├── .gitignore ├── .travis.yml ├── LICENSE ├── README.md ├── _example ├── 11231.txt └── main.go ├── install-mitie.sh ├── integration_test.go ├── ner.go └── ner_test.go /.gitignore: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # Compiled Object files, Static and Dynamic libs (Shared Objects) 2 | *.o 3 | *.a 4 | *.so 5 | 6 | # Folders 7 | _obj 8 | _test 9 | 10 | # Architecture specific extensions/prefixes 11 | *.[568vq] 12 | [568vq].out 13 | 14 | *.cgo1.go 15 | *.cgo2.c 16 | _cgo_defun.c 17 | _cgo_gotypes.go 18 | _cgo_export.* 19 | 20 | _testmain.go 21 | 22 | *.exe 23 | *.test 24 | *.prof 25 | 26 | MITIE/ 27 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /.travis.yml: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | language: go 2 | 3 | go: 4 | - 1.5 5 | 6 | before_install: 7 | - bash install-mitie.sh 8 | - go get github.com/golang/lint/golint 9 | 10 | env: 11 | - LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp/mitie/lib LIBRARY_PATH=/tmp/mitie/lib C_INCLUDE_PATH=/tmp/mitie/include 12 | 13 | script: 14 | - go test 15 | - $HOME/gopath/bin/golint ./... 16 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /LICENSE: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | The MIT License (MIT) 2 | 3 | Copyright (c) 2015 Stephen Lumenta 4 | 5 | Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy 6 | of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal 7 | in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights 8 | to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell 9 | copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is 10 | furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: 11 | 12 | The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all 13 | copies or substantial portions of the Software. 14 | 15 | THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR 16 | IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, 17 | FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE 18 | AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER 19 | LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, 20 | OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE 21 | SOFTWARE. 22 | 23 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /README.md: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | # NER 2 | 3 | [![GoDoc](https://godoc.org/github.com/sbl/ner?status.svg)](https://godoc.org/github.com/sbl/ner) 4 | [![Build Status](https://travis-ci.org/sbl/ner.svg?branch=travis)](https://travis-ci.org/sbl/ner) 5 | 6 | Named Entity Recognition for golang via the [MITIE (MIT Information 7 | Extraction)](https://github.com/mit-nlp/MITIE) library. 8 | 9 | ### Installation 10 | 11 | - Install the MITIE library and header files. This does vary by platform. On a 12 | mac the easiest way would be `brew install mitie`. You'd have build from 13 | source on a linux system. 14 | - The go bindings will fail if the MITIE header files and dynamic library are 15 | not found. 16 | - `go get github.com/sbl/ner` 17 | 18 | ### Usage 19 | 20 | See `_example/main.go` for a simple usage example. Training files in your 21 | language of choice are required to be able to detect entities in text. See 22 | https://github.com/mit-nlp/MITIE#initial-setup for reference. 23 | 24 | ``` 25 | // In a nutshell 26 | ext, err := ner.NewExtractor(path) 27 | defer ext.Free() 28 | if err != nil { 29 | return 30 | } 31 | 32 | tokens := ner.Tokenize(txt) 33 | 34 | es, err := ext.Extract(tokens) 35 | if err != nil { 36 | return 37 | } 38 | ``` 39 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /_example/11231.txt: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bartleby, The Scrivener, by Herman Melville 2 | 3 | This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with 4 | almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or 5 | re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included 6 | with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net 7 | 8 | 9 | Title: Bartleby, The Scrivener 10 | A Story of Wall-Street 11 | 12 | Author: Herman Melville 13 | 14 | Release Date: February 23, 2004 [EBook #11231] 15 | [Date last updated: June 20, 2006] 16 | 17 | Language: English 18 | 19 | Character set encoding: ASCII 20 | 21 | *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER *** 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | Produced by Steve J. Nelson and Clara T. Nelson 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER. 32 | 33 | A STORY OF WALL-STREET. 34 | 35 | I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my avocations for the last 36 | thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what 37 | would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as 38 | yet nothing that I know of has ever been written:--I mean the 39 | law-copyists or scriveners. I have known very many of them, 40 | professionally and privately, and if I pleased, could relate divers 41 | histories, at which good-natured gentlemen might smile, and sentimental 42 | souls might weep. But I waive the biographies of all other scriveners 43 | for a few passages in the life of Bartleby, who was a scrivener of the 44 | strangest I ever saw or heard of. While of other law-copyists I might 45 | write the complete life, of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done. 46 | I believe that no materials exist for a full and satisfactory biography 47 | of this man. It is an irreparable loss to literature. Bartleby was one 48 | of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except from the 49 | original sources, and in his case those are very small. What my own 50 | astonished eyes saw of Bartleby, _that_ is all I know of him, except, 51 | indeed, one vague report which will appear in the sequel. 52 | 53 | Ere introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me, it is fit I 54 | make some mention of myself, my _employees_, my business, my chambers, 55 | and general surroundings; because some such description is indispensable 56 | to an adequate understanding of the chief character about to be 57 | presented. 58 | 59 | Imprimis: I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with 60 | a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best. Hence, 61 | though I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous, even 62 | to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have I ever suffered 63 | to invade my peace. I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never 64 | addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but in the 65 | cool tranquility of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men's 66 | bonds and mortgages and title-deeds. All who know me, consider me an 67 | eminently _safe_ man. The late John Jacob Astor, a personage little 68 | given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in pronouncing my first 69 | grand point to be prudence; my next, method. I do not speak it in 70 | vanity, but simply record the fact, that I was not unemployed in my 71 | profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love 72 | to repeat, for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings 73 | like unto bullion. I will freely add, that I was not insensible to the 74 | late John Jacob Astor's good opinion. 75 | 76 | Some time prior to the period at which this little history begins, my 77 | avocations had been largely increased. The good old office, now extinct 78 | in the State of New York, of a Master in Chancery, had been conferred 79 | upon me. It was not a very arduous office, but very pleasantly 80 | remunerative. I seldom lose my temper; much more seldom indulge in 81 | dangerous indignation at wrongs and outrages; but I must be permitted to 82 | be rash here and declare, that I consider the sudden and violent 83 | abrogation of the office of Master in Chancery, by the new Constitution, 84 | as a--premature act; inasmuch as I had counted upon a life-lease of the 85 | profits, whereas I only received those of a few short years. But this 86 | is by the way. 87 | 88 | My chambers were up stairs at No.--Wall-street. At one end they looked 89 | upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious sky-light shaft, 90 | penetrating the building from top to bottom. This view might have been 91 | considered rather tame than otherwise, deficient in what landscape 92 | painters call "life." But if so, the view from the other end of my 93 | chambers offered, at least, a contrast, if nothing more. In that 94 | direction my windows commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick 95 | wall, black by age and everlasting shade; which wall required no 96 | spy-glass to bring out its lurking beauties, but for the benefit of all 97 | near-sighted spectators, was pushed up to within ten feet of my window 98 | panes. Owing to the great height of the surrounding buildings, and my 99 | chambers being on the second floor, the interval between this wall and 100 | mine not a little resembled a huge square cistern. 101 | 102 | At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons 103 | as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy. 104 | First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut. These may seem 105 | names, the like of which are not usually found in the Directory. In 106 | truth they were nicknames, mutually conferred upon each other by my 107 | three clerks, and were deemed expressive of their respective persons or 108 | characters. Turkey was a short, pursy Englishman of about my own age, 109 | that is, somewhere not far from sixty. In the morning, one might say, 110 | his face was of a fine florid hue, but after twelve o'clock, 111 | meridian--his dinner hour--it blazed like a grate full of Christmas 112 | coals; and continued blazing--but, as it were, with a gradual wane--till 113 | 6 o'clock, P.M. or thereabouts, after which I saw no more of the 114 | proprietor of the face, which gaining its meridian with the sun, seemed 115 | to set with it, to rise, culminate, and decline the following day, with 116 | the like regularity and undiminished glory. There are many singular 117 | coincidences I have known in the course of my life, not the least among 118 | which was the fact, that exactly when Turkey displayed his fullest beams 119 | from his red and radiant countenance, just then, too, at that critical 120 | moment, began the daily period when I considered his business capacities 121 | as seriously disturbed for the remainder of the twenty-four hours. Not 122 | that he was absolutely idle, or averse to business then; far from it. 123 | The difficulty was, he was apt to be altogether too energetic. There 124 | was a strange, inflamed, flurried, flighty recklessness of activity 125 | about him. He would be incautious in dipping his pen into his inkstand. 126 | All his blots upon my documents, were dropped there after twelve 127 | o'clock, meridian. Indeed, not only would he be reckless and sadly 128 | given to making blots in the afternoon, but some days he went further, 129 | and was rather noisy. At such times, too, his face flamed with 130 | augmented blazonry, as if cannel coal had been heaped on anthracite. He 131 | made an unpleasant racket with his chair; spilled his sand-box; in 132 | mending his pens, impatiently split them all to pieces, and threw them 133 | on the floor in a sudden passion; stood up and leaned over his table, 134 | boxing his papers about in a most indecorous manner, very sad to behold 135 | in an elderly man like him. Nevertheless, as he was in many ways a most 136 | valuable person to me, and all the time before twelve o'clock, meridian, 137 | was the quickest, steadiest creature too, accomplishing a great deal of 138 | work in a style not easy to be matched--for these reasons, I was willing 139 | to overlook his eccentricities, though indeed, occasionally, I 140 | remonstrated with him. I did this very gently, however, because, though 141 | the civilest, nay, the blandest and most reverential of men in the 142 | morning, yet in the afternoon he was disposed, upon provocation, to be 143 | slightly rash with his tongue, in fact, insolent. Now, valuing his 144 | morning services as I did, and resolved not to lose them; yet, at the 145 | same time made uncomfortable by his inflamed ways after twelve o'clock; 146 | and being a man of peace, unwilling by my admonitions to call forth 147 | unseemly retorts from him; I took upon me, one Saturday noon (he was 148 | always worse on Saturdays), to hint to him, very kindly, that perhaps 149 | now that he was growing old, it might be well to abridge his labors; in 150 | short, he need not come to my chambers after twelve o'clock, but, dinner 151 | over, had best go home to his lodgings and rest himself till teatime. 152 | But no; he insisted upon his afternoon devotions. His countenance 153 | became intolerably fervid, as he oratorically assured me--gesticulating 154 | with a long ruler at the other end of the room--that if his services in 155 | the morning were useful, how indispensable, then, in the afternoon? 156 | 157 | "With submission, sir," said Turkey on this occasion, "I consider myself 158 | your right-hand man. In the morning I but marshal and deploy my 159 | columns; but in the afternoon I put myself at their head, and gallantly 160 | charge the foe, thus!"--and he made a violent thrust with the ruler. 161 | 162 | "But the blots, Turkey," intimated I. 163 | 164 | "True,--but, with submission, sir, behold these hairs! I am getting 165 | old. Surely, sir, a blot or two of a warm afternoon is not to be 166 | severely urged against gray hairs. Old age--even if it blot the 167 | page--is honorable. With submission, sir, we _both_ are getting old." 168 | 169 | This appeal to my fellow-feeling was hardly to be resisted. At all 170 | events, I saw that go he would not. So I made up my mind to let him 171 | stay, resolving, nevertheless, to see to it, that during the afternoon 172 | he had to do with my less important papers. 173 | 174 | Nippers, the second on my list, was a whiskered, sallow, and, upon the 175 | whole, rather piratical-looking young man of about five and twenty. I 176 | always deemed him the victim of two evil powers--ambition and 177 | indigestion. The ambition was evinced by a certain impatience of the 178 | duties of a mere copyist, an unwarrantable usurpation of strictly 179 | professional affairs, such as the original drawing up of legal 180 | documents. The indigestion seemed betokened in an occasional nervous 181 | testiness and grinning irritability, causing the teeth to audibly grind 182 | together over mistakes committed in copying; unnecessary maledictions, 183 | hissed, rather than spoken, in the heat of business; and especially by a 184 | continual discontent with the height of the table where he worked. 185 | Though of a very ingenious mechanical turn, Nippers could never get this 186 | table to suit him. He put chips under it, blocks of various sorts, bits 187 | of pasteboard, and at last went so far as to attempt an exquisite 188 | adjustment by final pieces of folded blotting paper. But no invention 189 | would answer. If, for the sake of easing his back, he brought the table 190 | lid at a sharp angle well up towards his chin, and wrote there like a 191 | man using the steep roof of a Dutch house for his desk:--then he 192 | declared that it stopped the circulation in his arms. If now he lowered 193 | the table to his waistbands, and stooped over it in writing, then there 194 | was a sore aching in his back. In short, the truth of the matter was, 195 | Nippers knew not what he wanted. Or, if he wanted any thing, it was to 196 | be rid of a scrivener's table altogether. Among the manifestations of 197 | his diseased ambition was a fondness he had for receiving visits from 198 | certain ambiguous-looking fellows in seedy coats, whom he called his 199 | clients. Indeed I was aware that not only was he, at times, 200 | considerable of a ward-politician, but he occasionally did a little 201 | business at the Justices' courts, and was not unknown on the steps of 202 | the Tombs. I have good reason to believe, however, that one individual 203 | who called upon him at my chambers, and who, with a grand air, he 204 | insisted was his client, was no other than a dun, and the alleged 205 | title-deed, a bill. But with all his failings, and the annoyances he 206 | caused me, Nippers, like his compatriot Turkey, was a very useful man to 207 | me; wrote a neat, swift hand; and, when he chose, was not deficient in a 208 | gentlemanly sort of deportment. Added to this, he always dressed in a 209 | gentlemanly sort of way; and so, incidentally, reflected credit upon my 210 | chambers. Whereas with respect to Turkey, I had much ado to keep him 211 | from being a reproach to me. His clothes were apt to look oily and 212 | smell of eating-houses. He wore his pantaloons very loose and baggy in 213 | summer. His coats were execrable; his hat not to be handled. But while 214 | the hat was a thing of indifference to me, inasmuch as his natural 215 | civility and deference, as a dependent Englishman, always led him to 216 | doff it the moment he entered the room, yet his coat was another matter. 217 | Concerning his coats, I reasoned with him; but with no effect. The 218 | truth was, I suppose, that a man of so small an income, could not afford 219 | to sport such a lustrous face and a lustrous coat at one and the same 220 | time. As Nippers once observed, Turkey's money went chiefly for red 221 | ink. One winter day I presented Turkey with a highly-respectable 222 | looking coat of my own, a padded gray coat, of a most comfortable 223 | warmth, and which buttoned straight up from the knee to the neck. I 224 | thought Turkey would appreciate the favor, and abate his rashness and 225 | obstreperousness of afternoons. But no. I verily believe that 226 | buttoning himself up in so downy and blanket-like a coat had a 227 | pernicious effect upon him; upon the same principle that too much oats 228 | are bad for horses. In fact, precisely as a rash, restive horse is said 229 | to feel his oats, so Turkey felt his coat. It made him insolent. He 230 | was a man whom prosperity harmed. 231 | 232 | Though concerning the self-indulgent habits of Turkey I had my own 233 | private surmises, yet touching Nippers I was well persuaded that 234 | whatever might be his faults in other respects, he was, at least, a 235 | temperate young man. But indeed, nature herself seemed to have been his 236 | vintner, and at his birth charged him so thoroughly with an irritable, 237 | brandy-like disposition, that all subsequent potations were needless. 238 | When I consider how, amid the stillness of my chambers, Nippers would 239 | sometimes impatiently rise from his seat, and stooping over his table, 240 | spread his arms wide apart, seize the whole desk, and move it, and jerk 241 | it, with a grim, grinding motion on the floor, as if the table were a 242 | perverse voluntary agent, intent on thwarting and vexing him; I plainly 243 | perceive that for Nippers, brandy and water were altogether superfluous. 244 | 245 | It was fortunate for me that, owing to its peculiar 246 | cause--indigestion--the irritability and consequent nervousness of 247 | Nippers, were mainly observable in the morning, while in the afternoon 248 | he was comparatively mild. So that Turkey's paroxysms only coming on 249 | about twelve o'clock, I never had to do with their eccentricities at one 250 | time. Their fits relieved each other like guards. When Nippers' was 251 | on, Turkey's was off; and _vice versa_. This was a good natural 252 | arrangement under the circumstances. 253 | 254 | Ginger Nut, the third on my list, was a lad some twelve years old. His 255 | father was a carman, ambitious of seeing his son on the bench instead of 256 | a cart, before he died. So he sent him to my office as student at law, 257 | errand boy, and cleaner and sweeper, at the rate of one dollar a week. 258 | He had a little desk to himself, but he did not use it much. Upon 259 | inspection, the drawer exhibited a great array of the shells of various 260 | sorts of nuts. Indeed, to this quick-witted youth the whole noble 261 | science of the law was contained in a nut-shell. Not the least among 262 | the employments of Ginger Nut, as well as one which he discharged with 263 | the most alacrity, was his duty as cake and apple purveyor for Turkey 264 | and Nippers. Copying law papers being proverbially dry, husky sort of 265 | business, my two scriveners were fain to moisten their mouths very often 266 | with Spitzenbergs to be had at the numerous stalls nigh the Custom 267 | House and Post Office. Also, they sent Ginger Nut very frequently for 268 | that peculiar cake--small, flat, round, and very spicy--after which he 269 | had been named by them. Of a cold morning when business was but dull, 270 | Turkey would gobble up scores of these cakes, as if they were mere 271 | wafers--indeed they sell them at the rate of six or eight for a 272 | penny--the scrape of his pen blending with the crunching of the crisp 273 | particles in his mouth. Of all the fiery afternoon blunders and 274 | flurried rashnesses of Turkey, was his once moistening a ginger-cake 275 | between his lips, and clapping it on to a mortgage for a seal. I came 276 | within an ace of dismissing him then. But he mollified me by making an 277 | oriental bow, and saying--"With submission, sir, it was generous of me 278 | to find you in stationery on my own account." 279 | 280 | Now my original business--that of a conveyancer and title hunter, and 281 | drawer-up of recondite documents of all sorts--was considerably 282 | increased by receiving the master's office. There was now great work 283 | for scriveners. Not only must I push the clerks already with me, but I 284 | must have additional help. In answer to my advertisement, a motionless 285 | young man one morning, stood upon my office threshold, the door being 286 | open, for it was summer. I can see that figure now--pallidly neat, 287 | pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn! It was Bartleby. 288 | 289 | After a few words touching his qualifications, I engaged him, glad to 290 | have among my corps of copyists a man of so singularly sedate an aspect, 291 | which I thought might operate beneficially upon the flighty temper of 292 | Turkey, and the fiery one of Nippers. 293 | 294 | I should have stated before that ground glass folding-doors divided my 295 | premises into two parts, one of which was occupied by my scriveners, the 296 | other by myself. According to my humor I threw open these doors, or 297 | closed them. I resolved to assign Bartleby a corner by the 298 | folding-doors, but on my side of them, so as to have this quiet man 299 | within easy call, in case any trifling thing was to be done. I placed 300 | his desk close up to a small side-window in that part of the room, a 301 | window which originally had afforded a lateral view of certain grimy 302 | back-yards and bricks, but which, owing to subsequent erections, 303 | commanded at present no view at all, though it gave some light. Within 304 | three feet of the panes was a wall, and the light came down from far 305 | above, between two lofty buildings, as from a very small opening in a 306 | dome. Still further to a satisfactory arrangement, I procured a high 307 | green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my 308 | sight, though not remove him from my voice. And thus, in a manner, 309 | privacy and society were conjoined. 310 | 311 | At first Bartleby did an extraordinary quantity of writing. As if long 312 | famishing for something to copy, he seemed to gorge himself on my 313 | documents. There was no pause for digestion. He ran a day and night 314 | line, copying by sun-light and by candle-light. I should have been 315 | quite delighted with his application, had he been cheerfully 316 | industrious. But he wrote on silently, palely, mechanically. 317 | 318 | It is, of course, an indispensable part of a scrivener's business to 319 | verify the accuracy of his copy, word by word. Where there are two or 320 | more scriveners in an office, they assist each other in this 321 | examination, one reading from the copy, the other holding the original. 322 | It is a very dull, wearisome, and lethargic affair. I can readily 323 | imagine that to some sanguine temperaments it would be altogether 324 | intolerable. For example, I cannot credit that the mettlesome poet 325 | Byron would have contentedly sat down with Bartleby to examine a law 326 | document of, say five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand. 327 | 328 | Now and then, in the haste of business, it had been my habit to assist 329 | in comparing some brief document myself, calling Turkey or Nippers for 330 | this purpose. One object I had in placing Bartleby so handy to me 331 | behind the screen, was to avail myself of his services on such trivial 332 | occasions. It was on the third day, I think, of his being with me, and 333 | before any necessity had arisen for having his own writing examined, 334 | that, being much hurried to complete a small affair I had in hand, I 335 | abruptly called to Bartleby. In my haste and natural expectancy of 336 | instant compliance, I sat with my head bent over the original on my 337 | desk, and my right hand sideways, and somewhat nervously extended with 338 | the copy, so that immediately upon emerging from his retreat, Bartleby 339 | might snatch it and proceed to business without the least delay. 340 | 341 | In this very attitude did I sit when I called to him, rapidly stating 342 | what it was I wanted him to do--namely, to examine a small paper with 343 | me. Imagine my surprise, nay, my consternation, when without moving 344 | from his privacy, Bartleby in a singularly mild, firm voice, replied, "I 345 | would prefer not to." 346 | 347 | I sat awhile in perfect silence, rallying my stunned faculties. 348 | Immediately it occurred to me that my ears had deceived me, or Bartleby 349 | had entirely misunderstood my meaning. I repeated my request in the 350 | clearest tone I could assume. But in quite as clear a one came the 351 | previous reply, "I would prefer not to." 352 | 353 | "Prefer not to," echoed I, rising in high excitement, and crossing the 354 | room with a stride. "What do you mean? Are you moon-struck? I want 355 | you to help me compare this sheet here--take it," and I thrust it 356 | towards him. 357 | 358 | "I would prefer not to," said he. 359 | 360 | I looked at him steadfastly. His face was leanly composed; his gray eye 361 | dimly calm. Not a wrinkle of agitation rippled him. Had there been the 362 | least uneasiness, anger, impatience or impertinence in his manner; in 363 | other words, had there been any thing ordinarily human about him, 364 | doubtless I should have violently dismissed him from the premises. But 365 | as it was, I should have as soon thought of turning my pale 366 | plaster-of-paris bust of Cicero out of doors. I stood gazing at him 367 | awhile, as he went on with his own writing, and then reseated myself at 368 | my desk. This is very strange, thought I. What had one best do? But 369 | my business hurried me. I concluded to forget the matter for the 370 | present, reserving it for my future leisure. So calling Nippers from 371 | the other room, the paper was speedily examined. 372 | 373 | A few days after this, Bartleby concluded four lengthy documents, being 374 | quadruplicates of a week's testimony taken before me in my High Court of 375 | Chancery. It became necessary to examine them. It was an important 376 | suit, and great accuracy was imperative. Having all things arranged I 377 | called Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut from the next room, meaning to 378 | place the four copies in the hands of my four clerks, while I should 379 | read from the original. Accordingly Turkey, Nippers and Ginger Nut had 380 | taken their seats in a row, each with his document in hand, when I 381 | called to Bartleby to join this interesting group. 382 | 383 | "Bartleby! quick, I am waiting." 384 | 385 | I heard a slow scrape of his chair legs on the uncarpeted floor, and 386 | soon he appeared standing at the entrance of his hermitage. 387 | 388 | "What is wanted?" said he mildly. 389 | 390 | "The copies, the copies," said I hurriedly. "We are going to examine 391 | them. There"--and I held towards him the fourth quadruplicate. 392 | 393 | "I would prefer not to," he said, and gently disappeared behind the 394 | screen. 395 | 396 | For a few moments I was turned into a pillar of salt, standing at the 397 | head of my seated column of clerks. Recovering myself, I advanced 398 | towards the screen, and demanded the reason for such extraordinary 399 | conduct. 400 | 401 | "_Why_ do you refuse?" 402 | 403 | "I would prefer not to." 404 | 405 | With any other man I should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, 406 | scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my 407 | presence. But there was something about Bartleby that not only 408 | strangely disarmed me, but in a wonderful manner touched and 409 | disconcerted me. I began to reason with him. 410 | 411 | "These are your own copies we are about to examine. It is labor saving 412 | to you, because one examination will answer for your four papers. It is 413 | common usage. Every copyist is bound to help examine his copy. Is it 414 | not so? Will you not speak? Answer!" 415 | 416 | "I prefer not to," he replied in a flute-like tone. It seemed to me 417 | that while I had been addressing him, he carefully revolved every 418 | statement that I made; fully comprehended the meaning; could not gainsay 419 | the irresistible conclusions; but, at the same time, some paramount 420 | consideration prevailed with him to reply as he did. 421 | 422 | "You are decided, then, not to comply with my request--a request made 423 | according to common usage and common sense?" 424 | 425 | He briefly gave me to understand that on that point my judgment was 426 | sound. Yes: his decision was irreversible. 427 | 428 | It is not seldom the case that when a man is browbeaten in some 429 | unprecedented and violently unreasonable way, he begins to stagger in 430 | his own plainest faith. He begins, as it were, vaguely to surmise that, 431 | wonderful as it may be, all the justice and all the reason is on the 432 | other side. Accordingly, if any disinterested persons are present, he 433 | turns to them for some reinforcement for his own faltering mind. 434 | 435 | "Turkey," said I, "what do you think of this? Am I not right?" 436 | 437 | "With submission, sir," said Turkey, with his blandest tone, "I think 438 | that you are." 439 | 440 | "Nippers," said I, "what do _you_ think of it?" 441 | 442 | "I think I should kick him out of the office." 443 | 444 | (The reader of nice perceptions will here perceive that, it being 445 | morning, Turkey's answer is couched in polite and tranquil terms, but 446 | Nippers replies in ill-tempered ones. Or, to repeat a previous 447 | sentence, Nippers' ugly mood was on duty and Turkey's off.) 448 | 449 | "Ginger Nut," said I, willing to enlist the smallest suffrage in my 450 | behalf, "what do you think of it?" 451 | 452 | "I think, sir, he's a little _luny_," replied Ginger Nut with a grin. 453 | 454 | "You hear what they say," said I, turning towards the screen, "come 455 | forth and do your duty." 456 | 457 | But he vouchsafed no reply. I pondered a moment in sore perplexity. 458 | But once more business hurried me. I determined again to postpone the 459 | consideration of this dilemma to my future leisure. With a little 460 | trouble we made out to examine the papers without Bartleby, though at 461 | every page or two, Turkey deferentially dropped his opinion that this 462 | proceeding was quite out of the common; while Nippers, twitching in his 463 | chair with a dyspeptic nervousness, ground out between his set teeth 464 | occasional hissing maledictions against the stubborn oaf behind the 465 | screen. And for his (Nippers') part, this was the first and the last 466 | time he would do another man's business without pay. 467 | 468 | Meanwhile Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to every thing but 469 | his own peculiar business there. 470 | 471 | Some days passed, the scrivener being employed upon another lengthy 472 | work. His late remarkable conduct led me to regard his ways narrowly. 473 | I observed that he never went to dinner; indeed that he never went any 474 | where. As yet I had never of my personal knowledge known him to be 475 | outside of my office. He was a perpetual sentry in the corner. At 476 | about eleven o'clock though, in the morning, I noticed that Ginger Nut 477 | would advance toward the opening in Bartleby's screen, as if silently 478 | beckoned thither by a gesture invisible to me where I sat. The boy 479 | would then leave the office jingling a few pence, and reappear with a 480 | handful of ginger-nuts which he delivered in the hermitage, receiving 481 | two of the cakes for his trouble. 482 | 483 | He lives, then, on ginger-nuts, thought I; never eats a dinner, properly 484 | speaking; he must be a vegetarian then; but no; he never eats even 485 | vegetables, he eats nothing but ginger-nuts. My mind then ran on in 486 | reveries concerning the probable effects upon the human constitution of 487 | living entirely on ginger-nuts. Ginger-nuts are so called because they 488 | contain ginger as one of their peculiar constituents, and the final 489 | flavoring one. Now what was ginger? A hot, spicy thing. Was Bartleby 490 | hot and spicy? Not at all. Ginger, then, had no effect upon Bartleby. 491 | Probably he preferred it should have none. 492 | 493 | Nothing so aggravates an earnest person as a passive resistance. If the 494 | individual so resisted be of a not inhumane temper, and the resisting 495 | one perfectly harmless in his passivity; then, in the better moods of 496 | the former, he will endeavor charitably to construe to his imagination 497 | what proves impossible to be solved by his judgment. Even so, for the 498 | most part, I regarded Bartleby and his ways. Poor fellow! thought I, he 499 | means no mischief; it is plain he intends no insolence; his aspect 500 | sufficiently evinces that his eccentricities are involuntary. He is 501 | useful to me. I can get along with him. If I turn him away, the 502 | chances are he will fall in with some less indulgent employer, and then 503 | he will be rudely treated, and perhaps driven forth miserably to starve. 504 | Yes. Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval. To 505 | befriend Bartleby; to humor him in his strange willfulness, will cost me 506 | little or nothing, while I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove 507 | a sweet morsel for my conscience. But this mood was not invariable with 508 | me. The passiveness of Bartleby sometimes irritated me. I felt 509 | strangely goaded on to encounter him in new opposition, to elicit some 510 | angry spark from him answerable to my own. But indeed I might as well 511 | have essayed to strike fire with my knuckles against a bit of Windsor 512 | soap. But one afternoon the evil impulse in me mastered me, and the 513 | following little scene ensued: 514 | 515 | "Bartleby," said I, "when those papers are all copied, I will compare 516 | them with you." 517 | 518 | "I would prefer not to." 519 | 520 | "How? Surely you do not mean to persist in that mulish vagary?" 521 | 522 | No answer. 523 | 524 | I threw open the folding-doors near by, and turning upon Turkey and 525 | Nippers, exclaimed in an excited manner-- 526 | 527 | "He says, a second time, he won't examine his papers. What do you think 528 | of it, Turkey?" 529 | 530 | It was afternoon, be it remembered. Turkey sat glowing like a brass 531 | boiler, his bald head steaming, his hands reeling among his blotted 532 | papers. 533 | 534 | "Think of it?" roared Turkey; "I think I'll just step behind his screen, 535 | and black his eyes for him!" 536 | 537 | So saying, Turkey rose to his feet and threw his arms into a pugilistic 538 | position. He was hurrying away to make good his promise, when I 539 | detained him, alarmed at the effect of incautiously rousing Turkey's 540 | combativeness after dinner. 541 | 542 | "Sit down, Turkey," said I, "and hear what Nippers has to say. What do 543 | you think of it, Nippers? Would I not be justified in immediately 544 | dismissing Bartleby?" 545 | 546 | "Excuse me, that is for you to decide, sir. I think his conduct quite 547 | unusual, and indeed unjust, as regards Turkey and myself. But it may 548 | only be a passing whim." 549 | 550 | "Ah," exclaimed I, "you have strangely changed your mind then--you speak 551 | very gently of him now." 552 | 553 | "All beer," cried Turkey; "gentleness is effects of beer--Nippers and I 554 | dined together to-day. You see how gentle _I_ am, sir. Shall I go and 555 | black his eyes?" 556 | 557 | "You refer to Bartleby, I suppose. No, not to-day, Turkey," I replied; 558 | "pray, put up your fists." 559 | 560 | I closed the doors, and again advanced towards Bartleby. I felt 561 | additional incentives tempting me to my fate. I burned to be rebelled 562 | against again. I remembered that Bartleby never left the office. 563 | 564 | "Bartleby," said I, "Ginger Nut is away; just step round to the Post 565 | Office, won't you? (it was but a three minute walk,) and see if there is 566 | any thing for me." 567 | 568 | "I would prefer not to." 569 | 570 | "You _will_ not?" 571 | 572 | "I _prefer_ not." 573 | 574 | I staggered to my desk, and sat there in a deep study. My blind 575 | inveteracy returned. Was there any other thing in which I could procure 576 | myself to be ignominiously repulsed by this lean, penniless wight?--my 577 | hired clerk? What added thing is there, perfectly reasonable, that he 578 | will be sure to refuse to do? 579 | 580 | "Bartleby!" 581 | 582 | No answer. 583 | 584 | "Bartleby," in a louder tone. 585 | 586 | No answer. 587 | 588 | "Bartleby," I roared. 589 | 590 | Like a very ghost, agreeably to the laws of magical invocation, at the 591 | third summons, he appeared at the entrance of his hermitage. 592 | 593 | "Go to the next room, and tell Nippers to come to me." 594 | 595 | "I prefer not to," he respectfully and slowly said, and mildly 596 | disappeared. 597 | 598 | "Very good, Bartleby," said I, in a quiet sort of serenely severe 599 | self-possessed tone, intimating the unalterable purpose of some terrible 600 | retribution very close at hand. At the moment I half intended something 601 | of the kind. But upon the whole, as it was drawing towards my 602 | dinner-hour, I thought it best to put on my hat and walk home for the 603 | day, suffering much from perplexity and distress of mind. 604 | 605 | Shall I acknowledge it? The conclusion of this whole business was, that 606 | it soon became a fixed fact of my chambers, that a pale young scrivener, 607 | by the name of Bartleby, had a desk there; that he copied for me at the 608 | usual rate of four cents a folio (one hundred words); but he was 609 | permanently exempt from examining the work done by him, that duty being 610 | transferred to Turkey and Nippers, one of compliment doubtless to their 611 | superior acuteness; moreover, said Bartleby was never on any account to 612 | be dispatched on the most trivial errand of any sort; and that even if 613 | entreated to take upon him such a matter, it was generally understood 614 | that he would prefer not to--in other words, that he would refuse 615 | pointblank. 616 | 617 | As days passed on, I became considerably reconciled to Bartleby. His 618 | steadiness, his freedom from all dissipation, his incessant industry 619 | (except when he chose to throw himself into a standing revery behind his 620 | screen), his great, stillness, his unalterableness of demeanor under all 621 | circumstances, made him a valuable acquisition. One prime thing was 622 | this,--_he was always there;_--first in the morning, continually 623 | through the day, and the last at night. I had a singular confidence in 624 | his honesty. I felt my most precious papers perfectly safe in his 625 | hands. Sometimes to be sure I could not, for the very soul of me, avoid 626 | falling into sudden spasmodic passions with him. For it was exceeding 627 | difficult to bear in mind all the time those strange peculiarities, 628 | privileges, and unheard of exemptions, forming the tacit stipulations on 629 | Bartleby's part under which he remained in my office. Now and then, in 630 | the eagerness of dispatching pressing business, I would inadvertently 631 | summon Bartleby, in a short, rapid tone, to put his finger, say, on the 632 | incipient tie of a bit of red tape with which I was about compressing 633 | some papers. Of course, from behind the screen the usual answer, "I 634 | prefer not to," was sure to come; and then, how could a human creature 635 | with the common infirmities of our nature, refrain from bitterly 636 | exclaiming upon such perverseness--such unreasonableness. However, 637 | every added repulse of this sort which I received only tended to lessen 638 | the probability of my repeating the inadvertence. 639 | 640 | Here it must be said, that according to the custom of most legal 641 | gentlemen occupying chambers in densely-populated law buildings, there 642 | were several keys to my door. One was kept by a woman residing in the 643 | attic, which person weekly scrubbed and daily swept and dusted my 644 | apartments. Another was kept by Turkey for convenience sake. The third 645 | I sometimes carried in my own pocket. The fourth I knew not who had. 646 | 647 | Now, one Sunday morning I happened to go to Trinity Church, to hear a 648 | celebrated preacher, and finding myself rather early on the ground, I 649 | thought I would walk around to my chambers for a while. Luckily I had 650 | my key with me; but upon applying it to the lock, I found it resisted by 651 | something inserted from the inside. Quite surprised, I called out; when 652 | to my consternation a key was turned from within; and thrusting his lean 653 | visage at me, and holding the door ajar, the apparition of Bartleby 654 | appeared, in his shirt sleeves, and otherwise in a strangely tattered 655 | dishabille, saying quietly that he was sorry, but he was deeply engaged 656 | just then, and--preferred not admitting me at present. In a brief word 657 | or two, he moreover added, that perhaps I had better walk round the 658 | block two or three times, and by that time he would probably have 659 | concluded his affairs. 660 | 661 | Now, the utterly unsurmised appearance of Bartleby, tenanting my 662 | law-chambers of a Sunday morning, with his cadaverously gentlemanly 663 | _nonchalance_, yet withal firm and self-possessed, had such a strange 664 | effect upon me, that incontinently I slunk away from my own door, and 665 | did as desired. But not without sundry twinges of impotent rebellion 666 | against the mild effrontery of this unaccountable scrivener. Indeed, it 667 | was his wonderful mildness chiefly, which not only disarmed me, but 668 | unmanned me, as it were. For I consider that one, for the time, is a 669 | sort of unmanned when he tranquilly permits his hired clerk to dictate 670 | to him, and order him away from his own premises. Furthermore, I was 671 | full of uneasiness as to what Bartleby could possibly be doing in my 672 | office in his shirt sleeves, and in an otherwise dismantled condition of 673 | a Sunday morning. Was any thing amiss going on? Nay, that was out of 674 | the question. It was not to be thought of for a moment that Bartleby 675 | was an immoral person. But what could he be doing there?--copying? Nay 676 | again, whatever might be his eccentricities, Bartleby was an eminently 677 | decorous person. He would be the last man to sit down to his desk in 678 | any state approaching to nudity. Besides, it was Sunday; and there was 679 | something about Bartleby that forbade the supposition that he would by 680 | any secular occupation violate the proprieties of the day. 681 | 682 | Nevertheless, my mind was not pacified; and full of a restless 683 | curiosity, at last I returned to the door. Without hindrance I inserted 684 | my key, opened it, and entered. Bartleby was not to be seen. I looked 685 | round anxiously, peeped behind his screen; but it was very plain that he 686 | was gone. Upon more closely examining the place, I surmised that for an 687 | indefinite period Bartleby must have ate, dressed, and slept in my 688 | office, and that too without plate, mirror, or bed. The cushioned seat 689 | of a rickety old sofa in one corner bore the faint impress of a lean, 690 | reclining form. Rolled away under his desk, I found a blanket; under 691 | the empty grate, a blacking box and brush; on a chair, a tin basin, with 692 | soap and a ragged towel; in a newspaper a few crumbs of ginger-nuts and 693 | a morsel of cheese. Yes, thought I, it is evident enough that Bartleby 694 | has been making his home here, keeping bachelor's hall all by himself. 695 | Immediately then the thought came sweeping across me, What miserable 696 | friendlessness and loneliness are here revealed! His poverty is great; 697 | but his solitude, how horrible! Think of it. Of a Sunday, Wall-street 698 | is deserted as Petra; and every night of every day it is an emptiness. 699 | This building too, which of week-days hums with industry and life, at 700 | nightfall echoes with sheer vacancy, and all through Sunday is forlorn. 701 | And here Bartleby makes his home; sole spectator of a solitude which he 702 | has seen all populous--a sort of innocent and transformed Marius 703 | brooding among the ruins of Carthage! 704 | 705 | For the first time in my life a feeling of overpowering stinging 706 | melancholy seized me. Before, I had never experienced aught but a 707 | not-unpleasing sadness. The bond of a common humanity now drew me 708 | irresistibly to gloom. A fraternal melancholy! For both I and Bartleby 709 | were sons of Adam. I remembered the bright silks and sparkling faces I 710 | had seen that day, in gala trim, swan-like sailing down the Mississippi 711 | of Broadway; and I contrasted them with the pallid copyist, and thought 712 | to myself, Ah, happiness courts the light, so we deem the world is gay; 713 | but misery hides aloof, so we deem that misery there is none. These sad 714 | fancyings--chimeras, doubtless, of a sick and silly brain--led on to 715 | other and more special thoughts, concerning the eccentricities of 716 | Bartleby. Presentiments of strange discoveries hovered round me. The 717 | scrivener's pale form appeared to me laid out, among uncaring strangers, 718 | in its shivering winding sheet. 719 | 720 | Suddenly I was attracted by Bartleby's closed desk, the key in open 721 | sight left in the lock. 722 | 723 | I mean no mischief, seek the gratification of no heartless curiosity, 724 | thought I; besides, the desk is mine, and its contents too, so I will 725 | make bold to look within. Every thing was methodically arranged, the 726 | papers smoothly placed. The pigeon holes were deep, and removing the 727 | files of documents, I groped into their recesses. Presently I felt 728 | something there, and dragged it out. It was an old bandanna 729 | handkerchief, heavy and knotted. I opened it, and saw it was a savings' 730 | bank. 731 | 732 | I now recalled all the quiet mysteries which I had noted in the man. I 733 | remembered that he never spoke but to answer; that though at intervals 734 | he had considerable time to himself, yet I had never seen him 735 | reading--no, not even a newspaper; that for long periods he would stand 736 | looking out, at his pale window behind the screen, upon the dead brick 737 | wall; I was quite sure he never visited any refectory or eating house; 738 | while his pale face clearly indicated that he never drank beer like 739 | Turkey, or tea and coffee even, like other men; that he never went any 740 | where in particular that I could learn; never went out for a walk, 741 | unless indeed that was the case at present; that he had declined telling 742 | who he was, or whence he came, or whether he had any relatives in the 743 | world; that though so thin and pale, he never complained of ill health. 744 | And more than all, I remembered a certain unconscious air of pallid--how 745 | shall I call it?--of pallid haughtiness, say, or rather an austere 746 | reserve about him, which had positively awed me into my tame compliance 747 | with his eccentricities, when I had feared to ask him to do the 748 | slightest incidental thing for me, even though I might know, from his 749 | long-continued motionlessness, that behind his screen he must be 750 | standing in one of those dead-wall reveries of his. 751 | 752 | Revolving all these things, and coupling them with the recently 753 | discovered fact that he made my office his constant abiding place and 754 | home, and not forgetful of his morbid moodiness; revolving all these 755 | things, a prudential feeling began to steal over me. My first emotions 756 | had been those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity; but just in 757 | proportion as the forlornness of Bartleby grew and grew to my 758 | imagination, did that same melancholy merge into fear, that pity into 759 | repulsion. So true it is, and so terrible too, that up to a certain 760 | point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, 761 | in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who 762 | would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness 763 | of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of 764 | remedying excessive and organic ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not 765 | seldom pain. And when at last it is perceived that such pity cannot 766 | lead to effectual succor, common sense bids the soul rid of it. What I 767 | saw that morning persuaded me that the scrivener was the victim of 768 | innate and incurable disorder. I might give alms to his body; but his 769 | body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I 770 | could not reach. 771 | 772 | I did not accomplish the purpose of going to Trinity Church that 773 | morning. Somehow, the things I had seen disqualified me for the time 774 | from church-going. I walked homeward, thinking what I would do with 775 | Bartleby. Finally, I resolved upon this;--I would put certain calm 776 | questions to him the next morning, touching his history, etc., and if he 777 | declined to answer them openly and unreservedly (and I supposed he would 778 | prefer not), then to give him a twenty dollar bill over and above 779 | whatever I might owe him, and tell him his services were no longer 780 | required; but that if in any other way I could assist him, I would be 781 | happy to do so, especially if he desired to return to his native place, 782 | wherever that might be, I would willingly help to defray the expenses. 783 | Moreover, if, after reaching home, he found himself at any time in want 784 | of aid, a letter from him would be sure of a reply. 785 | 786 | The next morning came. 787 | 788 | "Bartleby," said I, gently calling to him behind his screen. 789 | 790 | No reply. 791 | 792 | "Bartleby," said I, in a still gentler tone, "come here; I am not going 793 | to ask you to do any thing you would prefer not to do--I simply wish to 794 | speak to you." 795 | 796 | Upon this he noiselessly slid into view. 797 | 798 | "Will you tell me, Bartleby, where you were born?" 799 | 800 | "I would prefer not to." 801 | 802 | "Will you tell me _any thing_ about yourself?" 803 | 804 | "I would prefer not to." 805 | 806 | "But what reasonable objection can you have to speak to me? I feel 807 | friendly towards you." 808 | 809 | He did not look at me while I spoke, but kept his glance fixed upon my 810 | bust of Cicero, which as I then sat, was directly behind me, some six 811 | inches above my head. 812 | 813 | "What is your answer, Bartleby?" said I, after waiting a considerable 814 | time for a reply, during which his countenance remained immovable, only 815 | there was the faintest conceivable tremor of the white attenuated mouth. 816 | 817 | "At present I prefer to give no answer," he said, and retired into his 818 | hermitage. 819 | 820 | It was rather weak in me I confess, but his manner on this occasion 821 | nettled me. Not only did there seem to lurk in it a certain calm 822 | disdain, but his perverseness seemed ungrateful, considering the 823 | undeniable good usage and indulgence he had received from me. 824 | 825 | Again I sat ruminating what I should do. Mortified as I was at his 826 | behavior, and resolved as I had been to dismiss him when I entered my 827 | offices, nevertheless I strangely felt something superstitious knocking 828 | at my heart, and forbidding me to carry out my purpose, and denouncing 829 | me for a villain if I dared to breathe one bitter word against this 830 | forlornest of mankind. At last, familiarly drawing my chair behind his 831 | screen, I sat down and said: "Bartleby, never mind then about revealing 832 | your history; but let me entreat you, as a friend, to comply as far as 833 | may be with the usages of this office. Say now you will help to examine 834 | papers to-morrow or next day: in short, say now that in a day or two you 835 | will begin to be a little reasonable:--say so, Bartleby." 836 | 837 | "At present I would prefer not to be a little reasonable," was his 838 | mildly cadaverous reply. 839 | 840 | Just then the folding-doors opened, and Nippers approached. He seemed 841 | suffering from an unusually bad night's rest, induced by severer 842 | indigestion then common. He overheard those final words of Bartleby. 843 | 844 | "_Prefer not_, eh?" gritted Nippers--"I'd _prefer_ him, if I were you, 845 | sir," addressing me--"I'd _prefer_ him; I'd give him preferences, the 846 | stubborn mule! What is it, sir, pray, that he _prefers_ not to do now?" 847 | 848 | Bartleby moved not a limb. 849 | 850 | "Mr. Nippers," said I, "I'd prefer that you would withdraw for the 851 | present." 852 | 853 | Somehow, of late I had got into the way of involuntarily using this word 854 | "prefer" upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions. And I 855 | trembled to think that my contact with the scrivener had already and 856 | seriously affected me in a mental way. And what further and deeper 857 | aberration might it not yet produce? This apprehension had not been 858 | without efficacy in determining me to summary means. 859 | 860 | As Nippers, looking very sour and sulky, was departing, Turkey blandly 861 | and deferentially approached. 862 | 863 | "With submission, sir," said he, "yesterday I was thinking about 864 | Bartleby here, and I think that if he would but prefer to take a quart 865 | of good ale every day, it would do much towards mending him, and 866 | enabling him to assist in examining his papers." 867 | 868 | "So you have got the word too," said I, slightly excited. 869 | 870 | "With submission, what word, sir," asked Turkey, respectfully crowding 871 | himself into the contracted space behind the screen, and by so doing, 872 | making me jostle the scrivener. "What word, sir?" 873 | 874 | "I would prefer to be left alone here," said Bartleby, as if offended at 875 | being mobbed in his privacy. 876 | 877 | "_That's_ the word, Turkey," said I--"that's it." 878 | 879 | "Oh, _prefer_? oh yes--queer word. I never use it myself. But, sir, as 880 | I was saying, if he would but prefer--" 881 | 882 | "Turkey," interrupted I, "you will please withdraw." 883 | 884 | "Oh certainly, sir, if you prefer that I should." 885 | 886 | As he opened the folding-door to retire, Nippers at his desk caught a 887 | glimpse of me, and asked whether I would prefer to have a certain paper 888 | copied on blue paper or white. He did not in the least roguishly accent 889 | the word prefer. It was plain that it involuntarily rolled form his 890 | tongue. I thought to myself, surely I must get rid of a demented man, 891 | who already has in some degree turned the tongues, if not the heads of 892 | myself and clerks. But I thought it prudent not to break the dismission 893 | at once. 894 | 895 | The next day I noticed that Bartleby did nothing but stand at his window 896 | in his dead-wall revery. Upon asking him why he did not write, he said 897 | that he had decided upon doing no more writing. 898 | 899 | "Why, how now? what next?" exclaimed I, "do no more writing?" 900 | 901 | "No more." 902 | 903 | "And what is the reason?" 904 | 905 | "Do you not see the reason for yourself," he indifferently replied. 906 | 907 | I looked steadfastly at him, and perceived that his eyes looked dull and 908 | glazed. Instantly it occurred to me, that his unexampled diligence in 909 | copying by his dim window for the first few weeks of his stay with me 910 | might have temporarily impaired his vision. 911 | 912 | I was touched. I said something in condolence with him. I hinted that 913 | of course he did wisely in abstaining from writing for a while; and 914 | urged him to embrace that opportunity of taking wholesome exercise in 915 | the open air. This, however, he did not do. A few days after this, my 916 | other clerks being absent, and being in a great hurry to dispatch 917 | certain letters by the mail, I thought that, having nothing else earthly 918 | to do, Bartleby would surely be less inflexible than usual, and carry 919 | these letters to the post-office. But he blankly declined. So, much to 920 | my inconvenience, I went myself. 921 | 922 | Still added days went by. Whether Bartleby's eyes improved or not, I 923 | could not say. To all appearance, I thought they did. But when I asked 924 | him if they did, he vouchsafed no answer. At all events, he would do no 925 | copying. At last, in reply to my urgings, he informed me that he had 926 | permanently given up copying. 927 | 928 | "What!" exclaimed I; "suppose your eyes should get entirely well--better 929 | than ever before--would you not copy then?" 930 | 931 | "I have given up copying," he answered, and slid aside. 932 | 933 | He remained as ever, a fixture in my chamber. Nay--if that were 934 | possible--he became still more of a fixture than before. What was to be 935 | done? He would do nothing in the office: why should he stay there? In 936 | plain fact, he had now become a millstone to me, not only useless as a 937 | necklace, but afflictive to bear. Yet I was sorry for him. I speak 938 | less than truth when I say that, on his own account, he occasioned me 939 | uneasiness. If he would but have named a single relative or friend, I 940 | would instantly have written, and urged their taking the poor fellow 941 | away to some convenient retreat. But he seemed alone, absolutely alone 942 | in the universe. A bit of wreck in the mid Atlantic. At length, 943 | necessities connected with my business tyrannized over all other 944 | considerations. Decently as I could, I told Bartleby that in six days' 945 | time he must unconditionally leave the office. I warned him to take 946 | measures, in the interval, for procuring some other abode. I offered to 947 | assist him in this endeavor, if he himself would but take the first step 948 | towards a removal. "And when you finally quit me, Bartleby," added I, 949 | "I shall see that you go not away entirely unprovided. Six days from 950 | this hour, remember." 951 | 952 | At the expiration of that period, I peeped behind the screen, and lo! 953 | Bartleby was there. 954 | 955 | I buttoned up my coat, balanced myself; advanced slowly towards him, 956 | touched his shoulder, and said, "The time has come; you must quit this 957 | place; I am sorry for you; here is money; but you must go." 958 | 959 | "I would prefer not," he replied, with his back still towards me. 960 | 961 | "You _must_." 962 | 963 | He remained silent. 964 | 965 | Now I had an unbounded confidence in this man's common honesty. He had 966 | frequently restored to me sixpences and shillings carelessly dropped 967 | upon the floor, for I am apt to be very reckless in such shirt-button 968 | affairs. The proceeding then which followed will not be deemed 969 | extraordinary. 970 | 971 | "Bartleby," said I, "I owe you twelve dollars on account; here are 972 | thirty-two; the odd twenty are yours.--Will you take it?" and I handed 973 | the bills towards him. 974 | 975 | But he made no motion. 976 | 977 | "I will leave them here then," putting them under a weight on the table. 978 | Then taking my hat and cane and going to the door I tranquilly turned 979 | and added--"After you have removed your things from these offices, 980 | Bartleby, you will of course lock the door--since every one is now gone 981 | for the day but you--and if you please, slip your key underneath the 982 | mat, so that I may have it in the morning. I shall not see you again; 983 | so good-bye to you. If hereafter in your new place of abode I can be of 984 | any service to you, do not fail to advise me by letter. Good-bye, 985 | Bartleby, and fare you well." 986 | 987 | But he answered not a word; like the last column of some ruined temple, 988 | he remained standing mute and solitary in the middle of the otherwise 989 | deserted room. 990 | 991 | As I walked home in a pensive mood, my vanity got the better of my pity. 992 | I could not but highly plume myself on my masterly management in getting 993 | rid of Bartleby. Masterly I call it, and such it must appear to any 994 | dispassionate thinker. The beauty of my procedure seemed to consist in 995 | its perfect quietness. There was no vulgar bullying, no bravado of any 996 | sort, no choleric hectoring, and striding to and fro across the 997 | apartment, jerking out vehement commands for Bartleby to bundle himself 998 | off with his beggarly traps. Nothing of the kind. Without loudly 999 | bidding Bartleby depart--as an inferior genius might have done--I 1000 | _assumed_ the ground that depart he must; and upon that assumption built 1001 | all I had to say. The more I thought over my procedure, the more I was 1002 | charmed with it. Nevertheless, next morning, upon awakening, I had my 1003 | doubts,--I had somehow slept off the fumes of vanity. One of the 1004 | coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes in the 1005 | morning. My procedure seemed as sagacious as ever.--but only in theory. 1006 | How it would prove in practice--there was the rub. It was truly a 1007 | beautiful thought to have assumed Bartleby's departure; but, after all, 1008 | that assumption was simply my own, and none of Bartleby's. The great 1009 | point was, not whether I had assumed that he would quit me, but whether 1010 | he would prefer so to do. He was more a man of preferences than 1011 | assumptions. 1012 | 1013 | After breakfast, I walked down town, arguing the probabilities _pro_ and 1014 | _con_. One moment I thought it would prove a miserable failure, and 1015 | Bartleby would be found all alive at my office as usual; the next moment 1016 | it seemed certain that I should see his chair empty. And so I kept 1017 | veering about. At the corner of Broadway and Canal-street, I saw quite 1018 | an excited group of people standing in earnest conversation. 1019 | 1020 | "I'll take odds he doesn't," said a voice as I passed. 1021 | 1022 | "Doesn't go?--done!" said I, "put up your money." 1023 | 1024 | I was instinctively putting my hand in my pocket to produce my own, when 1025 | I remembered that this was an election day. The words I had overheard 1026 | bore no reference to Bartleby, but to the success or non-success of some 1027 | candidate for the mayoralty. In my intent frame of mind, I had, as it 1028 | were, imagined that all Broadway shared in my excitement, and were 1029 | debating the same question with me. I passed on, very thankful that the 1030 | uproar of the street screened my momentary absent-mindedness. 1031 | 1032 | As I had intended, I was earlier than usual at my office door. I stood 1033 | listening for a moment. All was still. He must be gone. I tried the 1034 | knob. The door was locked. Yes, my procedure had worked to a charm; he 1035 | indeed must be vanished. Yet a certain melancholy mixed with this: I 1036 | was almost sorry for my brilliant success. I was fumbling under the 1037 | door mat for the key, which Bartleby was to have left there for me, when 1038 | accidentally my knee knocked against a panel, producing a summoning 1039 | sound, and in response a voice came to me from within--"Not yet; I am 1040 | occupied." 1041 | 1042 | It was Bartleby. 1043 | 1044 | I was thunderstruck. For an instant I stood like the man who, pipe in 1045 | mouth, was killed one cloudless afternoon long ago in Virginia, by a 1046 | summer lightning; at his own warm open window he was killed, and 1047 | remained leaning out there upon the dreamy afternoon, till some one 1048 | touched him, when he fell. 1049 | 1050 | "Not gone!" I murmured at last. But again obeying that wondrous 1051 | ascendancy which the inscrutable scrivener had over me, and from which 1052 | ascendancy, for all my chafing, I could not completely escape, I slowly 1053 | went down stairs and out into the street, and while walking round the 1054 | block, considered what I should next do in this unheard-of perplexity. 1055 | Turn the man out by an actual thrusting I could not; to drive him away 1056 | by calling him hard names would not do; calling in the police was an 1057 | unpleasant idea; and yet, permit him to enjoy his cadaverous triumph 1058 | over me,--this too I could not think of. What was to be done? or, if 1059 | nothing could be done, was there any thing further that I could _assume_ 1060 | in the matter? Yes, as before I had prospectively assumed that Bartleby 1061 | would depart, so now I might retrospectively assume that departed he 1062 | was. In the legitimate carrying out of this assumption, I might enter 1063 | my office in a great hurry, and pretending not to see Bartleby at all, 1064 | walk straight against him as if he were air. Such a proceeding would in 1065 | a singular degree have the appearance of a home-thrust. It was hardly 1066 | possible that Bartleby could withstand such an application of the 1067 | doctrine of assumptions. But upon second thoughts the success of the 1068 | plan seemed rather dubious. I resolved to argue the matter over with 1069 | him again. 1070 | 1071 | "Bartleby," said I, entering the office, with a quietly severe 1072 | expression, "I am seriously displeased. I am pained, Bartleby. I had 1073 | thought better of you. I had imagined you of such a gentlemanly 1074 | organization, that in any delicate dilemma a slight hint would 1075 | suffice--in short, an assumption. But it appears I am deceived. Why," 1076 | I added, unaffectedly starting, "you have not even touched that money 1077 | yet," pointing to it, just where I had left it the evening previous. 1078 | 1079 | He answered nothing. 1080 | 1081 | "Will you, or will you not, quit me?" I now demanded in a sudden 1082 | passion, advancing close to him. 1083 | 1084 | "I would prefer _not_ to quit you," he replied, gently emphasizing the 1085 | _not_. 1086 | 1087 | "What earthly right have you to stay here? Do you pay any rent? Do you 1088 | pay my taxes? Or is this property yours?" 1089 | 1090 | He answered nothing. 1091 | 1092 | "Are you ready to go on and write now? Are your eyes recovered? Could 1093 | you copy a small paper for me this morning? or help examine a few lines? 1094 | or step round to the post-office? In a word, will you do any thing at 1095 | all, to give a coloring to your refusal to depart the premises?" 1096 | 1097 | He silently retired into his hermitage. 1098 | 1099 | I was now in such a state of nervous resentment that I thought it but 1100 | prudent to check myself at present from further demonstrations. 1101 | Bartleby and I were alone. I remembered the tragedy of the unfortunate 1102 | Adams and the still more unfortunate Colt in the solitary office of the 1103 | latter; and how poor Colt, being dreadfully incensed by Adams, and 1104 | imprudently permitting himself to get wildly excited, was at unawares 1105 | hurried into his fatal act--an act which certainly no man could possibly 1106 | deplore more than the actor himself. Often it had occurred to me in my 1107 | ponderings upon the subject, that had that altercation taken place in 1108 | the public street, or at a private residence, it would not have 1109 | terminated as it did. It was the circumstance of being alone in a 1110 | solitary office, up stairs, of a building entirely unhallowed by 1111 | humanizing domestic associations--an uncarpeted office, doubtless, of a 1112 | dusty, haggard sort of appearance;--this it must have been, which 1113 | greatly helped to enhance the irritable desperation of the hapless Colt. 1114 | 1115 | But when this old Adam of resentment rose in me and tempted me 1116 | concerning Bartleby, I grappled him and threw him. How? Why, simply by 1117 | recalling the divine injunction: "A new commandment give I unto you, 1118 | that ye love one another." Yes, this it was that saved me. Aside from 1119 | higher considerations, charity often operates as a vastly wise and 1120 | prudent principle--a great safeguard to its possessor. Men have 1121 | committed murder for jealousy's sake, and anger's sake, and hatred's 1122 | sake, and selfishness' sake, and spiritual pride's sake; but no man that 1123 | ever I heard of, ever committed a diabolical murder for sweet charity's 1124 | sake. Mere self-interest, then, if no better motive can be enlisted, 1125 | should, especially with high-tempered men, prompt all beings to charity 1126 | and philanthropy. At any rate, upon the occasion in question, I strove 1127 | to drown my exasperated feelings towards the scrivener by benevolently 1128 | construing his conduct. Poor fellow, poor fellow! thought I, he don't 1129 | mean any thing; and besides, he has seen hard times, and ought to be 1130 | indulged. 1131 | 1132 | I endeavored also immediately to occupy myself, and at the same time to 1133 | comfort my despondency. I tried to fancy that in the course of the 1134 | morning, at such time as might prove agreeable to him. Bartleby, of his 1135 | own free accord, would emerge from his hermitage, and take up some 1136 | decided line of march in the direction of the door. But no. Half-past 1137 | twelve o'clock came; Turkey began to glow in the face, overturn his 1138 | inkstand, and become generally obstreperous; Nippers abated down into 1139 | quietude and courtesy; Ginger Nut munched his noon apple; and Bartleby 1140 | remained standing at his window in one of his profoundest dead-wall 1141 | reveries. Will it be credited? Ought I to acknowledge it? That 1142 | afternoon I left the office without saying one further word to him. 1143 | 1144 | Some days now passed, during which, at leisure intervals I looked a 1145 | little into "Edwards on the Will," and "Priestly on Necessity." Under 1146 | the circumstances, those books induced a salutary feeling. Gradually I 1147 | slid into the persuasion that these troubles of mine touching the 1148 | scrivener, had been all predestinated from eternity, and Bartleby was 1149 | billeted upon me for some mysterious purpose of an all-wise Providence, 1150 | which it was not for a mere mortal like me to fathom. Yes, Bartleby, 1151 | stay there behind your screen, thought I; I shall persecute you no more; 1152 | you are harmless and noiseless as any of these old chairs; in short, I 1153 | never feel so private as when I know you are here. At last I see it, I 1154 | feel it; I penetrate to the predestinated purpose of my life. I am 1155 | content. Others may have loftier parts to enact; but my mission in this 1156 | world, Bartleby, is to furnish you with office-room for such period as 1157 | you may see fit to remain. 1158 | 1159 | I believe that this wise and blessed frame of mind would have continued 1160 | with me, had it not been for the unsolicited and uncharitable remarks 1161 | obtruded upon me by my professional friends who visited the rooms. But 1162 | thus it often is, that the constant friction of illiberal minds wears 1163 | out at last the best resolves of the more generous. Though to be sure, 1164 | when I reflected upon it, it was not strange that people entering my 1165 | office should be struck by the peculiar aspect of the unaccountable 1166 | Bartleby, and so be tempted to throw out some sinister observations 1167 | concerning him. Sometimes an attorney having business with me, and 1168 | calling at my office and finding no one but the scrivener there, would 1169 | undertake to obtain some sort of precise information from him touching 1170 | my whereabouts; but without heeding his idle talk, Bartleby would remain 1171 | standing immovable in the middle of the room. So after contemplating 1172 | him in that position for a time, the attorney would depart, no wiser 1173 | than he came. 1174 | 1175 | Also, when a Reference was going on, and the room full of lawyers and 1176 | witnesses and business was driving fast; some deeply occupied legal 1177 | gentleman present, seeing Bartleby wholly unemployed, would request him 1178 | to run round to his (the legal gentleman's) office and fetch some papers 1179 | for him. Thereupon, Bartleby would tranquilly decline, and yet remain 1180 | idle as before. Then the lawyer would give a great stare, and turn to 1181 | me. And what could I say? At last I was made aware that all through 1182 | the circle of my professional acquaintance, a whisper of wonder was 1183 | running round, having reference to the strange creature I kept at my 1184 | office. This worried me very much. And as the idea came upon me of his 1185 | possibly turning out a long-lived man, and keep occupying my chambers, 1186 | and denying my authority; and perplexing my visitors; and scandalizing 1187 | my professional reputation; and casting a general gloom over the 1188 | premises; keeping soul and body together to the last upon his savings 1189 | (for doubtless he spent but half a dime a day), and in the end perhaps 1190 | outlive me, and claim possession of my office by right of his perpetual 1191 | occupancy: as all these dark anticipations crowded upon me more and 1192 | more, and my friends continually intruded their relentless remarks upon 1193 | the apparition in my room; a great change was wrought in me. I resolved 1194 | to gather all my faculties together, and for ever rid me of this 1195 | intolerable incubus. 1196 | 1197 | Ere revolving any complicated project, however, adapted to this end, I 1198 | first simply suggested to Bartleby the propriety of his permanent 1199 | departure. In a calm and serious tone, I commended the idea to his 1200 | careful and mature consideration. But having taken three days to 1201 | meditate upon it, he apprised me that his original determination 1202 | remained the same; in short, that he still preferred to abide with me. 1203 | 1204 | What shall I do? I now said to myself, buttoning up my coat to the last 1205 | button. What shall I do? what ought I to do? what does conscience say I 1206 | _should_ do with this man, or rather ghost. Rid myself of him, I must; 1207 | go, he shall. But how? You will not thrust him, the poor, pale, 1208 | passive mortal,--you will not thrust such a helpless creature out of 1209 | your door? you will not dishonor yourself by such cruelty? No, I will 1210 | not, I cannot do that. Rather would I let him live and die here, and 1211 | then mason up his remains in the wall. What then will you do? For all 1212 | your coaxing, he will not budge. Bribes he leaves under your own 1213 | paperweight on your table; in short, it is quite plain that he prefers 1214 | to cling to you. 1215 | 1216 | Then something severe, something unusual must be done. What! surely you 1217 | will not have him collared by a constable, and commit his innocent 1218 | pallor to the common jail? And upon what ground could you procure such 1219 | a thing to be done?--a vagrant, is he? What! he a vagrant, a wanderer, 1220 | who refuses to budge? It is because he will _not_ be a vagrant, then, 1221 | that you seek to count him _as_ a vagrant. That is too absurd. No 1222 | visible means of support: there I have him. Wrong again: for 1223 | indubitably he _does_ support himself, and that is the only unanswerable 1224 | proof that any man can show of his possessing the means so to do. No 1225 | more then. Since he will not quit me, I must quit him. I will change 1226 | my offices; I will move elsewhere; and give him fair notice, that if I 1227 | find him on my new premises I will then proceed against him as a common 1228 | trespasser. 1229 | 1230 | Acting accordingly, next day I thus addressed him: "I find these 1231 | chambers too far from the City Hall; the air is unwholesome. In a word, 1232 | I propose to remove my offices next week, and shall no longer require 1233 | your services. I tell you this now, in order that you may seek another 1234 | place." 1235 | 1236 | He made no reply, and nothing more was said. 1237 | 1238 | On the appointed day I engaged carts and men, proceeded to my chambers, 1239 | and having but little furniture, every thing was removed in a few hours. 1240 | Throughout, the scrivener remained standing behind the screen, which I 1241 | directed to be removed the last thing. It was withdrawn; and being 1242 | folded up like a huge folio, left him the motionless occupant of a naked 1243 | room. I stood in the entry watching him a moment, while something from 1244 | within me upbraided me. 1245 | 1246 | I re-entered, with my hand in my pocket--and--and my heart in my mouth. 1247 | 1248 | "Good-bye, Bartleby; I am going--good-bye, and God some way bless you; 1249 | and take that," slipping something in his hand. But it dropped upon the 1250 | floor, and then,--strange to say--I tore myself from him whom I had so 1251 | longed to be rid of. 1252 | 1253 | Established in my new quarters, for a day or two I kept the door locked, 1254 | and started at every footfall in the passages. When I returned to my 1255 | rooms after any little absence, I would pause at the threshold for an 1256 | instant, and attentively listen, ere applying my key. But these fears 1257 | were needless. Bartleby never came nigh me. 1258 | 1259 | I thought all was going well, when a perturbed looking stranger visited 1260 | me, inquiring whether I was the person who had recently occupied rooms 1261 | at No.--Wall-street. 1262 | 1263 | Full of forebodings, I replied that I was. 1264 | 1265 | "Then sir," said the stranger, who proved a lawyer, "you are responsible 1266 | for the man you left there. He refuses to do any copying; he refuses to 1267 | do any thing; he says he prefers not to; and he refuses to quit the 1268 | premises." 1269 | 1270 | "I am very sorry, sir," said I, with assumed tranquility, but an inward 1271 | tremor, "but, really, the man you allude to is nothing to me--he is no 1272 | relation or apprentice of mine, that you should hold me responsible for 1273 | him." 1274 | 1275 | "In mercy's name, who is he?" 1276 | 1277 | "I certainly cannot inform you. I know nothing about him. Formerly I 1278 | employed him as a copyist; but he has done nothing for me now for some 1279 | time past." 1280 | 1281 | "I shall settle him then,--good morning, sir." 1282 | 1283 | Several days passed, and I heard nothing more; and though I often felt a 1284 | charitable prompting to call at the place and see poor Bartleby, yet a 1285 | certain squeamishness of I know not what withheld me. 1286 | 1287 | All is over with him, by this time, thought I at last, when through 1288 | another week no further intelligence reached me. But coming to my room 1289 | the day after, I found several persons waiting at my door in a high 1290 | state of nervous excitement. 1291 | 1292 | "That's the man--here he comes," cried the foremost one, whom I 1293 | recognized as the lawyer who had previously called upon me alone. 1294 | 1295 | "You must take him away, sir, at once," cried a portly person among 1296 | them, advancing upon me, and whom I knew to be the landlord of 1297 | No.--Wall-street. "These gentlemen, my tenants, cannot stand it any 1298 | longer; Mr. B--" pointing to the lawyer, "has turned him out of his 1299 | room, and he now persists in haunting the building generally, sitting 1300 | upon the banisters of the stairs by day, and sleeping in the entry by 1301 | night. Every body is concerned; clients are leaving the offices; some 1302 | fears are entertained of a mob; something you must do, and that without 1303 | delay." 1304 | 1305 | Aghast at this torrent, I fell back before it, and would fain have 1306 | locked myself in my new quarters. In vain I persisted that Bartleby was 1307 | nothing to me--no more than to any one else. In vain:--I was the last 1308 | person known to have any thing to do with him, and they held me to the 1309 | terrible account. Fearful then of being exposed in the papers (as one 1310 | person present obscurely threatened) I considered the matter, and at 1311 | length said, that if the lawyer would give me a confidential interview 1312 | with the scrivener, in his (the lawyer's) own room, I would that 1313 | afternoon strive my best to rid them of the nuisance they complained of. 1314 | 1315 | Going up stairs to my old haunt, there was Bartleby silently sitting 1316 | upon the banister at the landing. 1317 | 1318 | "What are you doing here, Bartleby?" said I. 1319 | 1320 | "Sitting upon the banister," he mildly replied. 1321 | 1322 | I motioned him into the lawyer's room, who then left us. 1323 | 1324 | "Bartleby," said I, "are you aware that you are the cause of great 1325 | tribulation to me, by persisting in occupying the entry after being 1326 | dismissed from the office?" 1327 | 1328 | No answer. 1329 | 1330 | "Now one of two things must take place. Either you must do something, 1331 | or something must be done to you. Now what sort of business would you 1332 | like to engage in? Would you like to re-engage in copying for some 1333 | one?" 1334 | 1335 | "No; I would prefer not to make any change." 1336 | 1337 | "Would you like a clerkship in a dry-goods store?" 1338 | 1339 | "There is too much confinement about that. No, I would not like a 1340 | clerkship; but I am not particular." 1341 | 1342 | "Too much confinement," I cried, "why you keep yourself confined all the 1343 | time!" 1344 | 1345 | "I would prefer not to take a clerkship," he rejoined, as if to settle 1346 | that little item at once. 1347 | 1348 | "How would a bar-tender's business suit you? There is no trying of the 1349 | eyesight in that." 1350 | 1351 | "I would not like it at all; though, as I said before, I am not 1352 | particular." 1353 | 1354 | His unwonted wordiness inspirited me. I returned to the charge. 1355 | 1356 | "Well then, would you like to travel through the country collecting 1357 | bills for the merchants? That would improve your health." 1358 | 1359 | "No, I would prefer to be doing something else." 1360 | 1361 | "How then would going as a companion to Europe, to entertain some young 1362 | gentleman with your conversation,--how would that suit you?" 1363 | 1364 | "Not at all. It does not strike me that there is any thing definite 1365 | about that. I like to be stationary. But I am not particular." 1366 | 1367 | "Stationary you shall be then," I cried, now losing all patience, and 1368 | for the first time in all my exasperating connection with him fairly 1369 | flying into a passion. "If you do not go away from these premises 1370 | before night, I shall feel bound--indeed I _am_ bound--to--to--to quit 1371 | the premises myself!" I rather absurdly concluded, knowing not with 1372 | what possible threat to try to frighten his immobility into compliance. 1373 | Despairing of all further efforts, I was precipitately leaving him, when 1374 | a final thought occurred to me--one which had not been wholly unindulged 1375 | before. 1376 | 1377 | "Bartleby," said I, in the kindest tone I could assume under such 1378 | exciting circumstances, "will you go home with me now--not to my office, 1379 | but my dwelling--and remain there till we can conclude upon some 1380 | convenient arrangement for you at our leisure? Come, let us start now, 1381 | right away." 1382 | 1383 | "No: at present I would prefer not to make any change at all." 1384 | 1385 | I answered nothing; but effectually dodging every one by the suddenness 1386 | and rapidity of my flight, rushed from the building, ran up Wall-street 1387 | towards Broadway, and jumping into the first omnibus was soon removed 1388 | from pursuit. As soon as tranquility returned I distinctly perceived 1389 | that I had now done all that I possibly could, both in respect to the 1390 | demands of the landlord and his tenants, and with regard to my own 1391 | desire and sense of duty, to benefit Bartleby, and shield him from rude 1392 | persecution. I now strove to be entirely care-free and quiescent; and 1393 | my conscience justified me in the attempt; though indeed it was not so 1394 | successful as I could have wished. So fearful was I of being again 1395 | hunted out by the incensed landlord and his exasperated tenants, that, 1396 | surrendering my business to Nippers, for a few days I drove about the 1397 | upper part of the town and through the suburbs, in my rockaway; crossed 1398 | over to Jersey City and Hoboken, and paid fugitive visits to 1399 | Manhattanville and Astoria. In fact I almost lived in my rockaway for 1400 | the time. 1401 | 1402 | When again I entered my office, lo, a note from the landlord lay upon 1403 | the desk. I opened it with trembling hands. It informed me that the 1404 | writer had sent to the police, and had Bartleby removed to the Tombs as 1405 | a vagrant. Moreover, since I knew more about him than any one else, he 1406 | wished me to appear at that place, and make a suitable statement of the 1407 | facts. These tidings had a conflicting effect upon me. At first I was 1408 | indignant; but at last almost approved. The landlord's energetic, 1409 | summary disposition had led him to adopt a procedure which I do not 1410 | think I would have decided upon myself; and yet as a last resort, under 1411 | such peculiar circumstances, it seemed the only plan. 1412 | 1413 | As I afterwards learned, the poor scrivener, when told that he must be 1414 | conducted to the Tombs, offered not the slightest obstacle, but in his 1415 | pale unmoving way, silently acquiesced. 1416 | 1417 | Some of the compassionate and curious bystanders joined the party; and 1418 | headed by one of the constables arm in arm with Bartleby, the silent 1419 | procession filed its way through all the noise, and heat, and joy of the 1420 | roaring thoroughfares at noon. 1421 | 1422 | The same day I received the note I went to the Tombs, or to speak more 1423 | properly, the Halls of Justice. Seeking the right officer, I stated the 1424 | purpose of my call, and was informed that the individual I described was 1425 | indeed within. I then assured the functionary that Bartleby was a 1426 | perfectly honest man, and greatly to be compassionated, however 1427 | unaccountably eccentric. I narrated all I knew, and closed by 1428 | suggesting the idea of letting him remain in as indulgent confinement as 1429 | possible till something less harsh might be done--though indeed I hardly 1430 | knew what. At all events, if nothing else could be decided upon, the 1431 | alms-house must receive him. I then begged to have an interview. 1432 | 1433 | Being under no disgraceful charge, and quite serene and harmless in all 1434 | his ways, they had permitted him freely to wander about the prison, and 1435 | especially in the inclosed grass-platted yard thereof. And so I found 1436 | him there, standing all alone in the quietest of the yards, his face 1437 | towards a high wall, while all around, from the narrow slits of the jail 1438 | windows, I thought I saw peering out upon him the eyes of murderers and 1439 | thieves. 1440 | 1441 | "Bartleby!" 1442 | 1443 | "I know you," he said, without looking round,--"and I want nothing to 1444 | say to you." 1445 | 1446 | "It was not I that brought you here, Bartleby," said I, keenly pained at 1447 | his implied suspicion. "And to you, this should not be so vile a place. 1448 | Nothing reproachful attaches to you by being here. And see, it is not 1449 | so sad a place as one might think. Look, there is the sky, and here is 1450 | the grass." 1451 | 1452 | "I know where I am," he replied, but would say nothing more, and so I 1453 | left him. 1454 | 1455 | As I entered the corridor again, a broad meat-like man, in an apron, 1456 | accosted me, and jerking his thumb over his shoulder said--"Is that your 1457 | friend?" 1458 | 1459 | "Yes." 1460 | 1461 | "Does he want to starve? If he does, let him live on the prison fare, 1462 | that's all." 1463 | 1464 | "Who are you?" asked I, not knowing what to make of such an unofficially 1465 | speaking person in such a place. 1466 | 1467 | "I am the grub-man. Such gentlemen as have friends here, hire me to 1468 | provide them with something good to eat." 1469 | 1470 | "Is this so?" said I, turning to the turnkey. 1471 | 1472 | He said it was. 1473 | 1474 | "Well then," said I, slipping some silver into the grub-man's hands (for 1475 | so they called him). "I want you to give particular attention to my 1476 | friend there; let him have the best dinner you can get. And you must be 1477 | as polite to him as possible." 1478 | 1479 | "Introduce me, will you?" said the grub-man, looking at me with an 1480 | expression which seemed to say he was all impatience for an opportunity 1481 | to give a specimen of his breeding. 1482 | 1483 | Thinking it would prove of benefit to the scrivener, I acquiesced; and 1484 | asking the grub-man his name, went up with him to Bartleby. 1485 | 1486 | "Bartleby, this is Mr. Cutlets; you will find him very useful to you." 1487 | 1488 | "Your sarvant, sir, your sarvant," said the grub-man, making a low 1489 | salutation behind his apron. "Hope you find it pleasant here, 1490 | sir;--spacious grounds--cool apartments, sir--hope you'll stay with us 1491 | some time--try to make it agreeable. May Mrs. Cutlets and I have the 1492 | pleasure of your company to dinner, sir, in Mrs. Cutlets' private room?" 1493 | 1494 | "I prefer not to dine to-day," said Bartleby, turning away. "It would 1495 | disagree with me; I am unused to dinners." So saying he slowly moved to 1496 | the other side of the inclosure, and took up a position fronting the 1497 | dead-wall. 1498 | 1499 | "How's this?" said the grub-man, addressing me with a stare of 1500 | astonishment. "He's odd, aint he?" 1501 | 1502 | "I think he is a little deranged," said I, sadly. 1503 | 1504 | "Deranged? deranged is it? Well now, upon my word, I thought that 1505 | friend of yourn was a gentleman forger; they are always pale and 1506 | genteel-like, them forgers. I can't pity'em--can't help it, sir. Did 1507 | you know Monroe Edwards?" he added touchingly, and paused. Then, laying 1508 | his hand pityingly on my shoulder, sighed, "he died of consumption at 1509 | Sing-Sing. So you weren't acquainted with Monroe?" 1510 | 1511 | "No, I was never socially acquainted with any forgers. But I cannot 1512 | stop longer. Look to my friend yonder. You will not lose by it. I 1513 | will see you again." 1514 | 1515 | Some few days after this, I again obtained admission to the Tombs, and 1516 | went through the corridors in quest of Bartleby; but without finding 1517 | him. 1518 | 1519 | "I saw him coming from his cell not long ago," said a turnkey, "may be 1520 | he's gone to loiter in the yards." 1521 | 1522 | So I went in that direction. 1523 | 1524 | "Are you looking for the silent man?" said another turnkey passing me. 1525 | "Yonder he lies--sleeping in the yard there. 'Tis not twenty minutes 1526 | since I saw him lie down." 1527 | 1528 | The yard was entirely quiet. It was not accessible to the common 1529 | prisoners. The surrounding walls, of amazing thickness, kept off all 1530 | sounds behind them. The Egyptian character of the masonry weighed upon 1531 | me with its gloom. But a soft imprisoned turf grew under foot. The 1532 | heart of the eternal pyramids, it seemed, wherein, by some strange 1533 | magic, through the clefts, grass-seed, dropped by birds, had sprung. 1534 | 1535 | Strangely huddled at the base of the wall, his knees drawn up, and lying 1536 | on his side, his head touching the cold stones, I saw the wasted 1537 | Bartleby. But nothing stirred. I paused; then went close up to him; 1538 | stooped over, and saw that his dim eyes were open; otherwise he seemed 1539 | profoundly sleeping. Something prompted me to touch him. I felt his 1540 | hand, when a tingling shiver ran up my arm and down my spine to my feet. 1541 | 1542 | The round face of the grub-man peered upon me now. "His dinner is 1543 | ready. Won't he dine to-day, either? Or does he live without dining?" 1544 | 1545 | "Lives without dining," said I, and closed his eyes. 1546 | 1547 | "Eh!--He's asleep, aint he?" 1548 | 1549 | "With kings and counselors," murmured I. 1550 | 1551 | * * * * * * * * 1552 | 1553 | There would seem little need for proceeding further in this history. 1554 | Imagination will readily supply the meager recital of poor Bartleby's 1555 | interment. But ere parting with the reader, let me say, that if this 1556 | little narrative has sufficiently interested him, to awaken curiosity as 1557 | to who Bartleby was, and what manner of life he led prior to the present 1558 | narrator's making his acquaintance, I can only reply, that in such 1559 | curiosity I fully share, but am wholly unable to gratify it. Yet here I 1560 | hardly know whether I should divulge one little item of rumor, which 1561 | came to my ear a few months after the scrivener's decease. Upon what 1562 | basis it rested, I could never ascertain; and hence, how true it is I 1563 | cannot now tell. But inasmuch as this vague report has not been without 1564 | certain strange suggestive interest to me, however sad, it may prove the 1565 | same with some others; and so I will briefly mention it. The report was 1566 | this: that Bartleby had been a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter 1567 | Office at Washington, from which he had been suddenly removed by a 1568 | change in the administration. When I think over this rumor, I cannot 1569 | adequately express the emotions which seize me. Dead letters! does it 1570 | not sound like dead men? Conceive a man by nature and misfortune prone 1571 | to a pallid hopelessness, can any business seem more fitted to heighten 1572 | it than that of continually handling these dead letters, and assorting 1573 | them for the flames? For by the cart-load they are annually burned. 1574 | Sometimes from out the folded paper the pale clerk takes a ring:--the 1575 | finger it was meant for, perhaps, moulders in the grave; a bank-note 1576 | sent in swiftest charity:--he whom it would relieve, nor eats nor 1577 | hungers any more; pardon for those who died despairing; hope for those 1578 | who died unhoping; good tidings for those who died stifled by unrelieved 1579 | calamities. On errands of life, these letters speed to death. 1580 | 1581 | Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity! 1582 | 1583 | 1584 | 1585 | 1586 | 1587 | End of Project Gutenberg's Bartleby, The Scrivener, by Herman Melville 1588 | 1589 | *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER *** 1590 | 1591 | ***** This file should be named 11231.txt or 11231.zip ***** 1592 | This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: 1593 | http://www.gutenberg.net/1/1/2/3/11231/ 1594 | 1595 | Produced by Steve J. Nelson and Clara T. 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For 1971 | example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: 1972 | 1973 | http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/2/3/10234 1974 | 1975 | or filename 24689 would be found at: 1976 | http://www.gutenberg.net/2/4/6/8/24689 1977 | 1978 | An alternative method of locating eBooks: 1979 | http://www.gutenberg.net/GUTINDEX.ALL 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /_example/main.go: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | package main 2 | 3 | import ( 4 | "flag" 5 | "io/ioutil" 6 | "log" 7 | 8 | "github.com/sbl/ner" 9 | ) 10 | 11 | func main() { 12 | path := flag.String("model-path", "/usr/local/share/MITIE-models/english/ner_model.dat", "path to mitie model data") 13 | flag.Parse() 14 | 15 | ext, err := ner.NewExtractor(*path) 16 | if err != nil { 17 | log.Fatal(err) 18 | } 19 | defer ext.Free() 20 | 21 | log.Printf("available tags: %+v", ext.Tags()) 22 | 23 | txt, err := ioutil.ReadFile("11231.txt") 24 | if err != nil { 25 | log.Fatal(err) 26 | } 27 | 28 | tokens := ner.Tokenize(string(txt)) 29 | 30 | es, err := ext.Extract(tokens) 31 | if err != nil { 32 | log.Fatal(err) 33 | } 34 | 35 | for _, v := range es { 36 | log.Printf("%+v", v) 37 | } 38 | } 39 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /install-mitie.sh: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | #!/bin/sh 2 | 3 | # install mitie for the CI environment 4 | set -e 5 | 6 | cd /tmp 7 | git clone https://github.com/mit-nlp/MITIE.git 8 | mkdir -p /tmp/mitie/include /tmp/mitie/lib 9 | cd MITIE/mitielib && make && make install INSTALL_PREFIX=/tmp/mitie 10 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /integration_test.go: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | // +build integration 2 | 3 | // Move this out of the main tests to not require the CI to download the 400MB 4 | // model pack. 5 | package ner_test 6 | 7 | import ( 8 | "testing" 9 | 10 | "github.com/sbl/ner" 11 | ) 12 | 13 | const txt = `A Pegasus Airlines plane landed at an Istanbul airport Friday 14 | after a passenger "said that there was a bomb on board" and wanted the plane 15 | to land in Sochi, Russia, the site of the Winter Olympics, said officials with 16 | Turkey's Transportation Ministry. 17 | 18 | Meredith Vieira will become the first woman to host Olympics primetime 19 | coverage on her own when she fills on Friday night for the ailing Bob Costas, 20 | who is battling a continuing eye infection. "It's an honor to fill in for 21 | him," Vieira said on TODAY Friday. "You think about the Olympics, and you 22 | think the athletes and then Bob Costas." "Bob's eye issue has improved but 23 | he's not quite ready to do the show," NBC Olympics Executive Producer Jim Bell 24 | told TODAY.com from Sochi on Thursday. 25 | 26 | From wikipedia we learn that Josiah Franklin's son, Benjamin Franklin was born 27 | in Boston. Since wikipedia allows anyone to edit it, you could change the 28 | entry to say that Philadelphia is the birthplace of Benjamin Franklin. 29 | However, that would be a bad edit since Benjamin Franklin was definitely born 30 | in Boston.` 31 | 32 | func TestSmokeTest(t *testing.T) { 33 | ext, err := ner.NewExtractor("/usr/local/share/MITIE-models/english/ner_model.dat") 34 | if err != nil { 35 | t.Fatal(err) 36 | } 37 | defer ext.Free() 38 | 39 | if want, have := 4, len(ext.Tags()); want != have { 40 | t.Errorf("want: %+v tags, have: %+v", want, have) 41 | } 42 | 43 | tokens := ner.Tokenize(txt) 44 | 45 | es, err := ext.Extract(tokens) 46 | if err != nil { 47 | t.Fatal(err) 48 | } 49 | 50 | if got := es[0].Name; got != "Pegasus Airlines" { 51 | t.Errorf("unexpected token %s", got) 52 | } 53 | } 54 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /ner.go: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | package ner 2 | 3 | /* 4 | #cgo LDFLAGS: -lmitie 5 | 6 | #include 7 | #include 8 | #include "mitie.h" 9 | 10 | static char** ner_arr_make(int size) { 11 | return calloc(sizeof(char*), size); 12 | } 13 | 14 | static void ner_arr_set(char **a, char *s, int n) { 15 | a[n] = s; 16 | } 17 | 18 | static void ner_arr_free(char **a, int size) { 19 | int i; 20 | for (i = 0; i < size; i++) { 21 | free(a[i]); 22 | } 23 | free(a); 24 | } 25 | */ 26 | import "C" 27 | import ( 28 | "errors" 29 | "strings" 30 | "unsafe" 31 | ) 32 | 33 | var ( 34 | // ErrCantOpen is returned by NewExtractor when a language model file can't 35 | // be loaded. 36 | ErrCantOpen = errors.New("Unable to open model file") 37 | // ErrMemory occurs when underlying C structs cannot be allocated. 38 | ErrMemory = errors.New("Could not allocate memory") 39 | ) 40 | 41 | // Tokenize returns a slice that contains a tokenized copy of the input text. 42 | func Tokenize(text string) []string { 43 | cs := C.CString(text) 44 | defer C.free(unsafe.Pointer(cs)) 45 | ctokens := C.mitie_tokenize(cs) 46 | defer C.mitie_free(unsafe.Pointer(ctokens)) 47 | i := 0 48 | // a hack since mitie arrays are NULL terminated. 49 | p := (*[1 << 30]*C.char)(unsafe.Pointer(ctokens)) 50 | tokens := make([]string, 0, 20) 51 | for p[i] != nil { 52 | tokens = append(tokens, C.GoString(p[i])) 53 | i++ 54 | } 55 | return tokens 56 | } 57 | 58 | // Range specifies the position of an Entity within a token slice. 59 | type Range struct { 60 | Start int 61 | End int 62 | } 63 | 64 | // Entity is a detected entity. 65 | type Entity struct { 66 | Score float64 67 | Tag int 68 | TagString string 69 | Name string 70 | Range Range 71 | } 72 | 73 | // Extractor detects entities based on a language model file. 74 | type Extractor struct { 75 | ner *C.mitie_named_entity_extractor 76 | } 77 | 78 | // NewExtractor returns an Extractor given the path to a language model. 79 | func NewExtractor(path string) (*Extractor, error) { 80 | model := C.CString(path) 81 | defer C.free(unsafe.Pointer(model)) 82 | ner := C.mitie_load_named_entity_extractor(model) 83 | if ner == nil { 84 | return nil, ErrCantOpen 85 | } 86 | 87 | return &Extractor{ 88 | ner: ner, 89 | }, nil 90 | } 91 | 92 | // Free frees the underlying used C memory. 93 | func (ext *Extractor) Free() { 94 | C.mitie_free(unsafe.Pointer(ext.ner)) 95 | } 96 | 97 | // Tags returns a slice of Tags that are part of this language model. 98 | // E.g. PERSON or LOCATION, etc… 99 | func (ext *Extractor) Tags() []string { 100 | num := int(C.mitie_get_num_possible_ner_tags(ext.ner)) 101 | tags := make([]string, num, num) 102 | for i := 0; i < num; i++ { 103 | tags[i] = ext.tagString(i) 104 | } 105 | return tags 106 | } 107 | 108 | func (ext *Extractor) tagString(index int) string { 109 | return C.GoString(C.mitie_get_named_entity_tagstr(ext.ner, C.ulong(index))) 110 | } 111 | 112 | // Extract runs the extractor and returns a slice of Entities found in the 113 | // given tokens. 114 | func (ext *Extractor) Extract(tokens []string) ([]Entity, error) { 115 | ctokens := C.ner_arr_make(C.int(len(tokens)) + 1) // NULL termination 116 | defer C.ner_arr_free(ctokens, C.int(len(tokens))+1) 117 | for i, t := range tokens { 118 | cs := C.CString(t) // released by ner_arr_free 119 | C.ner_arr_set(ctokens, cs, C.int(i)) 120 | } 121 | 122 | dets := C.mitie_extract_entities(ext.ner, ctokens) 123 | defer C.mitie_free(unsafe.Pointer(dets)) 124 | if dets == nil { 125 | return nil, ErrMemory 126 | } 127 | 128 | n := int(C.mitie_ner_get_num_detections(dets)) 129 | entities := make([]Entity, n, n) 130 | 131 | for i := 0; i < n; i++ { 132 | pos := int(C.mitie_ner_get_detection_position(dets, C.ulong(i))) 133 | len := int(C.mitie_ner_get_detection_length(dets, C.ulong(i))) 134 | 135 | entities[i] = Entity{ 136 | Tag: int(C.mitie_ner_get_detection_tag(dets, C.ulong(i))), 137 | Score: float64(C.mitie_ner_get_detection_score(dets, C.ulong(i))), 138 | Name: strings.Join(tokens[pos:pos+len], " "), 139 | Range: Range{pos, pos + len}, 140 | } 141 | } 142 | return entities, nil 143 | } 144 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /ner_test.go: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 | package ner_test 2 | 3 | import ( 4 | "testing" 5 | 6 | "github.com/sbl/ner" 7 | ) 8 | 9 | func TestTokenize(t *testing.T) { 10 | txt := "I am a precious snowflake" 11 | ts := ner.Tokenize(txt) 12 | got := len(ts) 13 | if got != 5 { 14 | t.Errorf("Expected 5 tokens, have: %d", got) 15 | } 16 | } 17 | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------