Most of them have to learn a trade at first, during which period they earn nothing, and are glad to submit to any terms the sweater may think fit to impose. The slang term for such persons is "greener," and in many respects the condition of a "greener" is worse than that of a slave. By and by when he has learnt his business, which in the cheap tailoring trade, for instance, would be the machine work, he receives a small wage, from six to seven shillings a week, barely sufficient to maintain existence. As a rule the "greeners" are very quick to learn, and as they progress they earn a little more; but their position is precarious, being liable to be discharged at a moment's notice. The work is precarious too, and the wages are irregularly paid. Sometimes there is nothing to do for weeks and weeks. Their food is of the scantiest, the refuse of fish and a little bread being the principal articles of diet. The length of hours for which they work--I speak now of the cheap tailoring trade--averages from fourteen to fifteen hours a day, or 100 hours a week. The Bishop of Bedford said:--"I have myself seen these poor creatures at work up till two in the morning, and I have found that they were again at work, the same people in the same room, at seven o'clock in the morning." Again he said:--"You can tell work is being done on the Sabbath, by the blinds being drawn. There is no holiday at all." Moreover, the surroundings amid which they work are deplorable and filthy in the extreme. That, however, will be touched upon more fully in a subsequent chapter. Again, in the cheap boot trade, the "greener" is at first put to work as a "sew-round hand." If he does well at this, in a short time he will proceed to "finishing," and he is advanced to other branches of the work as his proficiency may warrant. The master bootmaker, who in nine cases out of ten was once a "greener" himself, is called a "boot-slosher." The "greener" will generally lodge at the house of the "slosher" who employs him; and as many as sixteen or seventeen of these "greeners" have been known to lodge in his house at the same time. The daily food, as a rule, consists of a piece of hard stale bread, dipped in salad oil. The bread is bought from a barrow in the street, and consists of the stale unsaleable loaves collected from various bakers' shops in the neighbourhood. The "greener" may supplement this possibly with a little weak coffee or cocoa; or, if he wishes to indulge in an unusual extravagance, he will invest in a piece of dried cucumber, pickled in salt and water; or perhaps two or three "greeners," by way of a treat, will go shares in a few Dutch herrings, also pickled in salt. The dried pickled cucumber is known as "Wally-Wally," and a herring is known as a "Deütcher." These articles are sold in large quantities in the East End.