midnight
What a cruel , awful , barbarous price to pay ! '' Saddened and pensive , he passed on , still thinking of the woman he could not banish from his mind , despite his bitterness against her class . So he walked on and on , now through better streets and now through worse , up and down the city . Here and there , detonations and red fire marked the impatience of some demonstrator who could not wait till midnight to show his ardent patriotism and his public spirit by risking life and property . The saloons were all doing a land-office business , with the holiday impending and the thermometer at 97 . Now and then , slattern women , in foul clothes and with huge , gelatinous breasts , could be seen rushing the growler , at the `` family entrance '' of some low dive . Even little girls bore tin pails , for the evening 's `` scuttle o ' suds '' to be consumed on roof , or in back yard of stinking tenement , or on some fire-escape .