Details
Even more essential to the development of the plot than Simeon Toy is the 60-year-old William Philp, invariably referred to simply as Philp. It is Toy who sums him up: ‘Philp don’t mean any harm: he just makes mischief like a bee making honey.’ (p. 99). Yet he makes mischief for the good and bad alike and is not unpopular.
We first meet Philp at the barber’s shop in Chapter II, having just come from the post office where he has been reading the postcards and conversing with the postmistress. He informs the company of the imminent arrival of Captain Tobias Hunken and the cost of leasing one and two Harbour Terrace as £25 per annum. This leads Toy into his disquisition on the death of Farmer Bosenna and the origin of his widow. Between Toy and Philp the reader receives the necessary background for the rest of the novel.
Philp is the one person Rogers fears. It is Philp who suspects that Rogers fails to give full weight in coal; and Philp’s election to the School Board might threaten Rogers’ coal contract, an election Philp is popular enough to effect. Philp is a gossip but an honest one. He is honest enough to intuitively see through the chandler, as does Toy. This leads to the confrontation of Rogers and Philp in Chapter XVII, when Hunken and the reader perceive the nature of Rogers’ deceitfulness.
The antagonism between Philp and Rogers is the reason why Rogers wants to manipulate Hocken onto the School Board without an election. The antagonism between Philp and Rogers becomes the same between Hunkin and Philp when Rogers informs Hunken of a report of the ploughing contest between himself and Hocken at the Agricultural Demonstration as reported by Philp and written up by Shake Benny in the local newspaper.
Philp’s last contribution to the plot is to announce, at the conclusion of the Passage Regatta, the loss of the Saltypool 50 miles from Philadelphia and the second stroke suffered by Rogers as a result. He later provides the information that the Saltypool was uninsured and therefore a total loss to all who had invested in her.