midnight
Explosion after explosion burst from the tortured Inferno of the vast plant . Buildings came crashing , reeling , thundering down ; walls fell , amid vast , belching clouds of dust and smoke ; a white , consuming sheet of flame crackled across the sinister and evil place ; and in its wake glowed incandescent ruins . Then , in one final burst of thunderous tumult , the hugest tank of all , exploding with a roar like that of Doom itself , hurled belching flames on high . For many miles -- in Buffalo , Rochester , Toronto and scores of cities on both sides of the Great Lakes -- silent multitudes watched the glare against the midnight sky ; and many wept for joy ; and many prayed . All understood the meaning of that sight . The light upon the heavens seemed a signal and a beacon -- a promise that the Old Times had passed away forever -- a covenant of the New . And , as the final explosion shattered the Temple of Bondage to wreckage , flung it far into the rushing river and swept it over the leaping , thundering Falls , the news flashed on a thousand wires , to all cities and all lands ; and though the mercenaries of the two dead world-masters still might struggle and might strive to beat the toilers back to slavery again , their days were numbered and their powers forever broken .