 4, "summary": "After a luncheon that has them all praising him, he buys a house by handing the agent a sixty-day note instead of the required cash.", "predicament": "A schemer pays for a house with a promise to pay later, and bluffs the hesitant seller into accepting it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 44, "story": 4, "summary": "On the credit of owning the house he furnishes, stocks and staffs it, then throws a housewarming where his wife fascinates the investors.", "predicament": "A schemer furnishes a grand household entirely on credit and uses it to charm the investors who are paying for it."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 45, "story": 5, "summary": "At a cheerful first meeting over a meal the investors elect officers, with the promoter as president, and vote to raise the capital.", "predicament": "A group of small investors happily elects the promoter who is fleecing them to run the company that holds their savings."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 46, "story": 5, "summary": "He holds up the tack, praises the young man's contribution and the giant rival's profits, and has the young man read out his glowing references.", "predicament": "A promoter has a trusting partner vouch for him before the investors, reading out glowing references the partner never questioned."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 47, "story": 5, "summary": "The sham letterheads impress everyone; a factory is fitted out; the patent agent reports prior claims that cover the idea, and the promoter orders him to get a patent anyway.", "predicament": "A promoter learns his product's legal protection is worthless and tells his adviser to obtain some paper protection anyway."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 48, "story": 5, "summary": "The agent admits any patent would not hold; the promoter says he only needs a seal and a ribbon and reminds him to keep quiet, and the agent's conscience goes to sleep.", "predicament": "A needy adviser knows the paper he is asked to obtain is worthless, and is persuaded his duty is simply to keep quiet."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 49, "story": 5, "summary": "The directors vote the promoter and the young man sixty thousand in stock for future patents, subscribe for more themselves, and form a larger company.", "predicament": "Investors vote a huge share of their company to the promoter for inventions that do not yet exist, and put in more cash."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 50, "story": 5, "summary": "The new company buys the old at double value; the investors glory in doubling their money on paper, while the promoter now holds ninety thousand in stock, a house and a car.", "predicament": "Small investors celebrate doubling their money overnight on paper, while the promoter quietly holds the largest pile of the new shares."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 51, "story": 5, "summary": "Merchants extend credit on his house and car, each referring to the last; when the car dealer means to demand payment, the promoter orders a second car for his wife instead.", "predicament": "A creditor who means to demand payment from a showy customer is instead talked into extending him even more credit."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 52, "story": 5, "summary": "The first machine works and a patent is granted, but a credit report reveals the promoter has no money at all; he cheerfully admits it and says he needs more.", "predicament": "A partner discovers the rich backer of his venture has no money at all, and is told cheerfully that more is needed."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 53, "story": 5, "summary": "The promoter reveals he has sold stock to his car dealer and tailor partly for credit, and the young man realises the venture stalls without him.", "predicament": "A partner learns the promoter has quietly sold off his shares to creditors, and realises the venture collapses if the promoter walks."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 54, "story": 5, "summary": "The young man protests the spending; the promoter angrily drives off for the day, leaving the machinists waiting, and the old man arrives because a note he guaranteed is due.", "predicament": "A promoter deliberately walks out on urgent work to show his partners they must now pay for his keep or lose everything."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 55, "story": 5, "summary": "The two friends discover the promoter has borrowed from each of them and from another investor, each without telling the others.", "predicament": "Two investors find that the same charming borrower has been quietly taking loans from each of them, and from others besides."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 56, "story": 5, "summary": "They total his spending and are aghast at his extravagance, but the old man concludes the company itself is sound.", "predicament": "Investors shocked by the promoter's reckless spending comfort themselves that the venture itself must still be sound."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 57, "story": 5, "summary": "The old man calls him a liar but has already mortgaged a house for his stock; they agree to take stock as security for the loans.", "predicament": "A thrifty man who distrusts his partner has already mortgaged his home to buy in, and cannot afford to stop now."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 58, "story": 5, "summary": "Faith in the product holds them; the old man, meaning to be stern, ends up mortgaging again and paying the promoter four thousand for stock.", "predicament": "An investor goes to press a debtor for security and comes away having handed over still more money for more shares."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 59, "story": 5, "summary": "The promoter knows the covering machine is nearly impossible and that going to market would bring ruinous lawsuits, so he stalls.", "predicament": "A promoter knows his product can never be made and sold safely, and must keep his investors hopeful while he stalls."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 60, "story": 5, "summary": "His wife, tired of waiting for the crash, urges him to take every dollar he can and go abroad before this venture ends like the others.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner, weary of waiting for the collapse, begs him to take what he can now and get out."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 61, "story": 5, "summary": "He boasts that the law is his friend; she reminds him of all the towns they have fled and tells him to save money this time.", "predicament": "A schemer who boasts the law cannot touch him is reminded by his partner of every town they have had to flee."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 62, "story": 5, "summary": "He shows the directors drawings for a covering machine, restores their confidence, and sells fifteen thousand in stock through a new sales agent in another city.", "predicament": "A promoter shows investors plans for a machine that will never be built, restoring their faith while he sells off his shares."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 63, "story": 6, "summary": "With the treasury empty and the machine still unfinished, the promoter leers at the old man's daughter, then tells the investors seven thousand more is needed.", "predicament": "A promoter who has drained the treasury tells worried investors that more money is needed at once to finish the work."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 64, "story": 6, "summary": "The old man accuses him of waste; the promoter scorns their small-shop thinking, demands they sell treasury stock, and meanwhile secretly sells his own.", "predicament": "A promoter scorns his investors' small-business caution and demands they raise more money, while quietly selling off his own shares."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 65, "story": 6, "summary": "The young man, pressed by unpaid suppliers, accuses the promoter of selling worthless private stock to the very prospects the company was courting, and refuses to record the sale.", "predicament": "A partner realises the shares his associate is selling to friends are worthless, and refuses to put his name to the sale."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 66, "story": 6, "summary": "He calls the promoter a thief; the promoter replies that the young man is the one drawing a salary, leaving him sick with conscience.", "predicament": "A partner who calls his associate a thief is reminded that he himself draws a salary from the same crooked business."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 67, "story": 6, "summary": "The investors hold an indignation meeting, but seeing the covering machine apparently work, they conclude the promoter is a big man after all.", "predicament": "Angry investors see a demonstration that seems to work and decide the promoter they were cursing must be a genius after all."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 68, "story": 6, "summary": "To save what they have put in they raise ten thousand more, mortgaging again, then scrape up small sums from friends, while the promoter sells twenty thousand of his own stock.", "predicament": "Investors mortgage their homes and tap every friend to save what they have already sunk, while the promoter sells out."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 69, "story": 6, "summary": "A lawyer for a rival company delivers notice that it has sold exactly this product, with roughened heads, for three years.", "predicament": "A partner learns from a rival's representative that the product his company was built on has been sold by others for years."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 70, "story": 6, "summary": "The young man realises the special machinery is scrap and every cent the investors put in is gone.", "predicament": "A partner realises that everything he and his friends invested is lost beyond recovery, and must decide who to tell first."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 71, "story": 6, "summary": "He telephones the old man with the news; the old man cannot take it in and the line goes silent.", "predicament": "A young partner must break the news of total ruin to the older friend he persuaded to invest his life's savings."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 72, "story": 6, "summary": "Drunk after a night out, the promoter drives to the old man's house to squeeze out more money before fleeing, and finds the daughter alone.", "predicament": "A promoter planning to flee decides, recklessly, to squeeze one last payment from a ruined investor before the collapse is known."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 73, "story": 6, "summary": "He lunges at the daughter; she flees just as her father arrives, and the old man, seeing him, flies at him in a rage.", "predicament": "A ruined investor comes home to find the man who took his savings threatening his family, and flies at him in rage."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 74, "story": 6, "summary": "The big man whimpers for mercy while the old man throttles him; a friend warns there is a law against it, and the old man cries that the law did not save his savings.", "predicament": "A man robbed of everything is warned that the law forbids revenge, and answers that the law never protected him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 75, "story": 6, "summary": "The old man beats the swindler until he collapses from a stroke beside him.", "predicament": "A ruined man takes his revenge with his own fists, and the effort breaks his health on the spot."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 76, "story": 6, "summary": "The friend throws the sobbing swindler out; his chauffeur, well paid for months, drives him home secretly delighted.", "predicament": "A well-paid underling sees his lavish employer humiliated and quietly enjoys it, owing him no loyalty beyond his wages."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 77, "story": 6, "summary": "The young man arrives; the daughter falls against him and he realises he loves her, while her ruined, stricken father smiles.", "predicament": "A young man ruined by his own trust finds, in the wreck, the person he should have been paying attention to all along."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 78, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler and his wife leave town without a backward thought for the people they ruined, and meet their old confederate in a grand hotel.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A drifting couple who live on other people's money leave behind every victim without a thought, and look for the next town."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 79, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "He boasts of twenty-eight thousand dollars cleared, says small investors howl louder than big ones, and insists he never broke the law; the confederate warns the fence will break.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer boasts that he never broke the law, and a fellow schemer warns him that one day it will catch up."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 80, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "A week later the two meet again: the swindler lost everything on an inside tip to a crooked broker who vanished with it.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A swindler who thought himself too sharp to be fooled loses his whole take to a smaller cheat on a tip."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 81, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The confederate has also lost his takings to a cheating card dealer; both are broke in expensive rooms that wait to be paid for.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Two sharp operators, both cleaned out by other cheats, sit broke in costly rooms they cannot pay for."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 82, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "His wife surrenders her jewels to be pawned so he can keep up a front; she says she is tired and wants to live quietly and decently.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer's partner gives up her last valuables to keep up his front, and admits she longs to live honestly."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 83, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The confederate tells of a bumbling head of a small insurance society who brought its reserve fund to the city to gamble and was nearly fleeced.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A swindler learns of a small-time operator who has carried his members' reserve money to the city hoping to double it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 84, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "A member's death forced the man to take the money home; the swindler decides to buy into the insurance society and go with him.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A broke promoter hears of a small society with members' money in hand and decides to buy into it on nothing."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 85, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The bumbling operator is awed by the swindler's lordly bearing; the confederate slyly warns him to watch the big man, which only impresses him more.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A small-time schemer is dazzled by a grand stranger's bearing, and a warning to watch his wallet only impresses him more."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 86, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "Over champagne the swindler presses the man into admitting his order has barely five hundred members.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A would-be partner is pressed over dinner to admit that the organisation he boasts of is tiny and struggling."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 87, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The man boasts of the clause that makes his own company the paid trustee of all members' funds; the swindler says he deserves half the business for nothing.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A small operator proudly shows how he skims his members' money, and a bigger schemer demands half the business for his skill."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 88, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The man, badly in need of cash, refuses two thousand but offers half his stock at par; the swindler says he would reorganise on a huge basis.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A needy operator haggles over selling half his business to a rich-seeming stranger who plans to inflate it enormously."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 89, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The man laughs that such stock could never pay and cites the law; the swindler says the law is always on his side and asks what he will do with the death money.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A cautious operator objects that the law and the arithmetic forbid the plan, and is told the law always protects the bold."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 90, "story": 7,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler promises to make the widow hand the money back in gratitude, in exchange for a cut and his price; he tells his confederate he will pay out of the business, if at all.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter offers to buy a half share in a business with money he will take out of that same business."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 91, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The day after the funeral the two call on the grieving widow and hand her the insurance check with a speech about the order's paternal care.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Two schemers call on a grieving widow the day after the funeral, offering her money with a speech about caring for her."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 92, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "Paid by check so she will not feel real money, the widow says one daughter wants spending and the other wants the mortgage paid; the swindler warns against losing the money's earning power.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A grieving widow torn between her daughters' plans for her small windfall is advised by strangers not to waste it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 93, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "They offer her stock in the order's operating company at twelve percent; she is swayed less by the figures than by the swindler's diamonds and silk socks.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A widow who cannot follow the figures is persuaded to invest her small inheritance because the man offering it looks so rich."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 94, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The pretty younger daughter comes in; the swindler offers her a job in the offices, and the pair leave with the widow's check.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A struggling family is offered a job for a pretty daughter as the sweetener that seals the loss of their inheritance."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 95, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "Back at the dingy office the operator exults; the swindler recasts the death payout as a stock sale and says they will rent fine offices on credit.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter reclassifies a widow's returned death benefit as a share sale, and plans to spend it on appearances bought on credit."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 96, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The operator hands over his half share, and finds he has been paid with a ninety-day note instead of cash.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner who sold half his business for cash finds he has been paid with nothing but a promise to pay later."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 97, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler lays out a plan: reorganise at a quarter million, sell stock to the members, cut rates and pay themselves salaries; the young clerk asks how they will ever pay claims.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A junior clerk, dazzled by a promised salary, asks the one awkward question: how the business will ever meet its obligations."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 98, "story": 8,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler says insurance is beside the point; they will sell stock to the members and then get out. The operator accepts the note; the clerk says he does not quite like it.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee promised a share of the profits suspects the business is a fraud, but the money silences him for now."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 99, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The widow's pretty daughter joins the new plush offices at five dollars a week; the swindler courts her under cover of guardianship, and the earnest young clerk falls for her.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A bright young employee finds her employer's fatherly interest turning into something else, while a serious colleague falls for her."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 100, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The circular to members reprints a big rival's glowing annual report under a tiny heading so readers take it for their own order's, and offers stock at twenty-five dollars.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter borrows a successful rival's figures and dresses them up so small savers will think the numbers are his own."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 101, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The prospectus promises charity and profit together; the operator is proud of it, but the clerk says anyone fooled by such buncombe is too big a sucker to have money.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee objects that the sales pitch is plainly dishonest and asks why the business cannot simply tell the truth."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 102, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler smoothly tells the clerk the stock money may truly grow the order, then privately proposes buying out the troublesome clerk.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter soothes a doubting employee with lofty talk, then privately asks his partner how to buy the doubter out."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 103, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "Shown the swindler's grand car from the window, the clerk is reassured and agrees to sell at par; a lavish dinner removes his last doubts.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A doubtful employee is shown his employer's grand car and lavish table, and decides such a man must really have money."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 104, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler takes charge of stock sales, travelling to each interested member to sell him exactly as much as he has; money pours in, and the operator, flush, even borrows from him.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter travels to every small saver who shows interest and sells each exactly as many shares as they can afford."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 105, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The partners sell their own stock and live like kings; the clerk warns their low rates will ruin the order, and the operator points to the hidden clauses that contradict every promise.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee warns that the business cannot keep its promises to members, and is shown the fine print that lets it break them."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 106, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The operator says they will be out before it fails; the clerk says the old members will be left holding the bag and vows to stay and rebuild it after the crash, so he is sent on the road.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee who sees the business is crooked refuses to sell out, vowing to stay and rebuild it for the people it will fail."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 107, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler courts the girl with rewards and raises; when his partner presents the two-thousand-dollar note, he tears it up.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner who sold his share for a promise to pay watches the other tear up the promise and laugh at him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 108, "story": 9,
|
||||
"summary": "The girl realises her mother's money is at risk; after the swindler pinches her cheek she cries, confides in the clerk, and forbids him to confront the swindler yet.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee realises her family's savings are in the hands of a man who never pays, and quietly plans how to recover them."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 109, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "The clerk arranges a grand convention of the order; the girl keeps her employer at bay with flippancy, then reminds him her mother's promised interest is overdue.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee who has seen through her employer smiles sweetly and reminds him of a payment he promised her family."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 110, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "He pays thirty dollars off the books; next day she asks him to buy back her mother's stock, and he tells her to bring the certificate that night.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee asks her crooked employer to buy back her family's shares, and must return alone at night to collect."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 111, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "She gets the check first; when he grabs her, she stabs him with a hatpin and tells him she stayed only until she could safely get the money back.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee who endured her employer's advances to recover her family's savings gets the money, then turns on him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 112, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "He lies to his wife about his wounds; summoned back for the convention, he walks through a room of hostile stockholders and cows them with a smile.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer called back to face angry small investors walks straight through them with a confident smile and they fall silent."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 113, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "His fine clothes awe the waiting men; inside, the girl is working on the books, and his partner curtly calls him in.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner who has discovered he was cheated calls the other in for a reckoning, while the evidence is being assembled next door."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 114, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "The partner accuses him of selling five of his own shares for every company share and leaving the partner holding the bag; he cheerfully admits it and says he is quitting.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner discovers the other quietly sold out first and left him holding the worthless shares, and demands his half."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 115, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "He says it was all legal and his partner has done well; the clerk bursts in with his delegation of angry members.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer planning to walk away with the takings is confronted by the employee he dismissed, backed by the people he robbed."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 116, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "His towering presence still makes the men lower their eyes.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A confident schemer faces a room of angry victims, and his sheer bearing still makes them lower their eyes."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 117, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "The clerk denounces both partners, orders the operator out, and demands a check from the swindler for the forty-five thousand in his bank.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An employee who stayed loyal to the members exposes both his bosses and demands the stolen money be returned at once."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 118, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "Threatened by the angry men, the swindler writes the check less a thousand for travel, but insists on handing it over at his own door.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A cornered schemer agrees to repay his victims under threat, but bargains for travelling money and a safe place to hand it over."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 119, "story": 10,
|
||||
"summary": "He hands over the check at his door and takes defeat with suspicious ease; the clerk has already obtained an injunction on the account but is uneasy.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A victorious employee holds the repayment in hand, yet feels uneasy that the schemer gave in so easily."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 120, "story": 11, "summary": "On the train the swindler gloats that he drew out the money before the check could clear and swore it was signed under coercion; his wife says their money never does them any good.", "predicament": "A schemer gloats over outwitting the people who cornered him, while his partner warns that he is growing worse each time."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 121, "story": 11, "summary": "In the city he takes rooms at two hundred a week and spends lavishly, while his wife numbs her doubts in fine clothes.", "predicament": "A couple flush with ill-gotten money spend it as fast as they can, and one of them quietly numbs her conscience."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 122, "story": 11, "summary": "Bored, he bets thousands at the races until only six thousand is left; a telegram from his confederate asks urgently for five thousand, and he goes at once.", "predicament": "A spendthrift down to his last reserve is asked by an old confederate for most of it, and goes to help him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 123, "story": 11, "summary": "The train is held for the rich-looking swindler, and a fussy mechanic who went back for his wife's umbrella is allowed to scramble aboard too.", "predicament": "Officials who would hold a schedule for no one bend the rules at once for a traveller who looks rich and tips well."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 124, "story": 11, "summary": "He strolls to the train carrying only a cane while a sweating porter carries his luggage, dignity radiating from him.", "predicament": "A traveller with little money moves with such lordly ease that everyone around him hurries to serve him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 125, "story": 11, "summary": "Porters and conductors fight to carry his bags for tips and he hands out a cigar the conductor assumes is expensive.", "predicament": "Everyone around a lavish tipper assumes his small gifts must be costly, judging the gift entirely by the giver."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 126, "story": 11, "summary": "The flustered mechanic, robbed of his wife's umbrella, rails at the city's thieves to the genial stranger, who laughs along.", "predicament": "A careful stranger who has just been robbed pours out his anger to a genial traveller who is sizing him up."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 127, "story": 11, "summary": "The swindler reads him as a skilled mechanic and pricks up his ears when the man mentions his invention.", "predicament": "A schemer studies a stranger's hands and clothes to judge what he is worth, and hears the word he was hoping for."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 128, "story": 11, "summary": "The inventor says a giant company offered him only three hundred dollars for six years' work; the swindler says that proves it is worth thousands.", "predicament": "A craftsman insulted by a powerful firm's low offer is told by a stranger that the offer proves his work is valuable."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 129, "story": 11, "summary": "The swindler urges him to manufacture and scare the giant into buying; the inventor fears losing everything.", "predicament": "A cautious man is urged to risk his savings making his own invention, to frighten a powerful company into paying."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 130, "story": 11, "summary": "The inventor refuses any stock company; the swindler proposes a partnership with the inventor's well-off friends instead.", "predicament": "A man burned by shares refuses any share scheme, so the promoter offers a plain partnership with his friends instead."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 131, "story": 11, "summary": "In a private compartment the inventor shows his fine machine; the swindler, planning something else entirely, promises to buy in and get a proper price.", "predicament": "A craftsman shows his life's work to a rich-seeming stranger who praises it while quietly planning to use it for himself."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 132, "story": 12, "summary": "In a new town the swindler summons a sharp young lawyer, who, once he sees what kind of man his client is, admits the town is deep in debt.", "predicament": "A sharp young adviser, testing a new client, drops his prim manner the moment he sees the client is a fellow schemer."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 133, "story": 12, "summary": "The swindler sends him with cash to buy down his jailed confederate's bail; meanwhile he sketches copies of the inventor's machine.", "predicament": "A schemer sends cash to buy an old accomplice out of trouble, while quietly copying a trusting new partner's invention."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 134, "story": 12, "summary": "The lawyer returns with the bedraggled confederate, released for four thousand, and slides out with barely any fee.", "predicament": "A schemer ransoms an old accomplice from the law at a bargain, and short-changes the adviser who arranged it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 135, "story": 12, "summary": "The confederate rages about four days in a cell; the swindler laughs that in these towns his kind of work is called swindling.", "predicament": "A swindler just freed after arrest is mocked by a friend who says only amateurs get caught breaking the law."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 136, "story": 12, "summary": "Recovering, the confederate refuses the swindler's offer to go into business together, saying they would only double-cross each other.", "predicament": "One schemer offers another a partnership, and is told that working together would only teach them to cheat each other."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 137, "story": 12, "summary": "The swindler says his wife barely let him have the bail money; the confederate warns this town punishes swindlers, but the swindler says his legitimate methods will be admired.", "predicament": "A schemer is warned the town jails people like him, and insists his lawful methods will win admiration instead."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 138, "story": 12, "summary": "He studies a borrowed commercial machine overnight; at the shop, the inventor's friends admire the invention and plan to force the giant to buy them out.", "predicament": "A group of thrifty friends dream of forcing a giant company to buy them out, and grow excited about getting rich."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 139, "story": 12, "summary": "A shrewd neighbour calls the absent promoter a skinner and says profits should stay at home, just as the promoter arrives in a polished cab.", "predicament": "A shrewd neighbour warns his friends the rich outsider joining them is a swindler and that any profit should stay among them."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 140, "story": 12, "summary": "The promoter charms them all and offers to back the inventor alone with all the capital needed, though he has six hundred dollars; they insist on going in themselves.", "predicament": "A penniless promoter offers to fund a venture single-handed, and the doubters rush to put in their own money instead."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 141, "story": 12, "summary": "The neighbour who called him a skinner now dotes on him, and they take him to the cellar for home-made wine.", "predicament": "A shrewd man who called a newcomer a swindler is won over by one warm handshake, and welcomes him into the circle."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 142, "story": 12, "summary": "They invite him to a church raffle to meet the local doctor, and agree among themselves that he is a swell.", "predicament": "A close-knit group, charmed by a newcomer, invites him into their community life to meet their leading citizen."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 143, "story": 13, "summary": "The promoter plays the prince at the church raffle, befriends the vain local doctor, and writes his wife to come at once because he needs her smile in his business.", "predicament": "A promoter courts a whole community's goodwill with cheap generosity, and sends for his spouse to charm a vain local notable."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 144, "story": 13, "summary": "Having studied the rival machine, he tells the inventor one part of his device infringes the giant's patent and shows him a way round it.", "predicament": "A partner discovers a hidden flaw in the founder's work and presents himself as the one who can fix it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 145, "story": 13, "summary": "He proposes a simpler improvement he will patent and assign to the company for a fifteen-hundred-dollar credit; the inventor, shaken, finds a patent that nearly covers the principle.", "predicament": "A founder proud of six years' work is told a partner's small change is worth a large credit in the shared business."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 146, "story": 13, "summary": "The inventor wants time to consult his friends; the promoter arranges to hold the signing at his hotel, and counts his cash.", "predicament": "A promoter who cannot pay his share arranges for the signing to happen on his own ground, where he can control the room."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 147, "story": 13, "summary": "With only six hundred dollars, he hosts the partners in a grand private dining room with pitchers of beer; the doctor moves him into the chair.", "predicament": "A promoter with almost no money hosts his partners in grand surroundings so that nobody thinks to ask about his share."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 148, "story": 13, "summary": "The doctor vouches for him as a gentleman of vast means; the partnership papers are signed, and he casually raises his patent credit.", "predicament": "A vain notable vouches for a newcomer's wealth on the strength of one good lunch, and the partners sign without question."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 149, "story": 13, "summary": "The credit is approved; he proposes that each member pay in only two thousand now, to keep the rest earning interest, which leaves his own cash share at five hundred.", "predicament": "A partner who cannot pay his share persuades the others that paying in less money now is only sensible business."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 150, "story": 13, "summary": "The thrifty men revere interest and agree; he declines every office, offering only to back them if ever needed.", "predicament": "A promoter declines every office and responsibility, offering only to back the venture with money he does not have."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 151, "story": 13, "summary": "Amid a lavish lunch he quietly pays in five hundred dollars, completing a share bought mostly with credit, then sends for his own lawyer.", "predicament": "A partner quietly buys a full share in a real business for a fraction of what everyone else paid in."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 152, "story": 13, "summary": "He instructs his lawyer to research every lawsuit the giant company has fought and every company it has bought out.", "predicament": "A partner secretly studies how a powerful rival crushes small competitors, planning to use that against his own associates."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 153, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler's glamorous wife arrives, and the vain doctor spreads word of her furs, diamonds and their lavish suppers, cementing the swindler's reputation for wealth.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A vain local notable, dazzled by a newcomer's glamorous spouse and lavish suppers, spreads word that the newcomer could buy them all."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 154, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "Privately he tells his wife he means to sell the patent to the company that once snubbed him; she asks what they will be like when they are old.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer plans to sell someone else's work to the firm that once rejected him, and his partner asks where it all ends."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 155, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "He throws the vain doctor together with his wife; the business prospers until the machines are ready and his unpaid three thousand falls due.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner who never paid his full share sees the day approaching when the others will ask for the rest of it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 156, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "He proposes to lend the company ten thousand against a note it can discount, and writes a check on a distant bank after banking hours.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner offers to lend the business money he does not have, dazzling the others with a trick of paper finance."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 157, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "That night he retrieves the check, claims it was drawn on the wrong bank, discounts the company's note locally and uses the proceeds to cover his own check.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner covers a worthless check by quietly borrowing against the business's own credit, lending the company its own money."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 158, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "He squeezes a large loan from the guilty-feeling doctor, sells machines through leads that turn out to be the giant's contacts, and the giant sues the company and every buyer.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A struggling small venture is suddenly sued by a powerful rival, and does not know its own partner arranged the attack."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 159, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "They win the first suit, but the giant files another and another, ready to fight until the little company is choked.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A small business wins its first fight against a powerful rival, only to find the rival can keep suing until it is ruined."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 160, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "He tells the despairing partners he cannot spare a dollar, then goes east to offer the company to the giant's patent manager.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner abandons his despairing associates in their fight, then goes straight to the rival to sell their business behind their backs."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 161, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "The patent manager coolly says the company has nothing worth buying and can be outlasted.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A seller trying to force a powerful rival to buy is told coolly that the rival can simply wait him out."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 162, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "He produces letters from wealthy men the giant once crushed, offering to back the little company with real capital.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A negotiator produces a list of the rival's old enemies ready to fund a competitor, turning a weak hand into a threat."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 163, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "Each letter names a rich enemy of the giant; the manager is visibly shaken.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A powerful firm's representative realises that the small competitor he meant to crush could be armed by his bitterest enemies."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 164, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "He explains he sells privately because a quiet sale pays him more than a twelfth share of an open sale, and demands to see the head of the firm.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A partner explains frankly that selling his associates out privately pays him far more than sharing an honest sale."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 165, "story": 14,
|
||||
"summary": "The giant agrees to buy the patents for a hundred and seventy-five thousand within sixty days; he wires his lawyer to have the bank sue on the company's note.",
|
||||
"predicament": "Having secretly sold his partners' business, a schemer arranges for their debts to be called in so he can take it cheaply."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 166, "story": 15, "summary": "His wife confronts him: he used her to squeeze loans out of the infatuated doctor, who has now propositioned her and says the lawyer has exposed him; she is leaving.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner discovers she was used as bait to draw money from an admirer, and is furious enough to leave."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 167, "story": 15, "summary": "She locks herself away; the lawyer arrives insolently familiar, hinting he knows of the swindler's past schemes.", "predicament": "A hired adviser drops his deference and hints that he knows enough about his client's past to have a hold over him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 168, "story": 15, "summary": "The lawyer reports the bank is suing and the partners will let the company go to forced sale, then demands more than a fee; the swindler offers ten thousand.", "predicament": "An accomplice who knows too much demands a share of the spoils, and the schemer pretends to give in to his terms."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 169, "story": 15, "summary": "Shaking hands, the swindler reads in the lawyer's eyes that he still plans to double-cross him, and lets him leave feeling in control.", "predicament": "A schemer reads in an accomplice's eyes that he plans a double-cross, and lets him go on believing he has the upper hand."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 170, "story": 15, "summary": "He finds his wife gone and the doctor's office empty, and fears the worst.", "predicament": "A schemer who has always judged others by his own low standards suddenly fears his partner has betrayed him the same way."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 171, "story": 15, "summary": "He chases the doctor to Europe, finds his wife is not with him, then learns from his confederate she is in a village, tired of quiet life and missing him.", "predicament": "A partner who left to live quietly and decently finds she misses the luxury, and lets the schemer take her back."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 172, "story": 15, "summary": "Back in town before the forced sale, he meets the partners' hostility; the shrewd neighbour calls him a liar and a skinner.", "predicament": "A partner returns to find the associates he secretly sold out calling him a swindler to his face, and must brazen it out."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 173, "story": 15, "summary": "He asks each whether they would put more money in against the giant; all say no except the inventor.", "predicament": "Discouraged partners are asked one by one whether they would risk more money, and only the founder still believes."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 174, "story": 15, "summary": "He recites the companies the giant has ruined, then offers to put in ten thousand if they raise thirty, flashing thousand-dollar bills.", "predicament": "A partner offers to put in money only if the others first match it, knowing the offer will frighten them into giving up."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 175, "story": 15, "summary": "The partners, frightened, decide to let the sale go ahead and hope to recover the note; he leaves satisfied, and brushes off an urgent caller from another hotel.", "predicament": "Frightened small investors decide to cut their losses and let the business be sold, exactly as their false partner intended."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 176, "story": 15, "summary": "He invites the lawyer to a private dinner the night before the sale and leaves him alone with the champagne.", "predicament": "A schemer who knows his accomplice plans to betray him invites him to a long private dinner the night before the deal."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 177, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "Over a three-hour dinner and a night of clubs, the swindler, who can hold his drink, gets the lawyer helplessly drunk; at dawn the lawyer mumbles that the sale is at ten.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer plies a treacherous accomplice with drink all night, keeping his own head, so that the accomplice will miss the deal."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 178, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "The lawyer plans to sneak off to the sale first, but the swindler drugs his nightcap and he collapses into a deep sleep.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An accomplice who plans to slip away and betray his partner is quietly drugged by the partner he meant to cheat."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 179, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler carries him to bed, searches him and finds telegrams from the giant company authorising the lawyer to buy the patents cheaply and keep the difference as his fee.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer searches his unconscious accomplice and finds proof that he was secretly working for the rival all along."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 180, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "Admiring the company's business sense but despising the lawyer's clumsiness, he lays the telegrams out beside the sleeper and sits watching him for hours.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer who has caught an accomplice's betrayal lays out the evidence for him to wake to, and keeps guard."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 181, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "Fighting sleep for five hours with cold showers, he finally gets the telephone call: the patents have been bought.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer fights exhaustion for hours so the rival he has drugged cannot wake before the deal is done."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 182, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "Barely able to stand, he calls a lawyer; his confederate arrives, having bought the patents at the sale for eight thousand.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer who has outwitted everyone learns his front man bought the prize cheaply, and can barely stay awake to finish."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 183, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "The inventor bid everything he had but lost; the partners will divide a pittance. The confederate jokingly asks what the transfer is worth, and the swindler threatens him with the police.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A front man jokes about keeping the prize for himself, and his partner answers at once with a threat of prison."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 184, "story": 16,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler shows his confederate the drugged lawyer: the last man who tried to double-cross him, who lost forty thousand.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer shows his oldest friend what happened to the last accomplice who tried to cheat him, as a warning."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 185, "story": 17, "summary": "The patents transferred, the confederate announces he has married a much-divorced musical-comedy star after one night of spending.", "predicament": "A schemer announces he has married a glamorous stranger won over in a single night by the way he threw money about."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 186, "story": 17, "summary": "He describes the whirlwind wedding; the swindler jokes about how long the lease will last.", "predicament": "A friend who married on a night's spree is teased about how long a match built on free spending can last."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 187, "story": 17, "summary": "After collecting from the giant company, the swindler visits the newlyweds, and the bride sizes him up as a good sport with money to spend.", "predicament": "A newcomer with fresh money is appraised by a friend's glamorous new spouse, who plainly likes a free spender."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 188, "story": 17, "summary": "Nursing hangovers, they boast of their spree; the swindler mixes cocktails and the bride hails him as a hero.", "predicament": "A free-spending guest wins over his friend's new spouse at once by being the best at the pleasures she lives for."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 189, "story": 17, "summary": "By evening she calls him by a pet name, and he decides she is respectable enough to introduce to his wife.", "predicament": "A schemer decides a friend's flashy new spouse is respectable enough to meet his own, because no scandal sticks to her."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 190, "story": 17, "summary": "His wife, a quieter woman, dislikes the new bride but tolerates her; he announces a private-car honeymoon tour for them all.", "predicament": "A quiet spouse who longs for a settled life is swept into an extravagant trip with company she does not care for."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 191, "story": 17, "summary": "The party carouses across the country; fuming at a slow train, the swindler bullies the conductor until their car is left on a siding in a small town.", "predicament": "A rich-seeming traveller bullies the person in charge over a slow journey until he is simply left behind in a small town."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 192, "story": 17, "summary": "To the sleepy town a private car is an epoch; an idler runs up the street shouting the news.", "predicament": "A sleepy small town is thrown into excitement by the arrival of visitors who seem to be enormously rich."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 193, "story": 17, "summary": "The town's leading men and idlers hurry to the depot; the newspaper owner rushes to be first.", "predicament": "Every notable in a small town drops what he is doing to get a look at wealthy strangers who have arrived by chance."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 194, "story": 17, "summary": "The whole town crowds the siding; the newspaper owner rings the bell and is admitted while the crowd cranes to see in.", "predicament": "A small-town booster gets the chance to go inside and meet the rich visitors that everyone else can only stare at."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 195, "story": 17, "summary": "The swindler welcomes him grandly to lunch and introduces the party as millionaires, a mine dealer and a retired manufacturer.", "predicament": "A schemer receives a small-town booster with lavish hospitality and passes his party off as retired millionaires."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 196, "story": 17, "summary": "The editor rails at the railroad that bypasses their thriving town of factories and says even its leading citizen can do nothing about it.", "predicament": "A small-town booster pours out his town's grievances and ambitions to a rich stranger he hopes might care."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 197, "story": 17, "summary": "The pair fill his notebook with fabrications, and he tells the crowd that 'Colonel' Wallingford is a famous Eastern millionaire.", "predicament": "A trusting booster spreads a stranger's inventions in print and announces to the town that a great millionaire has come."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 198, "story": 18, "summary": "Bored with two hours to kill, the party hires a carriage to see the town; the confederate's bride warms to the swindler more than the others like.", "predicament": "Wealthy-seeming visitors with time to kill decide to show themselves off to a small town that is already dazzled."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 199, "story": 18, "summary": "The town watches the four parade up Main Street like a circus, and the swindler senses sleeping money everywhere.", "predicament": "A schemer riding through an admiring small town senses the savings hidden in every modest home, waiting to be stirred."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 200, "story": 18, "summary": "The two schemers toss a coin for the town and the swindler wins, vowing to come back and play the tune that makes the coin dance out.", "predicament": "Two schemers toss a coin to decide which of them will come back and fleece a trusting small town."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 201, "story": 18, "summary": "His wife, seeing the bride's glances at him, urges him to settle here and start an honest business; they drive back and find their watches wrong.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner, uneasy at a rival's flirting, urges him to settle in a quiet town and run an honest business."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 202, "story": 18, "summary": "An idler runs to tell them the through train has taken their private car without them.", "predicament": "A party of showy visitors is stranded in a small town with no luggage, and must keep up appearances without their trappings."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 203, "story": 18, "summary": "The railroad refuses to bring the car back; they are stuck until the next afternoon.", "predicament": "A rich-seeming traveller who bullied a subordinate finds the subordinate's masters now refuse to do him any favours."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 204, "story": 18, "summary": "The only suspicious man in town, the hotel keeper, demands cash in advance from guests without luggage and sends the hundred-dollar bill to the bank to be checked.", "predicament": "A soured, suspicious host demands payment in advance from grand-looking guests, and even checks whether their money is real."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 205, "story": 18, "summary": "A local notable welcomes the swindler and offers a site for a new hotel; the newspaper owner brings papers and promises the town's cooperation in any investment.", "predicament": "Small-town boosters rush to offer land and cooperation to a supposed millionaire, each hoping to profit from his investment."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 206, "story": 18, "summary": "The front page trumpets Eastern millions, the stolen car and a rumoured huge hotel.", "predicament": "A local paper turns a stranger's chance stop into headlines about millions coming to town, and the whole town believes it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 207, "story": 18, "summary": "The article lists his schemes as triumphs and urges a traction line to rival the railroad; the swindler seizes on the idea.", "predicament": "A town booster's pet idea for a new enterprise hands a passing schemer exactly the scheme he needs."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 208, "story": 18, "summary": "He plans a traction line built on a thousand dollars and the town's money; his wife begs him to make honest money with the hundred thousand they have.", "predicament": "A schemer who already has a comfortable fortune is begged by his partner to use it honestly instead of starting another scheme."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 209, "story": 18, "summary": "The local notable brings in the town's great man, president of the bank and every factory.", "predicament": "A small town's leading citizen, head of every business in it, comes in person to court a stranger he believes is rich."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 210, "story": 18, "summary": "The great man speechifies about the town's advantages, and one leading citizen after another calls to welcome the millionaire.", "predicament": "One by one the leading citizens of a small town call on a stranger to beg him to invest among them."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 211, "story": 18, "summary": "He hosts them all on the town's entire supply of champagne, and afterwards gloats that they are begging to be skinned; he means to hide the traction idea.", "predicament": "A schemer entertains a town's leaders at his own expense and gloats afterwards that they came begging to be fleeced."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 212, "story": 18, "summary": "Next morning he tours sites, sketching a grand hotel and opera house, and keeps a thoughtful silence over one pasture.", "predicament": "A promoter touring a small town describes grand buildings to come, and says just enough to set everyone dreaming."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 213, "story": 18, "summary": "He takes cheap ninety-day options on seven pieces of property, and the paper devotes its whole front page to the purchases.", "predicament": "A promoter spends a trifle on the right to buy land later, and the whole town reads it as a sign of fortunes coming."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 214, "story": 19, "summary": "The promoter returns by motor car to an ovation; the town's great man comes out bareheaded, and the notable who got option money has smartened himself up.", "predicament": "A town that has been waiting for a rich man's return greets him as a saviour, and a notable enriched by trifles struts."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 215, "story": 19, "summary": "Wanting to be a real millionaire now, he banks his hundred thousand locally and takes options on all vacant land with non-negotiable notes, which the banker says he will lend on at face value.", "predicament": "A promoter ties up a whole town's vacant land with promises to pay later, and the town's leading lender vouches for his notes."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 216, "story": 19, "summary": "He buys a boarding house to be made a mansion, hires local servants, and leaves; the paper reports him buying property in neighbouring towns.", "predicament": "A promoter sets up a lavish local household and then goes quietly buying land in neighbouring towns, letting rumour spread."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 217, "story": 19, "summary": "The editor deduces from the pattern of purchases along the road that a traction line is coming, with the town as headquarters.", "predicament": "A local booster pieces together a rich man's land purchases and announces the great enterprise he thinks is coming."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 218, "story": 19, "summary": "The town comes alive with hope and every idle dollar looks like a raft to prosperity; only the suspicious hotel keeper remembers he had no luggage.", "predicament": "A whole town comes alive with dreams of wealth, and only one soured, suspicious host remembers something did not add up."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 219, "story": 19, "summary": "Mobbed at the bank, he confirms the traction line and hints at car shops if citizens do their share; the great man gives a speech of thanks.", "predicament": "A promoter hints that the town will get the great enterprise if its citizens do their part, and the crowd cheers him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 220, "story": 19, "summary": "The whole town surges to his mansion with a brass band, eating and drinking while special editions promise every citizen riches.", "predicament": "A whole town feasts at a promoter's expense and reads that every one of them is about to become rich."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 221, "story": 19, "summary": "The boom spreads a hundred miles; his wife is proud of all the value he has created, and he laughs that it cost him two hundred and fifty dollars.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner is proud of the prosperity he seems to have created, not knowing it rests on almost nothing."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 222, "story": 19, "summary": "Money fever grips the town; the chamber of commerce asks what the traction company wants in return for building its shops there.", "predicament": "Town leaders caught in a fever of hope ask the promoter what they must give to win the great enterprise."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 223, "story": 19, "summary": "He asks no cash, only land, a franchise and repayment of his option money, which he promises to double and spend on a fountain.", "predicament": "A promoter modestly asks the town only to buy back his rights to its land and give him more free, promising a gift."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 224, "story": 19, "summary": "The town's leaders guarantee the franchise; village councils along the route give streets and station grounds away before he even asks.", "predicament": "Town councils eager for a promised enterprise give away valuable rights for nothing before they are even asked."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 225, "story": 19, "summary": "In yellow boots and a buckboard he wins rights of way from farmers with promises of stops, sidings and cheap freight.", "predicament": "A promoter dressed as a working builder wins over small producers one by one with promises of the services they have always wanted."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 226, "story": 19, "summary": "His wife is welcomed by the town's social leaders and blossoms, begging him to stay for good and suggesting he could hold public office.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner, finally accepted in respectable society, begs him to settle down for good and make his position real."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 227, "story": 19, "summary": "He laughs that there is not enough money in office, and treats her planned reception as a good business move.", "predicament": "A schemer dismisses his partner's hope of an honest place in the town, treating even her party as a business move."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 228, "story": 20, "summary": "A surveyor runs a line down Main Street; the banker asks whether the hotel will be built, and the promoter offers him his own lot back at four times the price.", "predicament": "A leading citizen wants back the land he optioned to a promoter, and is asked to pay the inflated price the promoter's rumours created."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 229, "story": 20, "summary": "To the promoter's surprise the banker pays two thousand for his own five-hundred-dollar lot, and the paper trumpets the deal.", "predicament": "A shrewd lender, caught up in the fever, pays four times over for land he already owned and calls it good business."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 230, "story": 20, "summary": "He sells other options at a profit, uses the money to take up the rest, and puts a grading crew on a hill east of town while papers print pictures of trolley cars.", "predicament": "A promoter uses the first profits from rising land to buy more, and hires a crew to make the enterprise look real."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 231, "story": 20, "summary": "Speculation becomes a craze across the route; lots double in a day, and he quietly sells at ten times cost.", "predicament": "A whole region gripped by speculative fever trades land at ever higher prices, while the promoter quietly sells out at the top."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 232, "story": 20, "summary": "The buyers rave about the wealth he brought, not seeing that they are passing their own money around at artificial values and he never meant to build a line.", "predicament": "Small investors celebrating newfound wealth do not see that they are only passing their own savings around at inflated prices."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 233, "story": 20, "summary": "At his wife's lawn reception he thinks of the crash to come; the mayor says every cent he has is in property and he will not sell until the first car runs.", "predicament": "A promoter hears a trusting neighbour say every cent he has is tied up in the land boom he is about to abandon."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 234, "story": 20, "summary": "After the guests leave, the promoter sits brooding and calls his wife in.", "predicament": "A schemer who has sold out at the top must tell his partner that the life she loves here is about to end."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 235, "story": 20, "summary": "He tells her he has sold everything but the donated land and cleared over two hundred thousand; she thinks it was honestly made, and he asks whether a dollar is ever honest.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner believes his fortune was honestly made, and he realises she has never understood what he does."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 236, "story": 20, "summary": "The town and country crowd into the square for the fountain's dedication.", "predicament": "A whole community turns out in holiday mood to celebrate the promoter who is about to leave them ruined."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 237, "story": 20, "summary": "The band parades and the promoter rides in the first carriage with the town's leaders.", "predicament": "A promoter who has already sold out rides at the head of a parade in honour of the prosperity he promised."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 238, "story": 20, "summary": "The banker speaks for forty-five minutes on the town's glorious future.", "predicament": "A town's leading citizen, heavily invested in a boom, speaks for an hour about the glorious future it promises."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 239, "story": 20, "summary": "The mayor introduces the promoter, holding back his name until the dramatic moment.", "predicament": "A town's leaders heap public praise on a benefactor they believe has made them all rich."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 240, "story": 20, "summary": "The crowd roars his name; he makes a short modest speech thanking them, sweating.", "predicament": "A promoter who is about to abandon a town must stand before it and accept its gratitude with becoming modesty."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 241, "story": 20, "summary": "His wife pulls the cord and the fountain he promised spouts; the editor runs off to write it up.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner is given the honour of unveiling his gift to the town, not knowing it is a parting gesture."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 242, "story": 20, "summary": "Home, he says they must leave for Europe; his wife is horrified that he will not build the line and that her happiness here was built on theft.", "predicament": "A partner who has found respect at last learns the schemer plans to leave, making her happiness part of the theft."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 243, "story": 20, "summary": "As he insists it is legal, a real traction magnate arrives wanting to talk about his line.", "predicament": "A promoter about to abandon a sham enterprise is visited by a genuine operator who wants to take it seriously."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 244, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The sham line is sold to a real traction group; the town fetes the departing couple, his wife is proud that he can come back, and he laughs that it turned out a legitimate deal.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer who meant to leave a town ruined finds a real buyer takes over his sham enterprise, and everyone ends up satisfied."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 245, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "Struck by the thought that honest deals may pay better, and holding half a million, he reads American papers across Europe looking to make a commanding fortune.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer with a large fortune wonders for the first time whether honest dealing might pay better than his old tricks."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 246, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "Finding European laws too strict, he cables his confederate to buy him a farm in the wheat belt for a new enterprise.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer abroad finds that everyone there expects real value for money, and hurries home where rules are looser."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 247, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The confederate, just then fleeing a postal fraud charge, builds a lavish gentleman's farmhouse with the swindler's money.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer on the run from the law is handed a friend's money to spend and builds him a showplace with it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 248, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler arrives dressed as a gentleman farmer; the confederate welcomes him with a phonograph and says he is hiding under a false name.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer arriving to play a new part is greeted by an old friend who is hiding from the law under a false name."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 249, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The confederate explains the authorities stopped his gold mine and his bride has left him; the swindler's wife is pleased.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A swindler admits his latest venture has been shut down and his flashy marriage has collapsed with it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 250, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "His room is papered with worthless stock certificates; the swindler solemnly announces he will save the downtrodden farmers.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer announces, with a straight face, that his next venture will rescue a whole class of downtrodden producers."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 251, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "He plans to empty the wheat pit and make a million, then take on the greatest financiers; they meet the farm's new manager.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer who has grown rich sets his sights on beating the biggest financiers of all at their own game."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 252, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The confederate shows a lavish farm office and introduces a college-trained young farmer the neighbours think a joke.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A young man with modern training, mocked by his neighbours, is offered a post by rich strangers who value him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 253, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The young farmer asks only fifteen dollars a week; the swindler admits he knows nothing of farming but wants wheat.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An earnest young expert is hired by an employer who cheerfully admits he knows nothing of the work and wants only one thing."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 254, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The young man honestly warns that the farm cannot possibly turn a profit at the scale planned.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A newly hired expert feels bound to tell his rich employer plainly that the venture cannot possibly make money."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 255, "story": 21,
|
||||
"summary": "The swindler shows him bonds and a bank book and claims half a million made in wheat investment; the awed young man spreads the word through the county.",
|
||||
"predicament": "An honest young employee is shown a pile of securities and spreads word through the district that his employer is a genius."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 256, "story": 22, "summary": "The young farmer throws himself into the work; in the city the swindler skips the polished broker offices as too much like his own stage settings and chooses a shabby, placid old firm.", "predicament": "A schemer who distrusts any showy front chooses a shabby, placid old firm to trust with his money instead."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 257, "story": 22, "summary": "Shown thirty years of books, he gives the placid broker fifty thousand with instructions for five weekly gambles, needing only one win in five.", "predicament": "A schemer hands a quiet, respectable-seeming firm a large sum to gamble on his instructions, trusting its long record."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 258, "story": 22, "summary": "The first gamble wins fifteen thousand; he lets the young farmer see the check, and rumour inflates the sum across two counties.", "predicament": "A schemer lets one small win be seen by an honest employee, knowing the story will grow each time it is retold."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 259, "story": 22, "summary": "At a country debating society the farmers carry the motion that the farmer is a failure as a businessman; the swindler asks to speak.", "predicament": "A rich newcomer rises to address a room of small producers who have just agreed they are always cheated."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 260, "story": 22, "summary": "He tells them they alone have no say over their prices and must combine, like the great trusts, to demand a dollar and a half for wheat.", "predicament": "A persuasive outsider tells a group of struggling producers that if they band together they can name their own price."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 261, "story": 22, "summary": "The farmers cheer and form an association with no fees or dues, since he alone will pay for everything.", "predicament": "Small producers join a new association eagerly because the rich organiser promises that he alone will pay for everything."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 262, "story": 22, "summary": "He is made president; members need only send chain letters recruiting three more growers each.", "predicament": "Members of a free association are asked only to recruit three friends each, which seems to cost them nothing at all."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 263, "story": 22, "summary": "Plied with cider and liquor, the farmers go home convinced he is their Moses; letters spread across the wheat belt and names pour in.", "predicament": "A crowd of producers, fed and flattered, goes home convinced the stranger among them is the leader who will deliver them."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 264, "story": 22, "summary": "All winter he tours a dozen states addressing sceptical farmers, who leave enthusiastic.", "predicament": "A promoter travels from gathering to gathering, turning roomfuls of sceptics into eager believers with his presence alone."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 265, "story": 22, "summary": "At a lavish Christmas feast for members he announces the association has spread to every wheat-growing community.", "predicament": "A promoter throws a lavish feast for his followers and tells them their movement is about to deliver them."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 266, "story": 22, "summary": "The secretary circulates reports of his winning deals, hiding the few losses; the young farmer says he tripled his own small savings on the swindler's tips.", "predicament": "An honest young employee tells a crowd how he tripled his small savings on his employer's tips, fuelling everyone's hopes."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 267, "story": 22, "summary": "He vows to use the million members to break the grain exchange and would give his fortune, even die a pauper, for the farmers' cause.", "predicament": "A promoter vows before his followers that he would spend his whole fortune for their cause and die poor if need be."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 268, "story": 22, "summary": "The farmers cheer him as a martyr and go home with his gifts, dreaming of wheat at a dollar and a half, while his wife watches pale and his confederate grins.", "predicament": "A crowd of hopeful producers goes home laden with a promoter's gifts, sure that wealth is theirs, while his own partner watches pale."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 269, "story": 23, "summary": "He mails a penny journal to a million members, then brings the placid broker four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars to bet on wheat.", "predicament": "A promoter stakes his entire fortune on one enormous gamble, placing it with a quiet firm he has come to trust completely."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 270, "story": 23, "summary": "The broker will not predict but agrees to buy nearly two million bushels; the swindler says he will turn it into a clean million.", "predicament": "A schemer tells a quiet, careful handler that he means to turn his whole stake into a fortune, and the handler says little."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 271, "story": 23, "summary": "He arranges for the broker to sell to other buyers when the price peaks, and has the firm advertise in his journal that it handles his trades.", "predicament": "A promoter arranges for his own followers to be steered to the firm that will quietly sell them his holdings at the top."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 272, "story": 23, "summary": "The crop grows; the young farmer's scientific methods produce the best wheat in the district.", "predicament": "An honest young worker's patient methods succeed brilliantly on land his employer bought only as a stage set for a scheme."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 273, "story": 23, "summary": "Rumours push prices up; the journal urges every farmer to hold his wheat for a dollar and a half, and farmers refuse to sell.", "predicament": "Small producers are urged by a trusted leader to hold back everything they have until a promised higher price arrives."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 274, "story": 23, "summary": "Across the wheat belt farmers refuse ordinary prices; the swindler laughs that the exchange can be frightened by a pumpkin.", "predicament": "Small producers everywhere hold out for a promised price, and the promoter behind it boasts how easily the big traders can be frightened."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 275, "story": 23, "summary": "Wheat jumps ten cents, wiping out small speculators; the journal urges every farmer to invest every loose dollar in wheat on margin through the swindler's broker.", "predicament": "Small producers are urged by the leader they trust to gamble every spare dollar, as a duty, through his own brokers."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 276, "story": 23, "summary": "Farmers sell real wheat and gamble the cash on paper wheat; the pit goes wild; neighbours brag of profits as the swindler heads for the city.", "predicament": "Neighbours who never gambled before mortgage their land to speculate, and brag to each other about paper profits."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 277, "story": 23, "summary": "The young farmer's father, who distrusts speculation, wants a share of the easy money until his son says everyone must hold their wheat.", "predicament": "A careful old man who distrusts speculation is tempted by his neighbours' easy profits and asks his son how to get in."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 278, "story": 23, "summary": "Realising the whole thing depends on everyone else holding, the old man sells his wheat and banks the money; the swindler exults that a million makes him a financier.", "predicament": "A shrewd old man sees the boom depends on others holding firm, and quietly cashes out while his son calls him a traitor."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 279, "story": 23, "summary": "His wife asks why he pushed farmers to speculate; he says someone had to buy his wheat when he sold, and the confederate says the farmers will sell to the sheriff.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner discovers the followers he urged to invest were simply there to buy him out at the top."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 280, "story": 23, "summary": "The market breaks as farmers rush to sell; he tells his confederate the farmers cut their own throats and will hold the bag.", "predicament": "A promoter sees his followers' boom collapse and blames them for not holding together long enough to save themselves."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 281, "story": 23, "summary": "He reasons from the prices that his broker sold at his target; the confederate says the money came from the farmers, and he says it is his now.", "predicament": "A promoter assures his partner that his holdings were sold at the peak, and that his followers' lost money is now his."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 282, "story": 24, "summary": "At breakfast he reads that his placid broker has shot himself, and turns ghastly pale for the first time in his life.", "predicament": "A schemer who has always taken losses coolly reads that the man holding his whole fortune has killed himself."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 283, "story": 24, "summary": "The respectable old broker had kept six households and had been juggling customers' money for years.", "predicament": "A respected handler of other people's money turns out to have been secretly stealing from all his clients for years."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 284, "story": 24, "summary": "The dingy office is full of frantic customers; the surviving partner flinches when the swindler gives his name.", "predicament": "A frightened surviving partner of a collapsed firm faces the biggest of the clients whose money has vanished."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 285, "story": 24, "summary": "The partner explains the broker used the swindler's money to cover his thefts, then gambled the rest to make it up and was wiped out when the market broke.", "predicament": "A man who staked everything learns his trusted handler spent it on his own debts and gambled away the rest."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 286, "story": 24, "summary": "Dazed, he hands out cigars and leaves; he has fifty-four dollars, and his wife silently hands over her diamonds.", "predicament": "A schemer suddenly left with nothing accepts his partner's last valuables without a word, too stunned to speak."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 287, "story": 24, "summary": "He tells his wife never to preach again: he tried a legitimate deal and a thief got all the money.", "predicament": "A schemer who lost everything on his one attempt at big business blames honesty itself and rails at the thief who beat him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 288, "story": 24, "summary": "She weeps for her lost hopes; he sinks into apathy, and they drift from town to town, pawning her diamonds and living in boarding houses.", "predicament": "A schemer who lost everything falls into apathy, while his partner watches her hope of a respectable life vanish again."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 289, "story": 24, "summary": "Disgusted by a boarding-house dinner, he moves them into the best hotel with no money, so that the bill will force him back to work.", "predicament": "A broke man deliberately runs up a debt he cannot pay, to force himself to get back to work."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 290, "story": 24, "summary": "Back in luxury on credit his spirits revive, but pocket money runs low; in a shabby cigar shop the maker complains that the government favours combinations over little men.", "predicament": "A man living in luxury on credit overhears a struggling small trader complain that big combinations crush the little man."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 291, "story": 24, "summary": "The loungers in the shop agree the laws grind down the poor; the promoter's arrival wakes everyone up.", "predicament": "A roomful of idle small traders grumbling about the rich perks up at once when a rich-looking customer walks in."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 292, "story": 24, "summary": "He buys good cigars, wincing at his own frayed clothes, and watches the maker pay a salesman a high price for a heavily advertised brand.", "predicament": "A man whose finery is fraying still passes for rich, and watches a struggling small trader overpay a big supplier."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 293, "story": 24, "summary": "The maker says his own cigar is better but he cannot afford advertising, and that consolidators should be jailed.", "predicament": "A small trader with a better product and some savings cannot afford to compete with a big firm's advertising."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 294, "story": 24, "summary": "The promoter suggests the small dealers combine to buy in bulk, and the maker warms at once; the confederate, disguised and on the run, appears begging for money.", "predicament": "A small trader who hates combinations changes his mind the moment someone suggests one that would help him."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 295, "story": 25, "summary": "The confederate, grey and frightened, is wanted for selling oil wells that did not exist; the promoter can give him only ten dollars.", "predicament": "An old accomplice on the run begs for help, and a schemer who is himself nearly broke gives him his last few dollars."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 296, "story": 25, "summary": "The promoter admits he has lost his touch since his great fall; the confederate is terrified of a plain-clothes man across the street.", "predicament": "A schemer who once found easy money everywhere admits that since his big loss he can no longer think small enough."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 297, "story": 25, "summary": "The confederate says all their old associates are in prison and they are next, then flees.", "predicament": "A frightened schemer warns his oldest friend that everyone else they worked with is in prison, and that they are next."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 298, "story": 25, "summary": "Walking back, the promoter sees that small cigar stores buy at retail and hatches his plan; the hotel clerk is waiting to press him about his unpaid bill.", "predicament": "A guest who owes a large bill he cannot pay walks straight up to the clerk, having just found his next scheme."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 299, "story": 25, "summary": "He complains angrily about the wine and threatens to pay and leave, and the relieved clerk stops worrying; his wife senses good news.", "predicament": "A guest who cannot pay his bill complains loudly about the service, so that the anxious clerk stops worrying about payment."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 300, "story": 25, "summary": "He announces he will settle here and take half the profits of the town's small cigar shops; she tells him she is expecting a child.", "predicament": "A schemer's partner learns he means to settle and run a business, and tells him they are about to have a child."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 301, "story": 25, "summary": "He drafts plans through the night, orders printing, and returns to the shabby shop in a showy carriage that wakes the loungers.", "predicament": "A promoter with nothing in his pocket returns to a struggling small business in a hired show of wealth to make his offer."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 302, "story": 25, "summary": "He offers the maker eight hundred dollars for his business, which is a good price; the maker wants more.", "predicament": "A struggling small trader is suddenly offered a fair price for his business by a stranger who has no money."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 303, "story": 25, "summary": "The promoter explains the consolidation and says he will buy some stores for cash; the maker fears being frozen out if he refuses.", "predicament": "A small trader offered a place in a new combination fears that if he refuses he will be squeezed out of business."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 304, "story": 25, "summary": "The promoter explains stores will be bought for stock, owners kept on salary, and costs cut by bulk buying; the loungers listen avidly.", "predicament": "A small trader is told that trading his business for shares will double his profits while he keeps running it himself."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 305, "story": 25, "summary": "The maker, convinced, agrees; the promoter offers him a directorship and hints he may sell his shop to the combination at an inflated price.", "predicament": "A small trader is offered a seat on the board and a quiet chance to sell his own business to it above value."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 306, "story": 25, "summary": "The maker, now a knowing insider, fetches two not-too-smart friends to join, and rides in the carriage.", "predicament": "A mark who has been let in on the inside eagerly brings in friends he privately thinks are easier marks than himself."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 307, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "He dazzles the three small dealers with an expensive lunch; afterwards the hotel manager politely says he must present the two-week bill.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter who has just dazzled his prospects with a costly lunch is quietly asked to settle a bill he cannot pay."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 308, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "He pockets the bill with perfect calm and walks off.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A guest handed a bill he cannot pay pockets it with perfect calm, as if money were the least of his concerns."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 309, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "With nobody to wire for money, he wanders into a flashy cigar store where illegal dice games run openly for cigars.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man with a pressing debt and no one to ask for help wanders into a place where an illegal game offers quick money."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 310, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "The sharp proprietor sizes him up; a policeman passes through to a back-room poker game, and a customer challenges the proprietor to a dice throw for money.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A stranger watches a shrewd operator run an illegal game in the open with the law's blessing, and weighs whether to join."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 311, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "The promoter joins with his last fifteen dollars; the others drop out and he and the proprietor are left facing each other.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A man with only his last few dollars joins a gamble against the house, knowing he is little worse off if he loses."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 312, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "They raise the stakes; he wins twice with four aces, then throws a mere pair on a two-hundred-dollar pot.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A desperate gambler on a winning streak lets it all ride on one more throw against a sharp opponent."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 313, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "The proprietor throws nothing and loses; called away, he lets the promoter take the money, and the promoter pays his hotel bill, confidence restored.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A broke man wins just enough in a lucky gamble to pay his debts and recover his nerve for the scheme ahead."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 314, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "That evening the proprietor calls: he is a local power, has heard of the consolidation, and says it will fail unless he gets his cut.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A local fixer who has heard of a promoter's scheme turns up to announce it will fail unless he gets his share."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 315, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "The promoter insists the plan is a straight business; the fixer, who always bets that people are not honest, asks what the inside is.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter insists his plan is an honest business, and a sharp operator keeps asking where the hidden profit really lies."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 316, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "The fixer demands to see the agreement, reads it several times, and salutes the promoter for inventing a new game.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A shrewd local operator reads a promoter's agreement closely and finds the trick the small traders will never notice."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 317, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "He explains the trick: the promoter buys each store for stock and resells it to the company at double, pocketing half the shares free; he wants in.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A sharp outsider exposes exactly how the promoter's contract cheats the small traders, and asks to be cut in rather than warn them."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 318, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "He declares himself in for half the free stock; asked what he brings, he says he is the permanent alderman and controls gambling privileges.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A local fixer demands half a promoter's hidden profit, and makes clear he has the power to stop the scheme if refused."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 319, "story": 26,
|
||||
"summary": "They part in good humour, but the promoter spends long hours thinking.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter who has been forced to accept an unwanted partner smiles on the surface and privately plans how to deal with him."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
|
||||
[
|
||||
{"chunk": 320, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "The alderman's name brings the small dealers in; the promoter asks him to pay the incorporation costs and hands over a postdated check for his own share.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter asks his powerful new partner to pay the first costs, and settles his own share with a postdated check."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 321, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "The alderman takes the check; he balks at letting the promoter hold all the stock as trustee but, finding no better plan, agrees.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A wary partner hates letting the other hold all the shares in trust, but cannot think of a better arrangement."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 322, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "The promoter lulls him with promises of a split and fires up the small dealers at meetings; nearly all sign. He then asks the maker, now vice president, about buying a fine house.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter wins over a crowd of small traders with talk of collective wealth, then flatters a newly promoted one in private."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 323, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "The promoter tells the maker he saved too slowly and must invest; the maker admits he has five thousand, scraped together over thirty years.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A small trader who scrimped for thirty years is told that saving is for fools and real fortunes come from investing boldly."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 324, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "He offers the maker five thousand more in stock, in strict secret to keep the powerful partner out, and promises to push his cigars.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A trusting small trader is offered extra shares in secret, supposedly to keep a powerful partner from getting too much."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 325, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "He makes the same secret offer to every dealer with money, and tells his wife he will leave town with the cash, cutting out the partner who tried to muscle in.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A promoter secretly sells the shares he promised a forced partner, planning to leave town with the money and the partner empty-handed."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 326, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "His wife asks who will lose the money; he assures her it is ordinary promoter's profit. A policeman arrives and arrests him for obtaining money under false pretences.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer assures his partner his profit is perfectly legitimate just as the law arrives at the door to arrest him."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 327, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "The alderman says he swore out the warrant himself over the postdated check, having seen through the double-cross.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer who planned to cheat his forced partner learns that the partner saw it coming and has had him jailed first."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 328, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "In his cell he reflects bitterly that after all his big deals he is caught over a hundred dollars, and feels no remorse, only regret at being careless.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer who got away with fortunes is caught over a trifling sum, and regrets only the carelessness, not the deeds."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 329, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "The maker refuses to have anything to do with a swindler, and his wife has left the hotel; for the first time he is utterly friendless.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A jailed schemer finds that the marks who fawned on him now refuse him, and he has no real friends left."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 330, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "Charged and moved to the county jail, he trades jokes with the alderman, who is reorganising the consolidation himself.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A jailed schemer must smile while the rival who put him there takes over his scheme and thanks him for it."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 331, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "His wife visits, bringing the traction magnate who once bought his sham line.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A jailed schemer's partner comes to visit him, bringing along one of the very people he once swindled."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 332, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "The magnate, whose line prospered, forgives him and offers to buy him out of jail and hire him to win rights of way, with a man to watch him.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A former victim offers to rescue a jailed schemer and put his talents to honest work, under close watch."},
|
||||
{"chunk": 333, "story": 27,
|
||||
"summary": "He laughs that three watchers would be needed and takes his wife's hand; she, understanding at last, knows he will not change.",
|
||||
"predicament": "A schemer offered an honest living jokes about needing to be watched, and his partner finally accepts he will never change."}
|
||||
]
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
|
||||
#!/usr/bin/env python3
|
||||
"""Assemble records.json and groups.json from batches/ and groups_src.py, and check them."""
|
||||
import collections, glob, json, pathlib
|
||||
from groups_src import G, STANDING
|
||||
here = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent
|
||||
chunks = json.loads((here.parent / 'chunks.json').read_text())
|
||||
stories = json.loads((here.parent / 'stories.json').read_text())
|
||||
recs = [r for f in sorted(glob.glob(str(here / 'batches/s*.json'))) for r in json.loads(open(f).read())]
|
||||
assert [r['chunk'] for r in recs] == list(range(len(chunks))), 'every scene, once, in order'
|
||||
assert all(chunks[r['chunk']]['story'] == r['story'] for r in recs)
|
||||
|
||||
seen = collections.Counter(m for g in G for m in g['members'])
|
||||
dup = [m for m, n in seen.items() if n > 1]
|
||||
assert not dup, f'scenes in two groups: {dup}'
|
||||
by = {r['chunk']: r for r in recs}
|
||||
out = []
|
||||
for g in G:
|
||||
assert 3 <= len(g['options']) <= 5, g['id']
|
||||
st = sorted({by[m]['story'] for m in g['members']})
|
||||
stand = collections.Counter(STANDING[by[m]['story']] for m in g['members'])
|
||||
out.append({
|
||||
'id': g['id'], 'name': g['name'], 'predicament': g['predicament'],
|
||||
'sentence': f"A {g['actor']} wants {g['wants']} from {g['counterpart']}.",
|
||||
'actor': g['actor'], 'wants': g['wants'], 'counterpart': g['counterpart'],
|
||||
'stories': st, 'story_titles': [stories[s]['title'] for s in st],
|
||||
'standing': dict(stand), 'stage': stand.most_common(1)[0][0],
|
||||
'members': [{'chunk': m, 'story': by[m]['story'], 'predicament': by[m]['predicament']} for m in g['members']],
|
||||
'options': [{'text': t, 'source': s, 'moves': mv,
|
||||
'in_group': (int(s.split(':')[1]) in g['members']) if s.startswith('scene:') else None}
|
||||
for t, s, mv in g['options']],
|
||||
})
|
||||
unassigned = [r['chunk'] for r in recs if r['chunk'] not in seen]
|
||||
(here / 'records.json').write_text(json.dumps(recs, indent=1, ensure_ascii=False))
|
||||
(here / 'groups.json').write_text(json.dumps({'groups': out, 'unassigned': unassigned}, indent=1, ensure_ascii=False))
|
||||
multi = sum(len(g['stories']) >= 2 for g in out)
|
||||
print(f'{len(recs)} scenes, {len(out)} groups ({multi} span 2+ stories), '
|
||||
f'{sum(seen.values())} assigned, {len(unassigned)} unassigned: {unassigned}')
|
||||
for g in out:
|
||||
print(f"{g['id']} {len(g['members']):2} scenes {len(g['stories'])} stories stage {g['stage']:6} {g['name']}")
|
||||
src = collections.Counter(o['source'].split(':')[0] for g in out for o in g['options'])
|
||||
print('option sources:', dict(src), '| scene options citing a scene outside their group:',
|
||||
sum(o['in_group'] is False for g in out for o in g['options']))
|
||||
File diff suppressed because it is too large
Load Diff
@@ -0,0 +1,280 @@
|
||||
"""Hand-built reference grouping of the Wallingford predicaments (Claude-written, no local inference).
|
||||
|
||||
The book is a novel in linked episodes, so the unit of recurrence is the SCHEME, not the chapter:
|
||||
a situation seen in three chapters of one scheme has not recurred. ARCS maps every chapter to the
|
||||
scheme it belongs to; ARC_OVERRIDE moves the few scenes that sit in one chapter but belong to the
|
||||
scheme before or after it. Every group spans at least three schemes, has at least five scenes, and
|
||||
no scheme supplies more than half its members. `python3 groups_src.py` prints that check.
|
||||
|
||||
Each scene is in at most one group; scenes that fit no recurring situation stay unassigned.
|
||||
Options follow DESIGN.md: 3-5 per group, each marked by where it came from --
|
||||
'archetype' a fixed, setting-free option
|
||||
'scene:N' what someone in scene N actually did (or refused to do)
|
||||
'filled' written to fill a gap the scenes leave
|
||||
`moves` names spine paths and a direction only (+ / - / risk / set). No magnitudes: the model never
|
||||
chooses a number. Skill labels proposed for this corpus: charm (the confident front that makes
|
||||
people trust, lend and give credit), cunning (paper tricks, reading a contract, seeing the catch).
|
||||
"""
|
||||
ARCS = { # chapter -> scheme
|
||||
0: 'tacks', 1: 'tacks', 2: 'tacks', 3: 'tacks', 4: 'tacks', 5: 'tacks', 6: 'tacks',
|
||||
7: 'insurance', 8: 'insurance', 9: 'insurance', 10: 'insurance',
|
||||
11: 'recorder', 12: 'recorder', 13: 'recorder', 14: 'recorder', 15: 'recorder', 16: 'recorder',
|
||||
17: 'traction', 18: 'traction', 19: 'traction', 20: 'traction',
|
||||
21: 'wheat', 22: 'wheat', 23: 'wheat', 24: 'wheat',
|
||||
25: 'cigars', 26: 'cigars', 27: 'cigars',
|
||||
}
|
||||
SCHEMES = {
|
||||
'tacks': 'a company floated on a worthless covered carpet tack, sold to a careful clerk and his lodge friends',
|
||||
'insurance': 'a fraternal insurance order turned into a stock sale to its own members, widows included',
|
||||
'recorder': "a real inventor's machine and his friends' savings, sold behind their backs to the monopoly",
|
||||
'traction': 'a town lured into a land boom by a traction line that was never meant to be built',
|
||||
'wheat': 'a farmers\' association that holds wheat for $1.50 and is steered into buying the promoter out',
|
||||
'cigars': "a consolidation of small cigar shops, the promoter's last scheme, which lands him in jail",
|
||||
}
|
||||
# Scenes whose chapter opens or closes on the neighbouring scheme.
|
||||
ARC_OVERRIDE = {
|
||||
**{s: 'tacks' for s in range(78, 83)}, # ch 7 opens with the tack takings: flight, the bucket shop, the pawned jewels
|
||||
**{s: 'insurance' for s in range(120, 123)}, # ch 11 opens with the insurance takings being spent
|
||||
244: 'traction', 245: 'traction', # ch 21 opens with the traction line being sold for real
|
||||
**{s: 'cigars' for s in range(290, 295)}, # ch 24 closes in the cigar shop where the next scheme begins
|
||||
}
|
||||
|
||||
G = [
|
||||
dict(id='G01', name='Keeping up a front of wealth on credit',
|
||||
predicament='You have almost nothing, but you can pass for rich as long as nobody asks you to pay, and the front is what brings the money in.',
|
||||
actor='person with little money', wants='to be taken for rich', counterpart='the people who give them credit',
|
||||
members=[0, 1, 31, 44, 82, 121, 124, 147, 216, 290],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Take the finest rooms and let your bearing carry the bill.', 'scene:1', {'standing':'+', 'money':'-', 'flags.living_on_credit':'set'}),
|
||||
('Furnish a grand household on credit, and entertain the people you need.', 'scene:44', {'charm':'+', 'relationships.investors':'+', 'money':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Pawn your partner\'s last valuables to keep the front going.', 'scene:82', {'money':'+', 'relationships.partner':'-', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Cut back to what you can actually pay for.', 'archetype', {'money':'+', 'standing':'-'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G02', name='The bill is due and you cannot pay',
|
||||
predicament='Someone wants paying now, you cannot pay, and all you have is the look of a person who could.',
|
||||
actor='person in debt', wants='time', counterpart='a creditor',
|
||||
members=[29, 43, 51, 289, 298, 299, 307, 308],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Complain about their service and threaten to take your custom elsewhere.', 'scene:299', {'cunning':'+', 'relationships.creditor':'-', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Pocket the bill calmly, as if money were the least of your concerns.', 'scene:308', {'charm':'+', 'flags.bill_outstanding':'set'}),
|
||||
('Hand them a promise to pay later, and dare them to refuse it.', 'scene:43', {'standing':'+', 'relationships.creditor':'risk', 'flags.bill_outstanding':'set'}),
|
||||
('Order something more on the same account.', 'scene:51', {'money':'-', 'relationships.creditor':'risk', 'cunning':'+'}),
|
||||
('Borrow from a friend who thinks you are rich.', 'scene:29', {'money':'+', 'relationships.friend':'risk'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G03', name='A share in something that does not exist yet',
|
||||
predicament='You are offered a share in a venture that exists only on paper, and everyone says the chance will not come again.',
|
||||
actor='small saver', wants='a share of the profits', counterpart='the promoter',
|
||||
members=[12, 13, 20, 93, 129, 140, 275, 277, 304, 323, 324],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Buy in before the chance is gone.', 'scene:140', {'money':'risk', 'relationships.promoter':'+', 'flags.bought_in':'set'}),
|
||||
('Ask to see the thing itself before you pay a penny.', 'scene:6', {'cunning':'+', 'relationships.promoter':'-'}),
|
||||
('Take a bigger share than you can afford, in secret.', 'scene:324', {'money':'risk', 'flags.overextended':'set'}),
|
||||
('Trade your own business for shares instead of cash.', 'scene:304', {'money':'risk', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Keep your savings where they are earning.', 'scene:278', {'money':'+', 'relationships.neighbours':'-'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G04', name='Raising money on a promise you cannot keep',
|
||||
predicament='You are raising money on a promise you know you cannot keep, and the people paying in trust you completely.',
|
||||
actor='promoter', wants='their money', counterpart='the investors',
|
||||
members=[5, 59, 62, 63, 100, 104, 150, 219, 223, 267, 303],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Show them plans for the next step, to keep their faith alive.', 'scene:62', {'cunning':'+', 'money':'+', 'relationships.investors':'+'}),
|
||||
('Borrow a successful rival\'s figures and let them think they are yours.', 'scene:100', {'money':'+', 'flags.misled_investors':'set', 'standing':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Offer to back the whole venture yourself, knowing you cannot.', 'scene:150', {'charm':'+', 'relationships.investors':'+', 'flags.empty_promise':'set'}),
|
||||
('Ask for no money now, only free concessions, and promise them a gift.', 'scene:223', {'standing':'+', 'relationships.town':'+'}),
|
||||
('Tell them plainly what can and cannot be done.', 'filled', {'standing':'-', 'relationships.investors':'risk'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G05', name='A town caught in a speculative fever',
|
||||
predicament='Everyone around you is suddenly getting rich on paper, and holding back feels like the only way to lose.',
|
||||
actor='townsperson', wants='their share of the boom', counterpart='the neighbours and the promoter',
|
||||
members=[42, 50, 220, 222, 224, 225, 229, 231, 232, 261, 262, 263, 268, 273, 274, 276, 322],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Put everything in and ride it up.', 'scene:276', {'money':'risk', 'relationships.neighbours':'+', 'flags.speculated':'set'}),
|
||||
('Buy in, and sell to the next person at a profit.', 'scene:231', {'money':'+', 'cunning':'+'}),
|
||||
('Give the promoter whatever he asks, so the town gets its share.', 'scene:224', {'relationships.promoter':'+', 'money':'-', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Sell to the eager ones and keep your cash.', 'scene:278', {'money':'+', 'relationships.neighbours':'-'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G06', name='Sunk in, and asked for more',
|
||||
predicament='Your savings are sunk in a shaky venture, and you must decide whether to put in more, hold on, or get out while you can.',
|
||||
actor='investor', wants='to save what they put in', counterpart='the venture and its promoter',
|
||||
members=[56, 57, 58, 68, 110, 173, 175, 233],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Mortgage your home and put in more to save it.', 'scene:68', {'money':'-', 'relationships.partners':'+', 'flags.mortgaged':'set'}),
|
||||
('Take shares as security for what you are owed.', 'scene:57', {'money':'risk', 'cunning':'+'}),
|
||||
('Demand your money back, now.', 'scene:110', {'money':'+', 'relationships.promoter':'-'}),
|
||||
('Cut your losses and let it be sold.', 'scene:175', {'money':'-', 'standing':'-'}),
|
||||
('Hold on and refuse every offer until it pays.', 'scene:233', {'money':'risk', 'standing':'+'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G07', name='Working inside a crooked business',
|
||||
predicament='You have realised the business that pays you is crooked, and speaking up would cost you your place.',
|
||||
actor='employee', wants='to keep their living and their conscience', counterpart='the people running it',
|
||||
members=[48, 66, 98, 101, 105, 106, 168, 317],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Keep quiet and do the work you are paid for.', 'scene:48', {'money':'+', 'flags.complicit':'set'}),
|
||||
('Ask for your own pay to be cut, so you are not profiting.', 'scene:66', {'money':'-', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Object to the dishonest pitch, to their faces.', 'scene:101', {'relationships.bosses':'-', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Stay on, and rebuild it for the people it will fail.', 'scene:106', {'relationships.members':'+', 'money':'risk', 'flags.stayed_to_fix':'set'}),
|
||||
('Demand a share of the take for your silence.', 'scene:168', {'money':'+', 'cunning':'+', 'flags.complicit':'set', 'relationships.bosses':'risk'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G08', name='Partners who mean to cheat each other',
|
||||
predicament='You and a partner each hold part of the other\'s fortune, and one of you is already planning to take it all.',
|
||||
actor='partner', wants='their share, or all of it', counterpart='their partner',
|
||||
members=[53, 65, 107, 114, 169, 178, 179, 183, 184, 318, 319, 321, 327],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Seem to accept their terms, and get a step ahead of them.', 'scene:169', {'cunning':'+', 'relationships.partner':'-'}),
|
||||
('Keep them busy and out of the way until the deal is done.', 'scene:178', {'cunning':'+', 'relationships.partner':'-', 'flags.double_crossed':'set'}),
|
||||
('Go to the law before they can move.', 'scene:327', {'relationships.partner':'-', 'standing':'risk', 'flags.pressed_charges':'set'}),
|
||||
('Refuse to put your name to what they are doing.', 'scene:65', {'standing':'+', 'relationships.partner':'-'}),
|
||||
('Let them hold everything in trust for now.', 'scene:321', {'relationships.partner':'+', 'money':'risk'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G09', name='Out-swindled by someone you trusted',
|
||||
predicament='Someone you took for a safe pair of hands, or an easy mark, has turned out sharper than you and taken everything.',
|
||||
actor='schemer', wants='their money back', counterpart='the one who outwitted them',
|
||||
members=[2, 80, 81, 282, 283, 285, 330],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Smile and joke while they enjoy it.', 'scene:330', {'charm':'+', 'standing':'-', 'relationships.rival':'+'}),
|
||||
('Take it to the law.', 'filled', {'relationships.rival':'-', 'standing':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Swallow it, and remember how it was done.', 'archetype', {'cunning':'+', 'money':'-'}),
|
||||
('Blame honesty itself, and swear off straight dealing.', 'scene:287', {'flags.swore_off_honesty':'set', 'relationships.partner':'-'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G10', name='Let in on the inside',
|
||||
predicament='The person selling to you offers to make you a partner instead, and suddenly you are on the inside of the deal.',
|
||||
actor='mark', wants='a partner\'s share', counterpart='the promoter',
|
||||
members=[24, 26, 33, 87, 88, 130, 305, 306],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Accept the partner\'s share, and feel yourself rise.', 'scene:26', {'standing':'+', 'relationships.promoter':'+', 'flags.insider':'set'}),
|
||||
('Bring your friends in on the good thing.', 'scene:306', {'relationships.friends':'risk', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Quietly sell your own piece to the venture above its worth.', 'scene:305', {'money':'+', 'cunning':'+', 'flags.insider':'set'}),
|
||||
('Haggle hard over what your part is worth.', 'scene:88', {'money':'+', 'relationships.promoter':'-'}),
|
||||
('Keep it a plain partnership, with no shares to sell.', 'scene:130', {'cunning':'+', 'money':'risk'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G11', name='Charmed out of your doubts',
|
||||
predicament='You were sure the rich-seeming stranger was not to be trusted, and one warm handshake is melting every doubt.',
|
||||
actor='cautious person', wants='not to be fooled', counterpart='a charming stranger',
|
||||
members=[35, 38, 85, 103, 141, 197, 264, 291],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Ask for references, and write to them.', 'scene:37', {'cunning':'+', 'relationships.stranger':'-'}),
|
||||
('Judge them by how the world treats them: credit everywhere.', 'scene:38', {'relationships.stranger':'+', 'money':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Let them win you over with a drink and a warm word.', 'scene:141', {'relationships.stranger':'+', 'flags.charmed':'set'}),
|
||||
('Keep your distance and watch.', 'archetype', {'relationships.stranger':'-'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G12', name='The lone sceptic',
|
||||
predicament='Everyone around you believes in the newcomer, and you alone think something does not add up.',
|
||||
actor='sceptic', wants='not to be taken in', counterpart='neighbours who believe',
|
||||
members=[6, 18, 89, 139, 204, 218, 278],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Demand to see proof before a penny changes hands.', 'scene:6', {'cunning':'+', 'relationships.neighbours':'-'}),
|
||||
('Ask for payment in advance, and check the money.', 'scene:204', {'money':'+', 'relationships.stranger':'-'}),
|
||||
('Warn your friends, whatever they think of you.', 'scene:139', {'relationships.friends':'risk', 'standing':'-'}),
|
||||
('Quietly cash out while they hold on.', 'scene:278', {'money':'+', 'relationships.family':'-'}),
|
||||
('Give in and join them.', 'scene:141', {'relationships.neighbours':'+', 'flags.charmed':'set'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G13', name='Cornered by the people you cheated',
|
||||
predicament='The people you took money from have found you out and cornered you, and they are angrier than any law.',
|
||||
actor='schemer', wants='to get away whole', counterpart='the people they cheated',
|
||||
members=[73, 74, 75, 112, 113, 116, 118, 172, 329],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Walk through them smiling, as if nothing were wrong.', 'scene:112', {'charm':'+', 'standing':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Agree to pay it back, and bargain for travelling money.', 'scene:118', {'money':'-', 'cunning':'+'}),
|
||||
('Brazen it out and ask what they would have done.', 'scene:172', {'cunning':'+', 'relationships.victims':'-'}),
|
||||
('Beg for mercy.', 'scene:74', {'standing':'-', 'flags.humiliated':'set'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G14', name='Wiped out',
|
||||
predicament='You have just learned that everything you put in is gone, and people who followed you in have lost it too.',
|
||||
actor='ruined investor', wants='to salvage something', counterpart='those who trusted them',
|
||||
members=[69, 70, 71, 159, 286, 287],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Go and tell them yourself, before they hear it elsewhere.', 'scene:71', {'relationships.friends':'+', 'standing':'-'}),
|
||||
('Keep a brave face in front of everyone.', 'scene:286', {'charm':'+', 'money':'-'}),
|
||||
('Go back to the steady work you left.', 'filled', {'money':'+', 'standing':'-'}),
|
||||
('Fight on, whatever it costs.', 'scene:159', {'money':'-', 'standing':'risk'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G15', name='Small against the giant',
|
||||
predicament='A rival with far more money can undersell you, sue you or simply wait you out, and you must decide how to stand against it.',
|
||||
actor='small operator', wants='to survive', counterpart='a powerful rival',
|
||||
members=[32, 128, 138, 158, 260, 293, 294],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Combine with others your size.', 'scene:294', {'relationships.peers':'+', 'money':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Compete until they have to buy you out.', 'scene:138', {'money':'risk', 'cunning':'+'}),
|
||||
('Refuse any early offer and hold out for more.', 'scene:32', {'money':'risk', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Take the low offer and go.', 'filled', {'money':'+', 'standing':'-'}),
|
||||
('Fight them in the courts.', 'scene:159', {'money':'-', 'standing':'+'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G16', name='Courting the rich newcomer',
|
||||
predicament='A rich-seeming stranger has arrived, and you want to be the one he notices, whatever it costs you.',
|
||||
actor='local', wants='the newcomer\'s favour', counterpart='the rich newcomer',
|
||||
members=[41, 123, 125, 142, 194, 205, 209, 210, 255],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Hurry to be the first to meet him.', 'scene:194', {'standing':'+', 'relationships.newcomer':'+'}),
|
||||
('Offer him your land for his great plans.', 'scene:205', {'money':'risk', 'relationships.newcomer':'+'}),
|
||||
('Bend your rules for him.', 'scene:123', {'relationships.newcomer':'+', 'standing':'-'}),
|
||||
('Tell everyone how great he is.', 'scene:255', {'standing':'+', 'flags.vouched':'set'}),
|
||||
('Treat him like anyone else.', 'archetype', {'relationships.newcomer':'-'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G17', name='A partner who wants to go straight',
|
||||
predicament='Your partner in the business is tired of it, and begs you to take what you have and live decently.',
|
||||
actor='schemer', wants='to keep playing the game', counterpart='a partner who wants out',
|
||||
members=[60, 61, 120, 154, 201, 208, 226, 227, 288, 300],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Promise this one is the last.', 'scene:325', {'relationships.partner':'+', 'flags.promised_last':'set'}),
|
||||
('Laugh it off: there are always more towns.', 'scene:61', {'relationships.partner':'-', 'charm':'+'}),
|
||||
('Take what you have and settle down.', 'scene:300', {'money':'-', 'relationships.partner':'+', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Tell them it is all legal, and leave it there.', 'scene:326', {'relationships.partner':'risk'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G18', name='Learning what your partner really does',
|
||||
predicament='Someone who shares your life has just understood what their partner\'s business really is, and how it touches them.',
|
||||
actor='partner', wants='to know the truth', counterpart='the schemer',
|
||||
members=[166, 235, 242, 279, 326],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Pack and leave.', 'scene:166', {'relationships.partner':'-', 'money':'-'}),
|
||||
('Beg them to make it honest.', 'scene:242', {'relationships.partner':'risk', 'standing':'+'}),
|
||||
('Believe the explanation that it is only business.', 'scene:235', {'relationships.partner':'+', 'flags.complicit':'set'}),
|
||||
('Stand by them, knowing they will not change.', 'scene:333', {'relationships.partner':'+', 'standing':'-'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G19', name='Buying in with nothing',
|
||||
predicament='You want a full share in the deal but have no money, so you pay with a promise and hope nobody calls it in.',
|
||||
actor='promoter', wants='a full share', counterpart='partners who paid cash',
|
||||
members=[30, 96, 149, 151, 156, 157, 215, 320],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Hand over a note instead of cash.', 'scene:96', {'money':'+', 'relationships.partner':'-', 'flags.unpaid_note':'set'}),
|
||||
('Persuade everyone to pay in less, so your own share is small.', 'scene:149', {'cunning':'+', 'money':'+'}),
|
||||
('Write a check on a distant bank after hours.', 'scene:156', {'money':'+', 'flags.bad_check':'set', 'standing':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Postdate the check and hope it is forgotten.', 'scene:320', {'flags.bad_check':'set', 'relationships.partner':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Pay your share in full.', 'archetype', {'money':'-', 'relationships.partner':'+'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G20', name='An old accomplice in trouble',
|
||||
predicament='An old friend from your line of work is in trouble with the law and needs money you can barely spare.',
|
||||
actor='schemer', wants='to help without being dragged down', counterpart='an old accomplice',
|
||||
members=[122, 133, 134, 135, 247, 248, 249, 295, 297],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Send what they ask, though it leaves you short.', 'scene:122', {'money':'-', 'relationships.old_friend':'+'}),
|
||||
('Buy them out of trouble, and haggle the price down.', 'scene:134', {'money':'-', 'cunning':'+', 'relationships.old_friend':'+'}),
|
||||
('Give them your last few dollars.', 'scene:295', {'money':'-', 'relationships.old_friend':'+'}),
|
||||
('Hide them under a false name.', 'scene:248', {'flags.harbouring':'set', 'standing':'risk', 'relationships.old_friend':'+'}),
|
||||
('Tell them to keep away from you.', 'archetype', {'relationships.old_friend':'-', 'standing':'+'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G21', name='The sham turns out to be real',
|
||||
predicament='Something you set up only as a front has turned out to be worth something real, and you could make an honest living from it.',
|
||||
actor='schemer', wants='the biggest payoff', counterpart='someone who wants the real thing',
|
||||
members=[243, 244, 245, 272, 332, 333],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Sell it to the one who wants to run it for real.', 'scene:244', {'money':'+', 'standing':'+', 'relationships.town':'+'}),
|
||||
('Take the honest job you are offered.', 'scene:332', {'money':'+', 'standing':'+', 'flags.went_straight':'set'}),
|
||||
('Joke about it and go back to your old ways.', 'scene:333', {'charm':'+', 'relationships.partner':'-'}),
|
||||
('Walk away with what you have taken, as planned.', 'scene:242', {'money':'+', 'relationships.town':'-', 'flags.skipped_town':'set'})]),
|
||||
dict(id='G22', name='Selling out before the crash',
|
||||
predicament='You know the venture is about to collapse, and you can still sell your share to the people who believe in it.',
|
||||
actor='insider', wants='to get their money out first', counterpart='the believers',
|
||||
members=[64, 72, 115, 234, 281, 325],
|
||||
options=[
|
||||
('Sell your own shares quietly while the others hold theirs.', 'scene:64', {'money':'+', 'relationships.investors':'-', 'flags.sold_out':'set'}),
|
||||
('Squeeze one last payment from them before you go.', 'scene:72', {'money':'+', 'standing':'risk'}),
|
||||
('Sell what you promised others, and slip away with the money.', 'scene:325', {'money':'+', 'relationships.partner':'-'}),
|
||||
('Stay and see it through with them.', 'filled', {'money':'-', 'relationships.investors':'+'})]),
|
||||
]
|
||||
|
||||
# Protagonist standing for stage assignment (DESIGN.md "Stages"). Keyed by chapter because build.py
|
||||
# expects that, but judged per scheme: every chapter of a scheme gets the scheme's value. The swindler
|
||||
# arrives nearly penniless among small savers (tacks), rises through two mid-sized schemes, is the
|
||||
# great man of a town and then of a farmers' movement, and ends broke among cigar-shop keepers.
|
||||
SCHEME_STANDING = {'tacks': 'low', 'insurance': 'middle', 'recorder': 'middle',
|
||||
'traction': 'high', 'wheat': 'high', 'cigars': 'low'}
|
||||
STANDING = {ch: SCHEME_STANDING[s] for ch, s in ARCS.items()}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
def scheme_of(chunk, story):
|
||||
return ARC_OVERRIDE.get(chunk, ARCS[story])
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
if __name__ == '__main__':
|
||||
# Scheme-level recurrence: >= 5 scenes, >= 3 schemes, no scheme over 50% of the group.
|
||||
import collections, json, pathlib
|
||||
chunks = json.loads((pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.parent / 'chunks.json').read_text())
|
||||
ok = 0
|
||||
for g in G:
|
||||
sc = collections.Counter(scheme_of(m, chunks[m]['story']) for m in g['members'])
|
||||
top = max(sc.values()) / len(g['members'])
|
||||
passed = len(g['members']) >= 5 and len(sc) >= 3 and top <= 0.5
|
||||
ok += passed
|
||||
print(f"{'PASS' if passed else 'FAIL'} {g['id']} {len(g['members']):2} scenes {len(sc)} schemes "
|
||||
f"top {top:4.0%} {dict(sc)} {g['name']}")
|
||||
print(f'{ok} of {len(G)} groups pass the scheme-level rule')
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
|
||||
#!/usr/bin/env python3
|
||||
"""Render groups.json + records.json as one self-contained page: REFERENCE.html."""
|
||||
import html, json, pathlib
|
||||
here = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent
|
||||
d = json.loads((here / 'groups.json').read_text())
|
||||
recs = {r['chunk']: r for r in json.loads((here / 'records.json').read_text())}
|
||||
stories = json.loads((here.parent / 'stories.json').read_text())
|
||||
e = html.escape
|
||||
SRC = {'archetype': 'archetype', 'filled': 'filled gap'}
|
||||
def src(o):
|
||||
if o['source'].startswith('scene:'):
|
||||
n = o['source'].split(':')[1]
|
||||
return f'from scene {n}' + ('' if o['in_group'] else ' <span class="warn">(outside this group)</span>')
|
||||
return SRC[o['source']]
|
||||
def moves(m): return ' '.join(f'<code>{e(k)} {e(v)}</code>' for k, v in m.items())
|
||||
def scene(c):
|
||||
r = recs[c]
|
||||
return (f'<details><summary><b>{c}</b> · <i>{e(stories[r["story"]]["title"])}</i> — {e(r["predicament"])}</summary>'
|
||||
f'<p class="sum">{e(r["summary"])}</p></details>')
|
||||
out = []
|
||||
for g in d['groups']:
|
||||
out.append(f'''<section><h2>{g["id"]} · {e(g["name"])}</h2>
|
||||
<p class="pred">{e(g["predicament"])}</p>
|
||||
<p class="meta">{e(g["sentence"])} · {len(g["members"])} scenes from {len(g["stories"])} stories
|
||||
({e(", ".join(g["story_titles"]))}) · stage <b>{g["stage"]}</b></p>
|
||||
<h3>Options</h3><ol>{"".join(f"<li>{e(o['text'])} <span class='src'>{src(o)}</span><br>{moves(o['moves'])}</li>" for o in g["options"])}</ol>
|
||||
<h3>Scenes</h3>{"".join(scene(m["chunk"]) for m in g["members"])}</section>''')
|
||||
un = ''.join(scene(c) for c in d['unassigned'])
|
||||
page = f'''<!doctype html><html lang="en"><head><meta charset="utf-8">
|
||||
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><title>Wallingford Reference Groups</title>
|
||||
<style>
|
||||
:root{{--bg:#fbfaf7;--fg:#1d1d1b;--mute:#6b6760;--line:#e2ded6;--acc:#2f5d8a;--warn:#a4481c}}
|
||||
@media (prefers-color-scheme:dark){{:root{{--bg:#191917;--fg:#e8e6e1;--mute:#a09c94;--line:#34332f;--acc:#8ab4dc;--warn:#e6915f}}}}
|
||||
body{{background:var(--bg);color:var(--fg);font:16px/1.5 Georgia,serif;max-width:52rem;margin:0 auto;padding:1rem 16px 4rem}}
|
||||
h1{{font-size:1.5rem}} h2{{font-size:1.15rem;margin:0 0 .3rem}} h3{{font-size:.8rem;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.06em;color:var(--mute);margin:.9rem 0 .3rem}}
|
||||
section{{border-top:1px solid var(--line);padding:1.2rem 0}} .pred{{font-size:1.05rem;margin:.2rem 0}}
|
||||
.meta,.src,.sum{{color:var(--mute);font-size:.88rem}} .warn{{color:var(--warn)}}
|
||||
code{{font:12px ui-monospace,monospace;border:1px solid var(--line);border-radius:3px;padding:0 .3em;margin-right:.2em}}
|
||||
li{{margin:.35rem 0}} details{{margin:.2rem 0}} summary{{cursor:pointer}} .sum{{margin:.2rem 0 .5rem 1.2rem}}
|
||||
</style></head><body>
|
||||
<h1>Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford: reference groups</h1>
|
||||
<p class="meta">George Randolph Chester, 1908 (Project Gutenberg #37010). A novel in six linked schemes: 28 chapters (counted as "stories" below), 334 scenes cut by the same rule as <code>chunk.py</code>.
|
||||
Summaries, predicaments, groups and options written by Claude by reading every scene: no local inference.
|
||||
A comparison baseline, not a pack. Option moves give a direction only, never a number.</p>
|
||||
{"".join(out)}
|
||||
<section><h2>Unassigned ({len(d["unassigned"])})</h2><p class="meta">Scenes that fit no situation recurring in three or more schemes.</p>{un}</section>
|
||||
</body></html>'''
|
||||
(here / 'REFERENCE.html').write_text(page, encoding='utf-8')
|
||||
print('wrote', here / 'REFERENCE.html', len(page), 'bytes')
|
||||
File diff suppressed because it is too large
Load Diff
File diff suppressed because it is too large
Load Diff
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
|
||||
#!/usr/bin/env python3
|
||||
"""Print a range of scenes for reading. Usage: dump.py <first_chunk> <last_chunk>"""
|
||||
import json, sys
|
||||
chunks = json.load(open(__file__.rsplit('/',1)[0] + '/chunks.json'))
|
||||
a, b = int(sys.argv[1]), int(sys.argv[2])
|
||||
cur = None
|
||||
for i in range(a, min(b + 1, len(chunks))):
|
||||
c = chunks[i]
|
||||
if c['story'] != cur:
|
||||
cur = c['story']
|
||||
print(f"\n########## STORY {cur}: {c['title']} ##########")
|
||||
print(f"\n----- scene {i} (story {cur}) -----")
|
||||
print(c['text'].strip())
|
||||
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
|
||||
"""Split the Project Gutenberg text of George Randolph Chester, *Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford* (eBook #37010),
|
||||
one story per chapter. It is a novel of linked episodes: each of the promoter's schemes runs over several
|
||||
chapters, so for the recurrence rule the reader groups chapters into schemes (ARCS in claude/groups_src.py)
|
||||
and a situation must recur across schemes, not merely across chapters of one scheme.
|
||||
The body heads each chapter with a bare `CHAPTER <roman>` line followed by an upper-case title that may
|
||||
wrap; the headings must number 1..28."""
|
||||
import re, sys
|
||||
sys.path.insert(0, '..')
|
||||
from gutenberg_chunks import gutenberg_body, paragraphs, write
|
||||
|
||||
VOLUME = 'Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford (George Randolph Chester, 1908)'
|
||||
ROMAN = {'I': 1, 'V': 5, 'X': 10, 'L': 50}
|
||||
def roman(s): return sum(-ROMAN[a] if ROMAN[a] < ROMAN.get(b, 0) else ROMAN[a] for a, b in zip(s, s[1:] + ' '))
|
||||
|
||||
lines = gutenberg_body('corpus/get-rich-quick-wallingford.txt')
|
||||
heads = [i for i, l in enumerate(lines) if re.fullmatch(r'CHAPTER [IVXL]+', l.strip())]
|
||||
assert [roman(lines[i].split()[1]) for i in heads] == list(range(1, 29)), [lines[i] for i in heads]
|
||||
stories = []
|
||||
for n, a in enumerate(heads):
|
||||
body = lines[a + 1:(heads[n + 1] if n + 1 < len(heads) else len(lines))]
|
||||
k = next(j for j, l in enumerate(body) if l.strip())
|
||||
title = []
|
||||
while body[k].strip() and body[k].strip().upper() == body[k].strip():
|
||||
title.append(body[k].strip()); k += 1
|
||||
paras = paragraphs('\n'.join(body[k:]), drop=(r'THE END\.?', r'\[Illustration[^\]]*\]'))
|
||||
stories.append({'volume': VOLUME, 'title': ' '.join(title).capitalize(), 'words': sum(len(p.split()) for p in paras),
|
||||
'text': '\n\n'.join(paras)})
|
||||
write('.', stories)
|
||||
File diff suppressed because one or more lines are too long
Reference in New Issue
Block a user