- description
- # PICTURE SECOND
RICH MAN’S CRUMBS
## Overview
This is a segment extracted from the novel [Billy Budd and Other Prose Pieces](arke:01KG8AJ7CG8SS24T79X9YN19QH), spanning lines 6514 to 6565 of the source file. The segment is labeled "PICTURE SECOND RICH MAN’S CRUMBS".
## Context
The segment is part of the larger [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection and was extracted from the text file [billy_budd.txt](arke:01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY). It is preceded by the segment [TEMPLE SECOND](arke:01KG8AJVQ8D7NW8GVW8QE4DYG9) and followed by [THE HAPPY FAILURE A STORY OF THE RIVER HUDSON](arke:01KG8AJVQJ7K5P6NXG83S0WJ0N).
## Contents
The segment describes a scene where the narrator witnesses a chaotic event at what appears to be a charitable gathering in London. The poor surge against tables, breaking barriers to get at the remnants of a feast. The narrator's guide leads him through a private door to escape the chaos. The narrator is then put into a hack (carriage) to go home, and reflects on the "noble charities of London" and the "Poor Man’s Pudding" and the "Rich Man’s Crumbs."
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T20:49:31.441Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- PICTURE SECOND
- end_line
- 6565
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:47:42.596Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 6514
- text
- fierce yell, which wafted the banners like a strong gust, and filled the
air with a reek as from sewers. They surged against the tables, broke
through all barriers, and billowed over the hall--their bare tossed arms
like the dashed ribs of a wreck. It seemed to me as if a sudden impotent
fury of fell envy possessed them. That one half-hour’s peep at the mere
remnants of the glories of the Banquets of Kings; the unsatisfying
mouthfuls of disembowelled pasties, plundered pheasants, and half-sacked
jellies, served to remind them of the intrinsic contempt of the alms. In
this sudden mood, or whatever mysterious thing it was that now seized
them, these Lazaruses seemed ready to spew up in repentant scorn the
contumelious crumbs of Dives.
‘This way, this way! stick like a bee to my back,’ intensely whispered
my guide. ‘My friend there has answered my beck, and thrown open yon
private door for us two. Wedge--wedge in--quick--there goes your bunged
hat--never stop for your coat-tail--hit that man--strike him down! hold!
jam! now! now! wrench along for your life! ha! here we breathe freely;
thank God! You faint. Ho!’
‘Never mind. This fresh air revives me.’
I inhaled a few more breaths of it, and felt ready to proceed.
‘And now conduct me, my good friend, by some front passage into
Cheapside, forthwith. I must home.’
‘Not by the side-walk, though. Look at your dress. I must get a hack for
you.’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ said I, ruefully eyeing my tatters, and then
glancing in envy at the close-bodied coat and flat cap of my guide,
which defied all tumblings and tearings.
‘There, now, sir,’ said the honest fellow, as he put me into the hack,
and tucked in me and my rags, ‘when you get back to your own country,
you can say you have witnessed the greatest of all England’s noble
charities. Of course, you will make reasonable allowances for the
unavoidable jam. Good-bye. Mind, Jehu’--addressing the driver on the
box--‘this is a _gentleman_ you carry. He is just from the Guildhall
Charity, which accounts for his appearance. Go on now. London Tavern,
Fleet Street, remember, is the place.’
• • • • • •
‘Now, Heaven in its kind mercy save me from the noble charities of
London,’ sighed I, as that night I lay bruised and battered on my bed;
‘and Heaven save me equally from the “Poor Man’s Pudding” and the “Rich
Man’s Crumbs.”’
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- title
- PICTURE SECOND
RICH MAN’S CRUMBS