_Straw Bail_ (Vol. vii., p. 85.).--In connexion with, though not as a
reply to, MR. CURTIS'S Query touching the origin of the expression "A
man of straw," I beg to bring under notice a phrase I heard for the
first time a few days ago, but which may nevertheless be well known to
others. A seaman, talking to me of a strike for wages among the crew of
a ship, said that the captain, as the rate of wages had not been raised,
had manned his ship with a "lot of straw-yarders." On my asking the
meaning of the expression, I was told that a "straw-yarder" was a man
about the docks who had never been to sea, and knew little or nothing of
the duties of a seaman.