That was why they had chosen to ride in Nimrod's brake - because they wished to chum up with him as much as possible, in order to increase their chances of being kept on in preference to others who were not so respectable.
Some of these poor creatures had very large heads, but a close examination would have shown that the size was due to the extraordinary thickness of the bones.The cavity of the skull was not so large as the outward appearance of the head would have led a casual observer to suppose, and even in those instances where the brain was of a fair size, it was of inferior quality, being coarse in texture and to a great extent composed of fat.
Although most of them were regular attendants at some place of so-called worship, they were not all teetotallers, and some of them were now in different stages of intoxication, not because they had had a great deal to drink, but because - being usually abstemious - it did not take very much to make them drunk.
From time to time this miserable crew tried to enliven the journey by singing, but as most of them only knew odd choruses it did not come to much.As for the few who did happen to know all the words of a song, they either had no voices or were not inclined to sing.The most successful contribution was that of the religious maniac, who sang several hymns, the choruses being joined in by everybody, both drunk and sober.
The strains of these hymns, wafted back through the balmy air to the last coach, were the cause of much hilarity to its occupants who also sang the choruses.As they had all been brought up under `Christian'
influences and educated in `Christian' schools, they all knew the words: `Work, for the night is coming', `Turn poor Sinner and escape Eternal Fire', `Pull for the Shore' and `Where is my Wandering Boy?'
The last reminded Harlow of a song he knew nearly all the words of, `Take the news to Mother', the singing of which was much appreciated by all present and when it was finished they sang it all over again, Philpot being so affected that he actually shed tears; and Easton confided to Owen that there was no getting away from the fact that a boy's best friend is his mother.
In this last carriage, as in the other two, there were several men who were more or less intoxicated and for the same reason - because not being used to taking much liquor, the few extra glasses they had drunk had got into their heads.They were as sober a lot of fellows as need be at ordinary times, and they had flocked together in this brake because they were all of about the same character - not tame, contented imbeciles like most of those in Misery's carnage, but men something like Harlow, who, although dissatisfied with their condition, doggedly continued the hopeless, weary struggle against their fate.
They were not teetotallers and they never went to either church or chapel, but they spent little in drink or on any form of enjoyment -an occasional glass of beer or a still rarer visit to a music-hall and now and then an outing more or less similar to this being the sum total of their pleasures.
These four brakes might fitly be regarded as so many travelling lunatic asylums, the inmates of each exhibiting different degrees and forms of mental disorder.
The occupants of the first - Rushton, Didlum and Co.- might be classed as criminal lunatics who injured others as well as themselves.
In a properly constituted system of society such men as these would be regarded as a danger to the community, and would be placed under such restraint as would effectually prevent them from harming themselves or others.These wretches had abandoned every thought and thing that tends to the elevation of humanity.They had given up everything that makes life good and beautiful, in order to carry on a mad struggle to acquire money which they would never be sufficiently cultured to properly enjoy.Deaf and blind to every other consideration, to this end they had degraded their intellects by concentrating them upon the minutest details of expense and profit, and for their reward they raked in their harvest of muck and lucre along with the hatred and curses of those they injured in the process.They knew that the money they accumulated was foul with the sweat of their brother men, and wet with the tears of little children, but they were deaf and blind and callous to the consequences of their greed.Devoid of every ennobling thought or aspiration, they grovelled on the filthy ground, tearing up the flowers to get at the worms.
In the coach presided over by Crass, Bill Bates, the Semi-drunk and the other two or three habitual boozers were all men who had been driven mad by their environment.At one time most of them had been fellows like Harlow, working early and late whenever they got the chance, only to see their earnings swallowed up in a few minutes every Saturday by the landlord and all the other host of harpies and profitmongers, who were waiting to demand it as soon as it was earned.
In the years that were gone, most of these men used to take all their money home religiously every Saturday and give it to the `old girl'
for the house, and then, lo and behold, in a moment, yea, even in the twinkling of an eye, it was all gone! Melted away like snow in the sun! and nothing to show for it except an insufficiency of the bare necessaries of life! But after a time they had become heartbroken and sick and tired of that sort of thing.They hankered after a little pleasure, a little excitement, a little fun, and they found that it was possible to buy something like those in quart pots at the pub.
They knew they were not the genuine articles, but they were better than nothing at all, and so they gave up the practice of giving all their money to the old girl to give to the landlord and the other harpies, and bought beer with some of it instead; and after a time their minds became so disordered from drinking so much of this beer, that they cared nothing whether the rent was paid or not.They cared but little whether the old girl and the children had food or clothes.