ten o'clock
All afternoon and evening men straggled in from the hills and surrounding country , apparently loth to miss the early excitement attending the ceremonies on the following day . Sullen strikers from the camps came down , cursing the company but drinking noisy toasts to the railroad and its future . The city by night swarmed with revelling thousands ; the bands were playing , the crowds were singing , and mobs were drinking and carousing in the lower end . The cold , drizzling rain that began to blow across the city at ten o'clock did little toward checking the hilarity of the revellers . Honest citizens went to bed early , leaving the streets to the strangers from the hills and the river-lands . Not one dreamed of the ugly tragedy that was drawing to a climax as he slept the sleep of the just , the secure , the conscience-free . At three o'clock in the morning word flew from brothel to brothel , from lodging house to lodging house , in all parts of the slumbering city ; a thousand men crept out into the streets after the storm , all animated by one impulse , all obeying a single fierce injunction .