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956 THE LEADER [Saturday
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LETTERS ©F A VAGABOND. XVII. Seven Hill ...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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"Mr G Arnet Caster. Age? Fifty-Four. Avh...
I would have sold my uncle—O , damn !—juck ! juck ! Me cuss ! Well , dat ' s bad . I ' m always forgetting his Maker ! " Had we a god on the Gold Coast ? Well , not a god ' xactly . We ' specks something stronger than ourselves , but don't know for certain . Neber thought much of him . When him weather long-dry and hot , hot , make a kind of prayers to him for rain . —Answer us ? No ; neber answer us , that we know : but 'specks that ' s , the way with him . Been a Christian twenty years , and prayed thousand times—neber he ' erd me once !—juck i juck ! Parson says lie hears me his own way . Like him hear me my way sometimes .
How long a slave ? Nine year in Jamaica ; dey make a flunkey ob me , and I hab fine livery . At last , master come to B—— in England . Calculates I—I'll bolt . Came to IN ——; saw—not saw but heerd—50 J . Coster ! So calculates I—fact I became a militiaman—juck ! juck 1 Guess he no catch me den . Catch me—militiaman ? No ; king ' s servant—servant to de country . Catch Coster—juck ! Him go home to Jamaica , minus Coster—juck I " My brother ?—never heerd o ' m to this day . Isn't it awful ? Often think what my uncle sell me for ; but all white man ' s fault ; no white man buy , no black man sell . ¦
*'• Better in N than on Gold coast ? Well , not sure ; parson saya nothing can compare with de blessed light . Now , parson say , too , him ' s judged by his priveledges ; now , priveledges no a damn on de Gold Coastjuck 1 juck I What liim be judged by ? Isn't it awful ? Here hab ebery privilege , and no use ; and he judge by what be ob no use ! Isn't it awful ? I lib alone , and often think of this ; I say to myself , * Coster , make use ob de priviledges . ' Den sit down and smoke all alone , and say to myself , * Coster , you hab a black skin , and a black eye , and black hair ; you hab a black heart , too '—see it in the blessed light . Den I smoke , forget it all , and sleep : and rise , and get a job , and its old Coster wid de black heart
right-on . Isn ' t it awful ? " When I hear of Saviour ? In the militia ; dere I swear in by him . Often swore by God in Jamaica—wonder what God mean . Master swear by God . —' Goddamn ! ' I think it be English language . No hab idea of Maker in it , till in the militia . Was baptized in de militia . I now no serve my Maker half—not half ! Isn't it awful ? Trying always , too , when I think of it . Gf-uess we'll all come to de scratch someday—no shirking it ! Dere will be Massa Brown from Jamaica — dere my uncle — dere my brother — dere the parson—dere me — dere you . Isn't . it awful ? All at de scratch , punctual by be great clock !—juck ! juck ! 'Specks it won't do to say , * Please , Sir , I overslept myself !! ! ' Isn't it awful ?
" What I think of de white man ? Well , hard's to say . Maker show partiality to white man . Often say to myself , ' Coster , what for de Maker tell de joyful tidings to de white man , and not a word to de black ? Why de loud voice in Europe , and not a whisper on de Gold Coast ? Often think that no fair . Parson—I ask de parson—parson say , « dis is de inscrutable way , '—says , am de vain , presumptible nigger , with de black heart ; and say , * what for him pry where dere be no light V " But what I think of de white man ? Like him—look nicer than de nigger—but him hab de worse nature . Know dere be in . N uncles would sell dere friends—anything for money . Isn't it awful ? Dey lie , dey steal , dey cheat , dey sing , dey precach , dey pray , dey make de slave , dey go in him passion , dey lie in de name of dere Maker , dey screw the poor , and kill him rich ; dey break de houses # pen , dey make de wars—all for de money ! Den '— Here Coster had to leave on an errand , and the conversation dropped . *
"Mr G Arnet Caster. Age? Fifty-Four. Avh...
* Tlict fnrn ( iin is a n > i > ort of un actual convorjtutioii hold with a Nc ^ ro , nnd tho co rroqioiidcul to whom wo « ro indebted for it guuruutuos it us n faithful report . —Kv .
956 The Leader [Saturday
956 THE LEADER [ Saturday
Letters ©F A Vagabond. Xvii. Seven Hill ...
LETTERS © F A VAGABOND . XVII . Seven Hill a , April 27 th , ] 8 G 3 . MMNCE I lust wrote , my dear friends , we have had abso-!! w 1 lutcly no cvcnts > an < * tllG object of our coming- down here (?| 2 m > appears to have been at last attained . At least , so far as tfMS { t c : m *> o in England . But here , where tlio machinery of life exceeds , in the attention of the living HJb itself , repose seems absolutely impossible . Of us all , there are but two , perhaps , that repose— -Walter and Margaret ; the two whoso condition most nearly approaches to what it might he in Valperduta .- For what
is there to harass Walter ' s mind ho . vmul tl »<* tWA + i 1 ; , ™ i , ; ,. i , ,. ™« is there to harass Walters mind beyond the two things which completely fill it—art and love ; what to divert Margaret from that settled purpose which is to be soon in all . she docs , although sho never alludes to it ? To them the day breaks to a round of labour , ami of loving leisure , and sinks to a twilight of thought and converse ,, and a uiglit of repose ; each hour satisfied with itself . This is true life . Sho ^ is rapidly recovering her full health , and , with the rounded outline of a Cybelo , sho dovelopos a voice as deep and full as her own eyes .
Ed ward es and Con way both typify the great unrest of Krwland " the transition state , " as they call it , when they desire to excuse their acquiescence in tin worth , and their own wild fancies . Ywoiilt is resting with a suspended mind—I can seo in her eye the postponed question . The great Markham plots his Napoleonic schemes of trade in the intervals of talk ; and Julie rests as the light rests on water . For my own part , I shall not again know roposc until I am once more in Valperduta .
It is not that trouble keeps mo in unrest—for trouble , dear friends I have known—and you . But I reniomber when last wo I > eat out the corn from the car in tho orange-house—with the primitive tools which would so arnuso our now English philosophic farmers ; 1 remember luisHing that fourth one , wlio used to do a larger share of duty than any of uh ¦ I remember in tho heat of the day lying down to vv . nt
where the creeping sun seized me by the feet as I lay still , half remem bering , half listening to the intense , brazen fervour of the inset atmosphere , conscious how the sun was scorching my bare ancles i too drowsy to move—remembering , suffering life , yet . absolutely re posing . ^ There is no such rest here—Markham would be enterprisin or casting up his accounts ; Edwardes would rise to ascertain t \ F species of mantis that" had strayed into his hair ; Con way would h ° reconciling his convictions and his conduct ; Yseult her divine sen ° which seeks truth by the direct path , with her experiences and h ^ suspicions . Yet , I say , there would be repose , for-Walter ' has-to * much of the great spirit of art in him to supersede life by labour- ^ which is execution without inception ; and with Margaret repose is absolute as action . s
Still we have had at least physical rest—suspense of compelled action . We have been able to watch the passing day , and to be wit nesses of the daily duty of the plants which toil not , neither do thev spin . ¦ . ' J " Nor yet , " said Markham , "do they pay poor-rates ; " for I had attempted to silence his obtrusive commerce by holding up to him the example of a young acacia , which did its mission most perfectly without spoiling its digestion by thoughts of business . " But you are mistaken , " said Edwardes , " if you suppose that the tree itself is absolutely quiescent at any time—at least not at this season . To say nothing of the circulation of the sap , the leaves —"
" And doesn ' t your sap circulate , Mr . Edwardes / ' asked Julie " without your telling it , or taking thought for it ? " ' What is it , Elena , which makes us men know so much pleasure in witnessing the exercise of power in women , especially when it is conscious ? I could draw you a useful contrast between the three women of our party , or between them and you , and show you the same truth in all its forms , never failing of the test . Here is Julie—is she lovely , or is she not ? I cannot f . pll . At .. all pvptits Kri ^ lit OD o c ^« :. ~ . ' or is she not ? I cannot tell . At all eventsbriht as spring
, , g a morn and to all of us seen in a different light . As a brother , I am proud to see how her pretty audacity compels a willing submission . Edwardes doats upon all she does in an undisguised , disinterested admiration ; Markham is as proud of his own slavery as if it were his most unmixed success , and often leaves her " quiproquos" unretorted , through sheer , gaping delight . To Walter she is but a " subject , " and yet he shows for her that affection which the true artist always feels for a perfect type . Were she , indeed , tyrannical or unkind , she would abate her
power ; but her caprices are seized as opportunities which her servants delight to enjoy . Margaret—as different from Julie as the purple grapola hanging darkly under its broad leaf from the bright , light , white-and-red cherry dancing in a gusty sunlight—who so seldom speaks , speaks the more seldom because each one of us anticipates the wish of her very eye . This I understand . There is something so perfectly simple in all she does , that it is as a final truth . Whether it is her love for Walter , her love , deep and reverential almost , yet so strangely protecting towards Yseult : or her frank friendship for the rest of us , her motives , her acts , her language , her aspect , are as plain and direct as the movements of the elements . When she speaks , I believe they all feel , as I do , that although her words do not labour out her intent , there is no more than that which sho . desires to
understand—no reservation , no after-thought . As for Yseult , I can speak less critically . There is none of Julie ' s unstudied coquetry about her—not a trace ; far less of Margaret ' s grave self-possession ; infinitely more of emotion , wlaeh will not be concealed , although it tries to disguise itself . Perhaps , universally , a respect is shown to'her more solicitous , more tender , than to cither of tho other two . How anarchical must ho tho state of society which places perplexity athwart the path of such a woman I It is thoughts such as these that keop me from repose , and in ono way or other they corao out . Depraved by long absence from Valperduta , I have fallen into the incessant critical habit of " thinking " men in this unhappy land .
"It is , ' said Con way , " not tho fault of society that we aro in tho disturbed condition of our transition state , but tho impatience of reformers . They tear open tho rosebud , and it will not bloom for tliem . " " They cut tho flower from its stalk , " I said , " to put it in bouquets and jars , and it withers . "
" bay rather , " said Edwardes , "that they do not study tho scionco of culture—< lo not calculate the laws , or live upon system . " " As tho flowers do J" < 51 . j 0 ( l Jnlio . " As tho ilowors do , " retorted Edwardes , doggedly . .. "How well he knows 1 Ho . speaks with all tho sa' -c oxporieuco of a cabbage ! " . * ° l
Mlwardcfl is right , * « aid Con way ; " wo must study the laws ami ivo by system ; and till we do wo Khali never attain to happy lift- ' " And m tho nioanwhilo T I asked . "In the ineanwhijo , I supposo / ' said Stanhope , "lifo is to ho suspended . " I fear so , " said Conway , with that melancholy that never failed to mloct othors . " Why then , " cried Julie , « we had bettor not bo , until Mr . Couway and tho gentlemen of snapomlecl animation have settled tho laws upon Which we are to live . 1 declino to exist upon those tonne of annihilation . " *¦
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 1, 1853, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01101853/page/20/
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