rumpled, and their rotten
second-hand misfit clothing saturated with sweat and plastered with
mortar.

Even the assistants in the grocers' and drapers' shops laughed and
ridiculed and pointed the finger of scorn at them as they passed.

The superior classes--those who do nothing--regarded them as a sort of
lower animals. A letter appeared in the Obscurer one week from one of
these well-dressed loafers, complaining of the annoyance caused to the
better-class visitors by workmen walking on the pavement as they passed
along the Grand Parade in the evening on their way home from work, and
suggesting that they should walk in the roadway. When they heard of
the letter a lot of the workmen adopted the suggestion and walked in
the road so as to avoid contaminating the idlers.

This letter was followed by others of a somewhat similar kind, and one
or two written in a patronizing strain in defence of the working
classes by persons who evidently knew nothing about them. There was
also a letter from an individual who signed himself 'Morpheus'
complaining that he was often awakened out of his beauty sleep in the
middle of the night by the clattering noise of the workmen's boots as
they passed his house on their way to work in the morning. 'Morpheus'
wrote that not only did they make a dreadful noise with their horrible
iron-clad boots, but they were in the habit of coughing and spitting a
great deal, which was very unpleasant to hear, and they conversed in
loud tones. Sometimes their conversation was not at all edifying, for
it consisted largely of bad language, which 'Morpheus' assumed to be
attributable to the fact that they were out of temper because they had
to rise so early.

As a rule they worked till half-past five in the evening, and by the
time they reached home it was six o'clock. When they had taken their
evening meal and had a wash it was nearly eight: about nine most of
them went to bed so as to be able to get up about half past four the
next morning to make a cup of tea before leaving home at half past five
to go to work again. Frequently it happened that they had to leave
home earlier than this, because their 'job' was more than half an
hour's walk away. It did not matter how far away the 'job' was from
the shop, the men had to walk to and fro in their own time, for Trades
Union rules were a dead letter in Mugsborough. There were no tram
fares or train fares or walking time allowed for the likes of them.