midnight
To protect ourselves against police interference we shall hereafter inform you of the event but a little prior to or simultaneously with the deed . Trusting this finds you in good health , We are , This time Mr. Hale took up the paper , and after a brief search , read to me this account : Joseph Donahue , assigned only last night to special patrol duty in the Eleventh Ward , at midnight was shot through the brain and instantly killed . The tragedy was enacted in the full glare of the street lights on the corner of Polk Street and Clermont Avenue . Our society is indeed unstable when the custodians of its peace are thus openly and wantonly shot down . The police have so far been unable to obtain the slightest clue .