When Ike hears a "big woodpecker," the narrator points out that this bird is "called Lord-to-God by Negroes" (192). (On account of their size, both the pileated and the ivory-billed woodpeckers are colloquially called the "Lord God bird." The ivory-billed is - or was; it is commonly believed to be extinct now - the larger of the two.)
In "The Bear" and again in Go Down, Moses, the narrator points out that the "big woodpecker" heard in the woods is "called Lord-to-God by Negroes" (285, 192).
The men who run the company that makes or markets the metal detector work in Saint Louis and do not appear directly in the text. The salesman whom they send to Yoknapatawpha expresses his surprise that they "sent this machine out without any down payment" (78).
The men who run the company that makes or markets the metal detector Lucas orders work in "St. Louis" (spelled that way in "Gold Is Not Always," 228, but inaccurately as "Saint Louis" in Go Down, Moses, 79) do not appear directly in the text. The salesman whom they send to Yoknapatawpha gives us a good idea of their strictly capitalist ethic when he expresses disbelief that these executives would "send this machine out without any down payment" (228, 78).
In "A Point of Law" and again in Go Down, Moses, Lucas Beauchamp compares George Wilkins favorably as a son-in-law to "the other buck niggers" in his neighborhood (213; in the novel this phrase is revised to "nigger bucks," 34). By these offensive terms Lucas refers to other eligible young black males who live nearby. The racist stereotype that, for good reason, we now hear in those terms would not have been felt or meant by Lucas.
In "A Point of Law" and again in Go Down, Moses the "United States Attorney" who is present during Judge Gowan's hearing on the case against Lucas and George is an outsider who "moved to Jefferson only after the administration changed eight years ago" (222, 70). This probably makes him an appointee of President Franklin Roosevelt, though that is not said explicitly. He is described as both "angry-looking" (221, 70) and "angry" (222, 71). Secure in his local knowledge and authority, Judge Gowan ignores his one exasperated but uncompleted remark.
The crowd outside the courthouse in "A Point of Law" includes "other tenants" from the McCaslin-Edmonds place (221). When Faulkner included this scene in Go Down, Moses, he revised the description to read "other people" rather than "tenants" (69). In both texts these poor Negroes are contrasted with the powerful white men on the scene.
The people whom Lucas Beauchamp thinks of as his "established trade, his old regular clientele," the men who buy the moonshine whiskey he makes, are not described (35). But given the way moonshine is bought and consumed throughout Faulkner's fiction, it is probably safe to assume they are males of both races and from various levels of Yoknapatawpha society.
The "regular customers" for Lucas Beauchamp's moonshine - whom he thinks of in "A Point of Law" as his "established clientele" (213-14) and in Go Down, Moses as his "established trade" (35) - are not described in either text. It can safely be assumed from the other fictions that all are male. And given the way moonshine is bought and consumed throughout Faulkner's fiction, it is probably safe to assume they are of both races and from various levels of Yoknapatawpha society.
