James Yarlett was worthy of his nickname. He stood six feet four and a
half inches in height, and his girth was proportionate; he had enormous
hands and feet, large features, and a magnificent long dark brown beard;
owing to this beard his necktie was never seen. But the most
magnificent thing about him was his bass voice, acknowledged to be the
finest bass in the town, and one of the finest even in Hanbridge, where,
in his earlier prime, James had lived as a `news comp' on the
"Staffordshire Signal." He was now a `jobbing comp' in Bursley, because
Bursley was his native town and because he preferred jobbing. He made
the fourth and heaviest member of the celebrated Bursley Male Glee
Party, the other three being Arthur Smallrice, an old man with a
striking falsetto voice, Abraham Harracles, and Jos Rawnpike (pronounced
Rampick). These men were accustomed to fame, and Big James was the king
of them, though the mildest. They sang at dinners, free-and-easies,
concerts, and Martinmas tea-meetings. They sang for the glory, and when
there was no demand for their services, they sang to themselves, for the
sake of singing. Each of them was a star in some church or chapel
choir. And except Arthur Smallrice, they all shared a certain
elasticity of religious opinion. Big James, for example, had varied in
ten years from Wesleyan, through Old Church, to Roman Catholic up at
Bleakridge. It all depended on niceties in the treatment accorded to
him, and on the choice of anthems. Moreover, he liked a change.
He was what his superiors called `a very superior man.' Owing to the
more careful enunciation required in singing, he had lost a great deal
of the Five Towns accent, and one cannot be a compositor for a quarter
of a century without insensibly acquiring an education and a store of
knowledge far excelling the ordinary. His manner was gentle, and
perhaps somewhat pompous, as is common with very big men; but you could
never be sure whether an extremely subdued humour did not underlie his
pomposity. He was a bachelor, aged forty-five, and lived quietly with a
married sister at the bottom of Woodisun Bank, near the National
Schools. The wonder was that, with all his advantages, he had not more
deeply impressed himself upon Bursley as an individuality, and not
merely as a voice. But he seemed never to seek to do so. He was
without ambition; and, though curiously careful sometimes about
preserving his own dignity, and beyond question sensitive by
temperament, he showed marked respect, and even humility, to the
worldly-successful. Despite his bigness and simplicity there was
something small about him which came out in odd trifling details. Thus
it was characteristic of Big James to ask Edwin to be waiting for him at
the back gates in Woodisun Bank when he might just as easily have met
him at the side door by the closed shop in Wedgwood Street.
Edwin, who from mere pride had said nothing to his sisters about the
impending visit to the Dragon, was a little surprised and dashed to see
Big James in broadcloth and a high hat; for he had not dreamed of
changing his own everyday suit, nor had it occurred to him that the
Dragon was a temple of ceremoniousness. Big James looked enormous. The
wide lapel of his shining frock-coat was buttoned high up under his
beard and curved downwards for a distance of considerably more than a
yard to his knees: it was a heroic frock-coat. The sleeves were wide,
but narrowing at the wrists, and the white wristbands were very tight.
The trousers fell in ample folds on the uppers of the gigantic boots.
Big James had a way of sticking out his chest and throwing his head back
which would have projected the tip of his beard ten inches forth from
his body, had the beard been stiff; but the soft silkiness of the beard
frustrated this spectacular phenomenon, which would have been very
interesting to witness.
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