five
o'clock
This occupied several hours , for it was necessary to take a few drinks in each place in order to get the proprietor in the proper frame of mind to talk business . But the bartenders one and all contended that if they had any money to buy bonds they would not be bartenders . It was as though they had all convened and decided upon that rejoinder . As he approached a dark and soggy five o'clock he found that they were developing a still more annoying tendency to turn him off with a jest . At five , then , with a tremendous effort at concentration he decided that he must put more variety into his canvassing . He selected a medium-sized delicatessen store , and went in . He felt , illuminatingly , that the thing to do was to cast a spell not only over the storekeeper but over all the customers as well -- and perhaps through the psychology of the herd instinct they would buy as an astounded and immediately convinced whole .