OF DURHAM AND NORTHUMBERLAND. 203 
should you find yourself in a house with nothing to observe but 
bare walls, disorder, filth, and scanty furniture, you are not to 
suppose that the owner has no weakness—his has degenerated 
into vice or crime, and in all probability you are in the cottage 
not of the habitual drunkard, but of the gambler or the poacher. 
But, no matter what the failing or weakness of the pitman may 
be, if he is to enjoy the privilege of living in a pit village, he 
must work. He enjoys all the advantages of a despotic power 
and a monarchical government, and he must not only work, but 
he must perform that portion of work assigned to him. There 
is no branch of industry carried on with more system and 
regularity than coal mining. Officials and men have each their 
distinct duty, clear and unmistakeable. They rank much in the 
following order:—-Viewer, under-viewer, overman, back overman, 
deputy, hewers, “off-handed men,” putters, drivers, and boys. 
The viewer is supreme, and the under-viewer sees that his orders 
are carried into effect. The duties of the overman consist in 
visiting the workings every morning, receiving the reports from 
the deputies, making observations on the air currents, and general 
management of the underground work. To his office is sent an 
account of all the work done in the pit, and on the Wednesday 
before the “ pay” (which is every alternate Friday afternoon), the 
overman “reckons” with the men, 7.e. he compares the account 
received of their work with that kept by themselves. The back 
overman superintends the management of the pit from the time 
the overman leaves until five o’clock in the evening, when the 
pit is said to “loose” or stop work. The “caller,” who is a 
man appointed to rouse the men in the morning, makes his first 
round at half-past twelve, and knocks at all the doors with D 
chalked on them. Those are the deputies’ houses; they go to 
work an hour before the hewers. . Their work consists of sup- 
porting the roof with props of wood, removing props from old 
workings, changing the air currents when necessary, and clearing, 
away any sudden eruption of gas or fall of stone that might 
impede the work of the hewer. 
The coal in some parts of the pit is softer and more easily 
wrought than in others, and to prevent quarrelling and partiality 
Z 
