# Notes: Torchy stories 19-35, *On With Torchy* (1914) (chunks 246-480, 235 records) I wrote every record by reading each scene in full. No inference was used and no grouping was done. Below are the recurring situations I noticed, as input for the grouping pass. The chunk ids are examples, not complete lists. ## Recurring situations 1. **A guardian bars the young man from the girl, and he schemes to get near her anyway.** He uses ruses and aliases (249-251, 255), a menial disguise (404-406, 409-413) and a friendly house where he can meet her (472-478). The guardian always wins the last round: she walks in on them (258), unmasks him (423-424) or arrives to take the girl away (478). 2. **The guardian prefers a richer rival, and he is rejected for being poor and "nobody".** The favoured rivals appear at 251 and 421, the rich rival at the girl's side at 406 and 415-416, and "he's poor ... isn't anybody" at 476. He feels far below her world at 397, 407 and 479. The girl secretly stays loyal: the hidden keepsake (257), the hidden photo (475) and a secret channel for letters after the guardian intercepted them (473, 478). 3. **The boss's relative hands his personal or social chores to the junior.** He is sent to entertain a supplier (276-277), stand in at an art sale (327), escort a guest (341), wait late for a message during a billiards match (382) and investigate a family marriage (430-431). These are often dodges, and the junior sees through them (326-327, 341, 353). 4. **Sent as the boss's representative, far above his rank.** He is a negotiator told to announce that he is the office boy (444-447). He is also an art "expert" coached in stock phrases (328, 331), an investigator (456-457), a host (277-278) and a spy (431, 438). He usually succeeds by common sense or luck rather than by the brief he was given. 5. **Handling the boss's temper and moods.** The boss sends a rash insult that nobody dares stop (314-315). The junior is sent in *because* he cheers the boss up (316-318), and his cheeky remark becomes the boss's own line (323). The junior also has to fit unwanted callers into the boss's day (301). 6. **The junior at the door misjudges visitors by their looks, and the reversal that follows.** He sneers at a humble foreigner who turns out to be a war hero (354-355, 364-366). He plans a cold welcome for wards whom the boss adores (302-306) and brushes off a ragged "old friend" (383-386). The mirror image is 440-441, where he correctly spots an important visitor. 7. **The junior beats a pompous supervisor or expert.** The supervisor's fraudulent investigator is shown up by common sense (263-272). The same supervisor is snobbish about waiters and gets his comeuppance (357, 363, 366). The junior shoos him out on the boss's behalf (322). 8. **The boss's family's private troubles land on the junior.** These include the wards' car accident (310-313), the rich widow cousin's romance (454-469), the goddaughter's troubled marriage (429-439), the son-in-law's quarrel over a tie with his wife (470-471, 480) and a disgraced former friend of the boss's relative who begs and then blackmails (386-396). The junior is often kept on as a witness (388-389). 9. **Befriending or coaching a colleague on the same low rung.** He is paid to befriend a snobbish rich newcomer and report on him (290-300). He is invited home by a timid clerk stuck in a dead end (367-381). Both times the junior's advice or push transforms the colleague (296-299, 380-381), and in 300 the change is undone by the paying parent. 10. **Snobbery towards humble people is exposed.** A rich newcomer sneers at lunch counters and boarders, then befriends them (293-294, 298-299). The supervisor sneers at waiters (357, 366). A stranger's humble kindness turns out to be the real key: the window cleaner (269-272) and chocolates for a farmer's child (448, 451-452). 11. **A loose tongue or an honest report changes everything, for better or worse.** Idle chatter exposes a secret studio (333-334), and an honest report ends a paid arrangement (299-300). A culprit's confession wins favour (312-313), and owning up to spying wins an ally (438). An honest dependent defies his benefactor and wins him over (335-337). 12. **Small sabotage or trickery to buy time with the girl.** He stays behind while his rivals fetch gifts (255). He secretly disables the rival's engine, then "fixes" it and is praised as indispensable (419-422). 13. **A benefactor or guardian controls a dependent young adult.** An invalid uncle forbids his niece's husband to paint (334-337). An aunt keeps her nephew at dull work and matchmakes for him (370-375). A father banishes his son to a clerk's stool (295), then removes him (300). Elders matchmake (372, 428). 14. **A dispute is settled by play or a personal gesture, not by argument.** Indoor golf settles a boardroom feud (321-325). A box of chocolates wins a right of way (451-452). A tournament of suitors is sidestepped by simply staying behind (254-256). ## Torchy's standing per story He is the office boy ("office-boy-de-luxe") throughout this volume, with no promotion. His standing below is how much trust and reach he has in each story, not his title. | Story | Title | Standing | Why | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 19 | Chancing It For Vee | low | banned suitor, disguised as "Claude", ejected by the aunt | | 20 | Pulling A Sleuth Stunt | low | door boy under suspicion; solves the mystery and gets no reward himself | | 21 | When Ira Showed Some Pep | middle | trusted stand-in host with an expense account for the boss's relative | | 22 | Torchy Bugs The System | low | peer of a junior clerk, paid five dollars a report | | 23 | Breezing By With Peggy | low | fits callers into the boss's day, runs errands, phones for help | | 24 | Gloom Shunting For The Boss | middle | sent to the sick boss because he can manage his mood; his idea settles a feud | | 25 | Torchy In On The Draw | middle | "commissioner" with full power to buy for the boss's relative | | 26 | Gladys In A Double Bill | low | escort errand; the girl calls him one of the boss's "young men" | | 27 | Late Returns On Popover | low | sneering doorkeeper; eavesdrops and is sent out | | 28 | Merry Dodges A Dead Heat | low | weekend guest of a low clerk; the peer story | | 29 | The Passing By Of Bunny | middle | trusted with money and kept as a witness in a private affair | | 30 | The Glad Hail For Torchy | low | outside looking in at a rich resort; hides in a lobster boat | | 31 | Aunty Flags A Rosy One | low | disguised as the rival's boat hand; unmasked by the aunt | | 32 | Cutting In On The Bliss | middle | sent alone to judge a family marriage, and advises the husband | | 33 | Being Sicced On Percey | middle | the boss's named representative in a railway negotiation; his report shapes strategy (the highest stakes in the volume) | | 34 | How Whity Gunked The Plot | middle | independent investigator with expense money for the boss | | 35 | Torchy Gets A Through Wire | low | pestered by children, rejected by the aunt as "not anybody"; he says he will speak to Vee only when he is "in business for myself" | ## Notes for the grouping pass - **Stories 30 and 31 are one two-part story.** The postcard, the lobster boat and the hired boat hand in 30 lead straight into the picnic, the fog and the unmasking in 31. - **There are two different Marjories.** In 23, Marjorie (Peggy) Chandler is the boss's young ward. In 25, 26 and 35, Marjorie is Mr. Robert's married sister, wife of Ferdy. The nieces "Peggy and Jane" in 35 are yet another Peggy. - **Nearly every story has two strands**, an office errand and the Vee courtship. Only 19, 30, 31 and 35 are mainly about Vee, and 26 touches it at the end. In the office stories, the predicament follows whichever strand carries the scene. - **Many predicaments share a frame.** "Someone junior" is sent, trusted or overlooked by "the boss" or "the boss's relative". The grouping should split them by what the junior faces (a snob, a pompous expert, a family scandal, a stubborn outsider), not by the frame they share.