A SPECIMEN DAY
BY A " DRAPER'S LABOURER."
[In response to requests we have decided to publish a few of the articles, describing a characteristic day's work or experience,which were sent in for a recent competition in the Spectator.] MY day commences with a struggle to get out of bed at 7 o'clock, a hasty breakfast, and a sprint for the 7.50 train. In the train I read a chapter of my book or snatches of news from the morning papers of my fellow-travellers. Although the House does not commence work until 8.45, I am forced by an awkward train service to arrive at 8.15.
The department is in the basement and heavily stocked with carpets, linoleum, rugs and such household goods as sheets and sheeting, blankets, towels, linens. As soon as I arrive I don my khaki overall (or " cowgown " as it is usually called) and before anyone else has arrived I have done some dusting, changed the dates on the calendars and opened the goods chute connecting us with the yard above. At 8.45 a.m. the cry is " Wrappers off ! " and the mounds of stock are relieved of their dust sheets.
My first job is to help " enter " and roughly pack the morning's post and travellers' orden—the preliminaries to the invoicing and packing which are carried out in the upper regions. This is usually finished by 9.15. My next job is to see that the blanket " squad " is in order. This means that the selling or " forward " stock must be made up to the minimum 600 pairs of assorted prices and sizes and that the gaps made by the previous day's sales are filled up from " reserve " stock of forty or fifty bales. The reserve bales are stacked roughly three bales by four bales, and three or four bales deep, and a chart is kept enabling me to find immediately where any particular bale is situated. Each bale contains from thirty to forty pairs and weighs about one and a half or two cwts. Often the bale that is wanted is against the wall and has several bales on top of it, and so for half an hour or so three of us heave and haul until the sweat is flowing freely.
By the time the stock is in order there are plenty of customers about, and as they are buying goods which they have to sell again they are very particular what they buk. Everyone is in a hurry and the time simply flies till 12.30 when, having brushed off the dust and grime, I go up to our own restaurant to have dinner with the first " party " of the salesmen and buyers who live in, i.e., have dinner and tea as part of their salary.
After dinner I go out for a stroll round the City, and realize for the first time that, perhaps, the sun is shining. I wonder how many people work all day by artificial light in a dusty underground compartment, handling two cwt. bales, and sixty lb. bundles of sheets, hurling about carpets and rugs, heaving pieces of lino !
Back to work at 1.30, and if it is the shopkeepers' half- day I know I shall be lucky to see daylight and breathe fresh air before 7.30 p.m. ! For the rest of the day there isn't a second's respite ! There are customers to be served and parcels to be " entered " for invoicing and sent, roughly packed, into the despatch rooms. Eager buyers, all in a hurry, hem you in, and you catch sight of a. grin on all the fellows' faces as you dash off to heave linos about for an elderly lady who doesn't know 'itut what she wants. All the goods are in bundles, or dozens, and so plenty of strength is required. To move a piece of lino five yards would make anyone pant, and to throw .back a bed of sixty or seventy carpets seven or eight times during the afternoon makes me glad that I am a " rugger " forward and sound of wind and limb. In- variably when the rush is thickest, there comes a hail from the chute, Blankets ! Blankets ! twenty-five bales " and for an hour I sweat and heave until they are safely stacked, and their positions marked on my chart.
At 5 p.m. the House closes and we are left in compara- tive peace to dispose of the sales—now scattered high and low in all directions—each bearing the owner's account number. As soon as all the linos and staircarpets have been cut, and every parcel has left the department the stock is straightened; the dust sheets are put on all the light Stuff—" Good-night all ! "—a final burst through roaring traffic and I am asleep in the homeward bound train !
The time I arrive home may be anything froin six until 10.30, but supper is soon over and at last I can stretch my weary limbs in the cool sheets and sleep the sleep of exhaustion.
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