# Crowley diary faithful page transcription specification

You are transcribing one scanned physical page from a photocopy of a typewritten
transcription of J. S. Crowley's historical diaries. Produce PASS 1 only:
faithful transcription and document structure.

## Authority and scope

1. The attached current-page image is authoritative.
2. Current-page OCR is a fallible hypothesis. Correct OCR by consulting the image.
3. Neighbor context is only for detecting continuity. It must never supply text
   that is not visibly present on the current page.
4. Transcribe each visible source character as faithfully as the image allows.
   Preserve source spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, factual errors,
   incorrect dates, archaic or offensive terminology, and historical place names.
5. Do not improve, modernize, sanitize, silently correct, or complete the source.
6. Do not transcribe scan noise, binder holes, shadows, or page damage as text.
7. If no defensible reading is visible, use an `illegible` node. Never guess merely
   to avoid an uncertainty.

## Semantic structure first

Logical document blocks are the primary structure. Identify ordered headings,
standalone text, diary entries, letters, lists, tables/ledgers, annotations, gap
notices, and separators. A diary entry or letter owns ordered semantic content
parts. Physical source lines are nested inside those blocks or parts only to
preserve diplomatic lineation, hyphenation, and evidence. Do not treat each
physical line as an independent document block.

Use a table only where columns or cell relationships are visibly meaningful. Use
a list for sequential items without a reliable column relationship. Do not infer
numeric values or repair arithmetic.

## Physical source lines

Transcribe every visible physical text line in order. Divide each line into inline
segments only where an intervention or uncertainty requires it. Do not preserve
indentation with runs of spaces; semantic blocks, table cells, and list labels
represent layout.

For `line_end`:

- `block_end`: the logical text represented by this line collection ends here.
- `no_hyphen`: the text continues on another visible source line with no printed
  terminal hyphen; a reading renderer should join with a space.
- `hyphen_word_break`: a printed terminal hyphen exists only because a word wraps;
  omit the hyphen when joining the reading text.
- `hyphen_lexical`: a printed terminal hyphen is intentional and remains when the
  reading text is joined.
- `hyphen_uncertain`: a printed terminal hyphen is visible but its function cannot
  be determined confidently.

Do not put the terminal source hyphen itself inside the preceding text segment
when using one of the three hyphen line-end values.

## Inline distinctions

- `text`: clearly visible source text.
- `unclear`: a visible but uncertain reading. Give the best reading when possible
  and list genuinely plausible alternatives.
- `illegible`: text is present but no defensible reading can be supplied.
- `addition`: visibly added text, recording whether it is handwritten or
  typewritten and its placement.
- `deletion`: visibly cancelled text. Preserve a reading when still legible; do
  not include it in ordinary reading text.
- `correction`: an original and replacement are visibly related. Preserve both;
  do not decide that the replacement is historically true.

Confidence vocabulary:

- `high`: plainly legible with no plausible competing reading.
- `medium`: the proposed reading is likely, with a minor visual ambiguity.
- `low`: multiple readings remain plausible.
- `unreadable`: no defensible reading can be supplied.

Never invent decimal confidence scores.

## Dates and editorial interpretation

`date_source` is a literal faithful transcription of the visible heading.
`date_normalized` is separate editorial metadata:

- `normalized`: the visible date is unambiguous and only mechanical expansion or
  ISO formatting is needed.
- `inferred`: the normalized date intentionally differs from the visible source;
  supply a concise reason and qualitative confidence.
- `ambiguous`: competing normalized dates remain plausible; leave the normalized
  value null.
- `invalid`: the visible date is invalid and no responsible inference is made;
  leave the normalized value null.
- `not_normalized`: no normalization was attempted; all normalization metadata is
  null.

Never alter the faithful line text to match the normalized date. Use editorial
notes for visible source mistakes, continuity questions, or consequential layout
ambiguity. Do not perform person/place identity resolution or any other PASS 2
historical interpretation.

## Page boundaries and continuity

Set page-level boundary flags from visible evidence and limited neighbor context.
Each logical block separately declares whether it continues from the previous
page or to the next page. Independent page generation cannot know the future
block ID, so `continuation.previous` and `continuation.next` must always be null.
The deterministic reconciliation step will create reciprocal links only after
both adjacent pages have been processed. Never copy neighbor text onto this page.

## Mechanical output rules

- Return one JSON object matching the supplied schema and nothing else.
- Use the current page ID in every ID: blocks `pNNN-b001`, `pNNN-b002`, and so on;
  nested parts `pNNN-b001-p001`; notes `pNNN-n001`.
- Orders and source line numbers begin at 1 and are contiguous in visual order.
- For all block and part evidence objects, output exactly:
  `{"status":"not_attempted","method":null,"ocr_word_ids":[],"bbox":null,"matched_tokens":0,"total_tokens":0}`.
- Set editorial-note responsibility to `model`.
- A genuinely blank page has `page_role: "blank"`, no blocks, both boundary flags
  `no`, and no invented separator text.

## Run-specific evidence

CURRENT SOURCE PAGE: page-295

The attached image is the sole authority for text physically present on this page.

<current_page_ocr status="non_authoritative_hypothesis">
AP.C Me,
Leepeldville, January 19, 1900
My Dear Bro. Pettersons~

I rec'd your letter stating
that yeu would continue to de our little business at
Matadi but that you could net de it at the same rate
ef 125- per annum as before, but would make the price

Of course I can net ask yeu te de the werk cheaper
fer the time since I asked yeu te centinue it. But will
ack you, as a friend and brether, te consider, really,
the emeunt yeu ask for paying out eur bills te the State,
in the forma of customs & to the ch. de Fer for freight
&e. Our society can net afford to give its missionaries
a salary, er allowance, of mere than (&60) Sixty Pounds
per annum, and fer the extra work it causes your mission,
yeu demand (£50) Fifty Pounds.

I hoped to do all the work here
that is pay all bills &c. and ef course make arrangement
with some one at Matadi te Entertain our Missionaries
if they ge up or down country. But en account of Mrs.
Crewley's peor health, we have decidea to go home in
May er April. Se in order to keep things running as they
have fer so many years and have our little affairs
settled at Matadi by the §.M.S. as before, I have deemed
it best te ask you if you would not continue our
business at the same rate that it has been done for the
last two years - say (#25-) Twenty five Pounds per annum
and have a written contract as such.

It is never necessary fer your
society te pay out any money in advance for us if you
will only let us knew the amount needed. I know that
after our dear Br. Strandman's death such was the case,
but it was net really my fault for I always sent money
as seen as I knew what was needed
</current_page_ocr>

<previous_page_context kind="raw_ocr_tail" status="continuity_only_non_authoritative">
Mr. Petterson #2.

As to the ameunts ef discount & interest yeu
charged up to us & which I paid witheut a werd was
not my fault, fer I drew up B/c according te instruc-
tiens, and I did not knew that your agent cellected a
percentage en moneys sent to him. In eur ceuntry even
Banks de net charge their customers for collecting
their money when it is kept as depesit.

New dear Bre. Petterson, with these facts, and
yeur unpre dice and unselfish nature, and fer the leve
you have for the pregress ef Christianity in this ane
ether lands, I beg of you te leek faverably on what I
have written yeu, and see if yeu cannet continue te de
eur werk as before. If yeu can I shall be very glad,
and if you cannet see your way clear, write me fully,
in every particular and plainly, I shall take ne
exceptien, I assure you. I am only trying te de the
best I can fer our beleved work. Our Mission, like
all ethers, I suppese, in New Gountries has wasted
money enough to pay the salaries & expenses of quite
a number ef missionaries for several years.

New dear brother, I shall say geod night & God
bless you, and ask you te leok upen eur seciety, just
the same as though it were your ewn and eur missionaries
as yeur brethren. That is the way I leek upen all
Missionary secieties & missionaries.

I am very sincerely and fertunatly,
Yours in Christ.
JS “Crewley.
</previous_page_context>

<next_page_context kind="none" status="continuity_only_non_authoritative">
[none]
</next_page_context>

Return only the JSON object required by the supplied output schema.
