94 PRODUCTION UNDER GLASS 



ments are being forwarded, and the number of packages 

 each dealer is to receive from such station. These 

 telegrams are collated, and the railway officials learn 

 from them the exact number of packages the various 

 dealers at Covent Garden, Spitalfields, and the Borough 

 Market are to receive by the incoming train. The 

 railway company's servants can thus at once complete 

 the arrangements for delivery, which is included in the 

 rates charged. They know, approximately, how many 

 vans or carts (generally from fifteen to twenty-five) will 

 be required, and, if there should not be enough of the 

 company's own vehicles available, instructions are sent 

 over the telephone to a contractor to supply the addi- 

 tional number wanted. Arrangements are also made 

 with a view to having sufficient men on duty to unload 

 the railway-waggons, load up the delivery-vans, and 

 despatch these to their destination, within from forty 

 minutes to (at the outside) one hour of the arrival of 

 the train at London Bridge. This means that, in the 

 proportion of two men for each 300 packages, from 

 fifteen to thirty dock labourers are engaged by the rail- 

 way company each day, at a remuneration of sixpence 

 per hour (with a minimum of two hours' pay), to assist 

 in the work on this one train. Meanwhile, also, there 

 will have been hung on the tail-end of each van (drawn 

 up in position against the other side of the platform to 

 which the fruit train will come) a blackboard, giving, 

 written in chalk, the names of the particular dealers 

 whose consignments are to be loaded into the said van. 

 No sooner, therefore, has the ' fruit special ' pulled 

 up than the operation of unloading is begun at each end 

 of the train. The doors of a truck being opened, the 

 railway-men and the labourers assisting them lift out 

 the packages, and, reading the names thereon (for it is 

 an essential part of the scheme that each package 



