conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know a plot for a book about Richards, Hadleyburg, Burgess entitled The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg: Chapter I Hadleyburg enjoys the reputation of being an "incorruptible" town known for its responsible, honest people that are trained to avoid temptation.\nHowever, at some point the people of Hadleyburg manage to offend a passing stranger, and he vows to get his revenge by corrupting the town.\nThe stranger\'s plan centers around a sack of gold (worth around $40,000) he drops off in Hadleyburg at the house of mr and mrs Richards, to be given to a man in the town who purportedly gave him some life-changing advice (and 20 dollars in a time of need) long ago.\nTo identify the man, a letter with the sack suggests that anyone who claims to know what the advice was should write the remark down and submit it to Reverend Burgess, who will open the sack at a public meeting and find the actual remark inside.\nNews of the mysterious sack of gold spreads throughout the town and even gains attention across the country.\nChapter II The residents beam with pride as stories of the sack and Hadleyburg\'s honesty spread throughout the nation, but the mood soon changes.\nInitially reluctant to give into the temptation of the gold, soon even the most upstanding citizens are trying to guess the remark.\nmr and mrs Richards, one of the town\'s 19 model couples, receive a letter from a stranger revealing the remark: "You are far from being a bad man: go, and reform".\nmrs Richards is ecstatic that they will be able to claim the gold.\nUnbeknownst to one another, all 19 couples have received exactly the same letter.\nThey submit their claims to Burgess and begin to recklessly purchase things on credit in anticipation of their future wealth.\nChapter III The town hall meeting to decide the rightful owner of the sack arrives, and it is packed with residents, outsiders, and reporters.\nBurgess reads the first two claims, and a dispute quickly arises between two members of the town, "Shadbelly" Billson and Lawyer Wilson.\nBoth of their letters contain nearly the same remark.\nTo settle which is right, Burgess cuts open the sack and finds the note that reveals the full remark: "You are far from being a bad man—go, and reform—or, mark my words—some day, for your sins you will die and go to hell or Hadleyburg—try and make it the former".\nNeither man\'s claim includes the second half of remark.\nThe next claim reads the same, and the town hall bursts into laughter at the obvious dishonesty behind the identical, incorrect claims.\nBurgess continues to read the rest of the claims, all with the same remark, and one by one the prominent couples of the town are publicly shamed.\nmr and mrs Richards await their name with anguish, but surprisingly it is never read.\nWith all the claims presented, another note in the sack is opened.\nIt reveals the stranger\'s plot and his desire for revenge.\nHe says that it was foolish for the citizens of Hadleyburg to always avoid temptation, because it is easy to corrupt those who have never had their resolve tested.\nIt is discovered the sack contains not gold but lead pieces.\nA townsperson proposes to auction the lead off and give the money to the Richardses, the only prominent couple in town that did not have their name read off.\nmr and mrs Richards are in despair, unsure whether to come clean and stop the auction or to accept the money.\nThe stranger who set up the whole scheme in the first place is revealed to have been in the town hall the whole time.\nHe contrives to reward the Richardses for their supposed honesty by buying the sack at auction for its price in gold.\nChapter IV The following day the stranger delivers checks totaling $40,000 to the Richardses.\nThey fret about whether they should burn them.\nA message arrives from Burgess, explaining that he intentionally kept the Richardses\' claim from being read as a way to return an old favor done to him by mr Richards.\nmr and mrs Richards become distraught over their situation.\nThey grow paranoid and start to think Burgess has revealed their dishonesty to other people in the town.\nTheir anxiety causes them both to fall ill and mr Richards confesses their guilt shortly before he and his wife die.\nHadleyburg, with its reputation irreparably damaged, decides to rename itself.\nThe story ends with the line "It is an honest town once more, and the man will have to rise early that catches it napping again".
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: \nHowever, at some point the people of Hadleyburg manage to offend a passing stranger, and he vows to get his revenge by corrupting the town.\nThe stranger\'s plan centers around a sack of gold (worth around $40,000) he drops off in Hadleyburg at the house of mr and mrs Richards, to be given to a man in the town who purportedly gave him some life-changing advice (and 20 dollars in a time of need) long ago.\nTo identify the man, a letter with the sack suggests that anyone who claims to know what the advice was should write the remark down and submit it to Reverend Burgess, who will open the sack at a public meeting and find the actual remark inside.\nNews of the mysterious sack of gold spreads throughout the town and even gains attention across the country.\nChapter II The residents beam with pride as stories of the sack and Hadleyburg\'s honesty spread throughout the nation, but the mood soon changes.\nInitially reluctant to give into the temptation of the gold, soon even the most upstanding citizens are trying to guess the remark.\nmr and mrs Richards, one of the town\'s 19 model couples, receive a letter from a stranger revealing the remark: "You are far from being a bad man: go, and reform".\nmrs Richards is ecstatic that they will be able to claim the gold.\nUnbeknownst to one another, all 19 couples have received exactly the same letter.\nThey submit their claims to Burgess and begin to recklessly purchase things on credit in anticipation of their future wealth.\nChapter III The town hall meeting to decide the rightful owner of the sack arrives, and it is packed with residents, outsiders, and reporters.\nBurgess reads the first two claims, and a dispute quickly arises between two members of the town, "Shadbelly" Billson and Lawyer Wilson.\nBoth of their letters contain nearly the same remark.\nTo settle which is right, Burgess cuts open the sack and finds the note that reveals the full remark: "You are far from being a bad man—go, and reform—or, mark my words—some day, for your sins you will die and go to hell or Hadleyburg—try and make it the former".\nNeither man\'s claim includes the second half of remark.\nThe next claim reads the same, and the town hall bursts into laughter at the obvious dishonesty behind the identical, incorrect claims.\nBurgess continues to read the rest of the claims, all with the same remark, and one by one the prominent couples of the town are publicly shamed.\nmr and mrs Richards await their name with anguish, but surprisingly it is never read.\nWith all the claims presented, another note in the sack is opened.\nIt reveals the stranger\'s plot and his desire for revenge.\nHe says that it was foolish for the citizens of Hadleyburg to always avoid temptation, because it is easy to corrupt those who have never had their resolve tested.\nIt is discovered the sack contains not gold but lead pieces.\nA townsperson proposes to auction the lead off and give the money to the Richardses, the only prominent couple in town that did not have their name read off.\nmr and mrs Richards are in despair, unsure whether to come clean and stop the auction or to accept the money.\nThe stranger who set up the whole scheme in the first place is revealed to have been in the town hall the whole time.\nHe contrives to reward the Richardses for their supposed honesty by buying the sack at auction for its price in gold.\nChapter IV The following day the stranger delivers checks totaling $40,000 to the Richardses.\nThey fret about whether they should burn them.\nA message arrives from Burgess, explaining that he intentionally kept the Richardses\' claim from being read as a way to return an old favor done to him by mr Richards.\nmr and mrs Richards become distraught over their situation.\nThey grow paranoid and start to think Burgess has revealed their dishonesty to other people in the town.\nTheir anxiety causes them both to fall ill and mr Richards confesses their guilt shortly before he and his wife die.\nHadleyburg, with its reputation irreparably damaged, decides to rename itself.\nThe story ends with the line "It is an honest town once more, and the man will have to rise early that catches it napping again".
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
  But he was gone. For only a little while, however. Not far from his own house he met the editor—proprietor of the paper, and gave him the document, and said "Here is a good thing for you, Cox—put it in."
  At home again, he and his wife sat down to talk the charming mystery over; they were in no condition for sleep. The first question was, Who could the citizen have been who gave the stranger the twenty dollars? It seemed a simple one; both answered it in the same breath—
  The husband seemed perplexed for an answer; the wife kept a steady eye upon him, and waited. Finally Richards said, with the hesitancy of one who is making a statement which is likely to encounter doubt,
  Then they took up the gold-sack mystery again, with strong interest. Soon the conversation began to suffer breaks—interruptions caused by absorbed thinkings. The breaks grew more and more frequent. At last Richards lost himself wholly in thought. He sat long, gazing vacantly at the floor, and by-and-by he began to punctuate his thoughts with little nervous movements of his hands that seemed to indicate vexation. Meantime his wife too had relapsed into a thoughtful silence, and her movements were beginning to show a troubled discomfort. Finally Richards got up and strode aimlessly about the room, ploughing his hands through his hair, much as a somnambulist might do who was having a bad dream. Then he seemed to arrive at a definite purpose; and without a word he put on his hat and passed quickly out of the house. His wife sat brooding, with a drawn face, and did not seem to be aware that she was alone. Now and then she murmured, "Lead us not into t... but—but—we are so poor, so poor!... Lead us not into.... Ah, who would be hurt by it?—and no one would ever know.... Lead us..." The voice died out in mumblings. After a little she glanced up and muttered in a half-frightened, half-glad way—
  She turned the light low, and slipped stealthily over and knelt down by the sack and felt of its ridgy sides with her hands, and fondled them lovingly; and there was a gloating light in her poor old eyes. She fell into fits of absence; and came half out of them at times to mutter "If we had only waited!—oh, if we had only waited a little, and not been in such a hurry!"
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know five more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: He took one out of his pocket, opened it, glanced at it, looked surprised and worried, and stood silent a few moments. Then he waved his hand in a wandering and mechanical way, and made an effort or two to say something, then gave it up, despondently. Several voices cried out:
  They obeyed, shaking their heads and grumbling angrily. The house was profoundly puzzled; it did not know what to do with this curious emergency. Presently Thompson got up. Thompson was the hatter. He would have liked to be a Nineteener; but such was not for him; his stock of hats was not considerable enough for the position. He said:
  The tanner got up and interrupted him. The tanner was a disgruntled man; he believed himself entitled to be a Nineteener, but he couldn't get recognition. It made him a little unpleasant in his ways and speech. Said he:
  THE CHAIR "Order! Sit down, if you please—both of you. Neither of the notes has been out of my possession at any moment."
  THE TANNER "Easily. The two have not quoted the remark in exactly the same words. You would have noticed that, if there hadn't been a considerable stretch of time and an exciting quarrel inserted between the two readings."
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Do you know the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: After a day or two it was reported that Mrs. Richards's delirious deliveries were getting to be duplicates of her husband's. Suspicion flamed up into conviction, now, and the town's pride in the purity of its one undiscredited important citizen began to dim down and flicker toward extinction.
  Six days passed, then came more news. The old couple were dying. Richards's mind cleared in his latest hour, and he sent for Burgess. Burgess said:
  Burgess's impassioned protestations fell upon deaf ears; the dying man passed away without knowing that once more he had done poor Burgess a wrong. The old wife died that night.
  The last of the sacred Nineteen had fallen a prey to the fiendish sack; the town was stripped of the last rag of its ancient glory. Its mourning was not showy, but it was deep.
  By act of the Legislature—upon prayer and petition—Hadleyburg was allowed to change its name to (never mind what—I will not give it away), and leave one word out of the motto that for many generations had graced the town's official seal.