- description
- # Wife's Campaign Involving Mr. Scribe
## Overview
This is a segment extracted from the short story [I and My Chimney](arke:01KG8AJ72QDX8N8STJ3550X2NW) by Herman Melville. It is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The segment, titled "Wife's Campaign Involving Mr. Scribe," spans lines 908-926 of the source file [i_and_my_chimney.txt](arke:01KG89J1H4TA19251AXAPE3ZWC). It was extracted on January 30, 2026.
## Context
This segment is situated within a series of segments that make up the short story [I and My Chimney](arke:01KG8AJ72QDX8N8STJ3550X2NW). It follows the segment [Narrator's Resolve and Initial Action](arke:01KG8AJNY3626TFK37DMQG9GV3) and precedes the segment [Wife's Tactics and Dialogue](arke:01KG8AJNY3GGZET8W2P0KPKK81).
## Contents
The segment contains a letter written by the narrator and his chimney in response to a conjecture from "Mr. Scribe." Following the letter, the narrator describes his wife's reaction to the note and her attempts to persuade him regarding a "statute placing the keeping in private houses of secret closets on the same unlawful footing with the keeping of gunpowder," in an effort to get him to remove the chimney.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:03.698Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- Wife's Campaign Involving Mr. Scribe
- end_line
- 926
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:36.358Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 908
- text
- _Mr. Scribe._
SIR:—For your conjecture, we return you our joint thanks and
compliments, and beg leave to assure you, that
We shall remain,
Very faithfully,
The same,
I AND MY CHIMNEY.
Of course, for this epistle we had to endure some pretty sharp raps.
But having at last explicitly understood from me that Mr. Scribe’s note
had not altered my mind one jot, my wife, to move me, among other
things said, that if she remembered aright, there was a statute placing
the keeping in private houses of secret closets on the same unlawful
footing with the keeping of gunpowder. But it had no effect.
- title
- Wife's Campaign Involving Mr. Scribe