two
o'clock in the morning
For the stress of this Bill had brought Jew and Gentile together in a new comradeship that amazed the East End . Here were groups representing the thrifty , hard-working London Jew of the second generation , -- small masters for the most part , pale with the confinement and `` drive '' of the workshop , -- men who are expelling and conquering the Gentile East Ender , because their inherited passion for business is not neutralised by any of the common English passions for spending -- above all by the passion for drink . Here , too , were men of a far lower type and grade -- the waste and refuse of the vast industrial mill . Tressady knew a good many of them by sight -- sullen , quick-eyed folk , who buy their `` greeners '' at the docks , and work them day and night at any time of pressure ; whose workshops are still flaring at two o'clock in the morning , and alive again by the winter dawn ; who fight and flout the law by a hundred arts , and yet , brutal and shifty as many of them are , have a curious way of winning the Gentile inspector 's sympathy , even while he fines and harasses them , so clearly are they and their `` hands '' alike the victims of a huge world-struggle that does but toss them on its surge . These gentry , however , were hard hit by more than one clause of the Maxwell Bill , and they were here to-night to protest , as they had been already protesting at many meetings , large and small , all over the East End . And they had their slaves with them , -- ragged , hollow-eyed creatures , newly arrived from Russian Poland , Austria , or Romania , and ready to shout or howl in Yiddish as they were told , -- men whose strange faces and eyes under their matted shocks of black or reddish hair suggested every here and there the typical history and tragic destiny of the race which , in other parts of the crowd , was seen under its softer and more cosmopolitan aspects . As the two men neared the door of the school , where the press was densest , they were recognised as probably belonging to the Maxwell party , and found themselves a good deal jeered and hustled , and could hardly make any way at all .