than twenty of these get engaged. They are taken on by a foreman who
appears next the barrier and proceeds to pick his men. No sooner is
the foreman seen, than there is a wild rush to the spot and a sharp mad
fight to "catch his eye." The men picked out, pass the barrier, and the
excitement dies away until another lot of men are wanted.

They wait until eight o'clock strikes, which is the signal to withdraw.
The barrier is taken down and all those hundreds of men, wearily
disperse to "find a job." Five hundred applicants, twenty acceptances!
No wonder one tired-out looking individual ejaculates, "Oh dear,
Oh dear! Whatever shall I do?" A few hang about until mid-day on the
slender chance of getting taken on then for half a day.

Ask the men and they will tell you something like the following story,
which gives the simple experiences of a dock labourer.

R. P. said: --"I was in regular work at the South West India Dock
before the strike. We got 5d. an hour. Start work 8 a.m. summer and
9 a.m winter. Often there would be five hundred go, and only twenty
get taken on (that is besides those engaged the night previous.)
The foreman stood in his box, and called out the men he wanted.
He would know quite five hundred by name. It was a regular fight to
get work, I have known nine hundred to be taken on, but there's always
hundreds turned away. You see they get to know when ships come in, and
when they're consequently likely to be wanted, and turn up then in
greater numbers. I would earn 30s. a week sometimes and then perhaps
nothing for a fortnight. That's what makes it so hard. You get
nothing to eat for a week scarcely, and then when you get taken on, you
are so weak that you can't do it properly. I've stood in the crowd at
the gate and had to go away without work, hundreds of times. Still I