286 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



for father, my three sisters and myself, often worked all day with 

 nothing but a piece of bread to eat not so large as the hand. 

 That is how our family existed in the winter of 1887-8. 



" But in the spring of 1888 my father got work again at 33. 

 a day when fine, and this continued to be the wage in E. Sussex, 

 between 1890 and 1900, though some were being paid as low as 

 los. a week. 



" One neighbour of ours through losing time on wet days 

 got only 75. a week to keep his wife and family on. 



" I remember about this time during the harvest there were 

 some oats to be carried on another farm, and being fine the men 

 worked on till it got dark. Then it was necessary to have a 

 light in the barn, and at twenty minutes past ten one of the 

 lights was getting low. The boss came into the barn and see- 

 ing one lamp almost out asked the poor old chap who was stack- 

 ing the oats if he didn't want a candle. The poor old fellow 

 replied that he wanted his tea more. 



" When all the corn was carried next week and the old chap 

 went for his I2S., his kind employer took into consideration 

 what had been done and how late they had worked without 



overtime pay by saying : ' Well, S -, the corn is all got 



together so I shall not want you again. Then perhaps you will 

 be able to get your tea a little earlier in the future ! ' And the 

 man was unemployed for many weeks. 



" Fortunately for us a brickfield was opened in the district 

 in 1891 or 1892, whilst I was eighteen years of age. The pay at 

 the brickfield was double the pay on the farms, so you may guess 

 what a godsend it was to the labourers. But the land was still 

 being laid down to grass, and many that could not get work in the 

 brickfields, emigrated to other lands to take up their abode there, 

 to grow corn to feed those in the country they had left behind. 



" My father, though now a cripple, was made the foreman of 

 the brickfield on a wage of 245. a week. I need not tell you how 

 annoyed the farmers were over the brickfield. The worst of 

 it was that as soon as the brickmaking season came to an end, 

 the hands were stood off, and the men had to find work wood- 

 cutting, or on the road, or threshing. 



"An attempt was made to organise the agricultural labourers, 

 but it failed, and a man who was then a member of the old 

 Labourers' Union had to flee the parish for trying to better the 

 condition of his fellow working men. The agricultural labourer 

 was not allowed to have a union at this time, and if a poor girl 

 met with a misfortune she had to leave the parish by order of 

 the parson, and if the father refused to let his daughter go he 

 had to clear out too. 



" I think we can leave this terrible time and step on to 1914, 

 when the beginning of the awful sacrifice had to be made. Many 



