Overman

“ An overseer of a foundry, an aged man, with hoary hair, has spent his Sabbaths, for many years, in visiting the prisoners and the afflicted in Manchester New Bailey; not merely advising and comforting, but putting means into their power of regaining the virtue and the peace they had lost; becoming himself their guarantee in obtaining employment, and never deserting those who have once asked help from him. ”

“ I again felt a sort of vague and undefinable apprehension that no good was to grow out of this examination of my person, but a command of our overseer was not to be disobeyed. After looking at my face, with a kind of leer or side glance, one of the gentlemen, who was an entire stranger to me, and whom I had never before seen, said, "Boy, you appear [Pg 235] to live well; how much meat does your master allow you in a week?" ”

“ Sir Knight, I am father of ten of these men and the grandsire of one score and five, and other good fellows I have with me to the tale of ten score and ten, and all these thou wilt make merry by thy presence here to-night. So he brought the Knight and his into the hall, and fair greeting he gave them; and to Osberne, though the land were other and the houses far bigger, for this David was as it were a king of the meadows, it was almost as if he were back at Wethermel, so yeomanly and free seemed all about him. And the folk were a fair folk, the women goodly and the men free and bold. ”

“ A nobility of soldiers cannot keep down a commonalty of shrewd scientific persons. What signifies a pedigree of a hundred links, against a cotton-spinner with steam in his mill; or, against a company of broad-shouldered Liverpool merchants, for whom Stephenson and Brunel are contriving locomotives and a tubular bridge? ”

“ Lightfoot men of Wethermel, here is a job for you: let not one of these men escape from out of the Dale. So they fell to, and hard they worked at it; and so they wrought that they slew them every one. Then Osberne went back to the Lord of Longshaw and said: See, master, it is still a name to conjure with. And now what wilt thou do? Wilt thou gather men in the Dale here? We can find thee a ten score or thereabout of as good men as need be. ”

“ Have you lost confidence in the ability of the King, to take care of and make enjoyable the life of our guests?”
“No, it is not that, oh King,” said the man. “We do not fear for the well-being of the strangers nor do we doubt your power to make all things pleasing for them. Our mission is of a different character; we wish to complain of them.”
“To complain of them,” said Onrai. “What do you mean, man? Have my people then so far forgotten their respect to the King’s wishes as to complain to him of his guests or the guests of the Land of On? ”

“ These gentlemen ride into the field on horseback, without an exception, to my knowledge, armed with pistols, bowie knife, whip, and accompanied by several dogs. They follow, equipped in this fashion, in rear of the slaves, keeping a sharp lookout upon them all. The requisite qualifications in an overseer are utter heartlessness, brutality and cruelty. It is his business to produce large crops, and if that is accomplished, no matter what amount of suffering it may have cost. ”

“ It may do very well for an overseer, a contemptible hireling, to take advantage of fears already in existence, and which his presence has no power to inspire; to swagger about whip in hand, and discourse on the timidity and cowardice of negroes ”

“ Cairness went on, back to the barracks, and sitting at the troop clerk's desk, made a memory sketch of her. It did not by any means satisfy him, but he kept it nevertheless.
That night he sat upon the edge of his bunk, in the darkness, after taps, with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hand, and thought the matter to a conclusion. The conclusion was that he would not reënlist, and the reason for it was the girl he had met on the parade ground. He knew the power that beauty had over him. It was as real, as irresistible, as a physical sensation. ”

“ He seemed rather surprised at my selection, and with a smile which bordered close upon a sneer, bade me report myself — to Mr Stubbs.
An overseer, is regarded in all those parts of slave-holding America, with which I ever became acquainted, very — much in the same light in which people, in countries uncursed — with slavery, look upon a hangman; and as this latter employment, however useful and necessary, has never succeeded in becoming respectable, so the business of an overseer is likely from its nature, always to continue contemptible and degraded. ”

“ Here is an interesting psychological fact: that much as a man dislikes being treated as a slave, yet if he is to be so treated he wants his master to be the most efficient and best-looking master of the lot. I find myself comparing our Captain with this untidy-looking person in the flannel shirt, and having a distinct feeling of pride in the good looks and clean-cut appearance of our master. I know that if I were serving under that flannel-shirted and collarless officer I should have very little respect for myself and none for him. ”

“ Alas, how soon were events to show our young neophyte that intelligence, that tenacity—that patience, ingenuity, courage, force of will—that the most indisputable military qualities may be associated with inhuman, with indeed a devilish perversity! But Ernest did not live long enough to learn all the ripe iniquity of his enemy. ”

“ If those guilds of craft aforesaid should rise up against their King and the tyrants of the Porte, and they sent to thee for help, wouldst thou give them so much help as not to be against them, but let them fight it out and the mightiest to prevail? ”

“ Appointed an overseer—Determine to reform my life, and become a new man—All my good intentions rendered unavailing by an unforeseen and unavoidable misfortune—I become a victim to prejudice, and the depravity of a youth in years, but a veteran in iniquity—I am banished to the coal-river, page 122. ”

“ I had heard tales of overseers, which made me blush to think myself a man, so foully were they pictured, and which, if true, must have made the earth groan to bear such monsters on its surface. I regarded a slave-holder as lost to all the finer feelings of humanity, and an involuntary sympathy for their unfortunate dependants occasioned in me a constant watchfulness over every word, and look, and act, that passed between master or mistress and their slaves. ”

“ Hark ye, ye up-countrymen, if ye do not give up this man, then will we burn your house to the threshold. Yea, said Osberne, ye have all day long to do it in, make no delay therefore. Or did ye ever hear who I am? And they said: Nay, we know not. ”

“ When I arrived at the quarter, whither I repaired, in obedience to the orders I received, I found the overseer with my master's eldest son, and a young white man, who had been employed to repair the cotton-gin, waiting for me. I observed when I came near the overseer, that he looked at me very attentively, and afterwards called my young master aside, and spoke to him in a tone of voice too low to be heard by me. The white gentlemen then mounted their horses, and set off by the road for the cabin of the white man. ”

“ For instance, you have been in England now some eight months, during which time you have revealed an entirely new personality. You seem to have got rid of every one of your bad habits, you drink moderately, as a gentleman should, you have subdued your violent temper, and you have collected around you, where your personality could be the only inducement, friends of distinction and interest. This is not at all what one expected from the Everard Dominey who scuttled out of England a dozen years ago. ”

“ That has befallen me which befalls most men: I have been overcome, and I believe that my foes are hard on my heels. Will they be a many? said Osberne. Not in this first stour, said the Lord. Well, said Osberne, I will go and look to it to get a few men together to show them out of the Dale. So he turned hand in hand with the Lord of Longshaw, and cried out to Stephen the Eater to gather forth; and in an hour or so they had enough men and to spare. ”

“ And a glimpse of one handsome woman, the wife of an agent, reading by an astral lamp in the early evening, has always been remembered by one young girl, who looked forward to the time when she, too, might have a parlor of her own, lighted by an astral lamp!
The second class were the overseers, a sort of gentry, ambitious mill-hands who had worked up from the lowest grade of factory labor; and they usually lived in the end-tenements of the blocks, the short connected rows of houses in which the operatives were boarded. ”

“ At the said house that even they were of one mind to gather a mote there the next morning, and they sent folk that same night to bear the war-arrow to the steads above and below, and all seemed like to go well; and ever Osberne spake his mind without fear or favour to the boldest and wisest that were there. ”

“ Nevertheless, when a slave had nerve enough to go straight to his master, with a well-founded complaint against an overseer, though he might be repelled and have even that of which he complained at the time repeated, and though he might be beaten by his master as well as by the overseer, for his temerity, in the end, the policy of complaining was generally vindicated by the relaxed rigor of the overseer’s treatment. ”

“ The people love their King, oh, Onrai; they feel that he has not sinned but that he is in the meshes of one who would ruin him, and they have decided that the woman and her party should die, and we have come to fulfill this mission.” And the man, as if this declaration ended the matter, stepped down from the rock and commanded the men to don their helmets and again mount. ”

“ This stirred Osberne out of his dream, and he sat down on a stool nearer in than he had been. The Knight cried out: "Ho, dame, I see thou hast one guest, and now here be three more for thee; we have stabled our horses in thy shed already, so thou hast nought to do save getting us our supper: dispatch I bid thee. ”

“ They were arranged and classified by that great law of attraction which determines the sphere and affinities of men and which ordains that men whose malign and brutal propensities preponderate over their moral and intellectual endowments shall naturally fall into the employments which promise the largest gratification to their predominating instincts or propensities. The office of overseer took this raw material of vulgarity and brutality and stamped it as a distinct class in southern life. ”

“ Had the great Overseer of men's destinies not seen fit to guide him to the Frontier, out of reach of demoralising influences, it is doubtful whether he would have escaped the trail of the petticoat, the snare of the grass-widow in determined search of amusement. ”

“ When forms are wrought off, and ordered to be kept standing, they are then considered under the care of the overseer. When they are desired to be cleared away, it is done in equal proportions by the companionship. ”

“ Some of our countrymen who called to see us, en passant, threw out such insinuations, and made such remarks upon our conduct of late, that we were under the most serious apprehensions of being shackled, and on the road to Bitche, before the much-desired hour, eleven at night. “The ——,” says Shakespeare, “fears each bush an officer.” We were well aware that there were several Englishmen employed and paid regularly for conveying the most trivial occurrence that might take place amongst the prisoners to the French general. ”

“ All he said was—when they were carrying him aboard the tug: 'She 's all gone, this time'—speaking of the dam."
He was silent.
The business man challenged him: "Well?"
"Well!" he cried, suddenly, "we 're all hired men, are n't we? Do I work the way I do, for money alone, or out of any loyalty to anybody? Does a soldier, or a clergyman, or a doctor, or an artist? Does even a man like Larsen? Is the world really run by wages—by hire—or by any feudal-system sort of loyalty? ”

“ Like a good many kings and emperors, I have a grand title, but very little real power, which allows me time to amuse myself in my own way. The people of Oz have but one law to obey, which is: 'Behave Yourself,' so it is easy for them to abide by this Law, and you'll notice they behave very well. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII. THE GOODMAN GETS A NEW HIRED MAN.
NOW when he came home to Wethermel he found tidings there, for the goodman had gotten a new hired man, and he showed him to Osberne, who greeted him well: he was a tall man, mild of aspect and speech, flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, and seemed a stark carle. ”

“ Up one goes to the overseer and asks him to help you, giving the other men a side-grin at the same time. He takes it, looks at it, turns it over, and then can’t make anything of it, though he won’t say so; for overseers must of course seem to know everything. ”

“ Bruce.
“Stealing, murder?” asked Onrai.
“Yes, taking from another that which belongs to him, either property or life.”
“These are unknown to us,” said Onrai. “We are all equal; we have the same duties to perform, the same garments to wear, the same things to eat and drink. Why should we take from another that which we have ourselves?” ”

“ Making a virtue of necessity was our best policy. They both agreed that my remarks were just; and I was requested by them to take the old gentleman aside, and make him acquainted with the whole of the circumstances. I accordingly did so, and proved to him by a certificate, [32] which I kept always sewed up in my clothes, that we were British officers. He said it had appeared to him at first sight that we were English prisoners-of-war, who had escaped from the French. ”