Midnight
Just at this crisis , as though she comprehended all this agitation regarding herself , the moon shone forth with serene splendor , eclipsing by her intense illumination all the surrounding lights . The Yankees all turned their gaze toward her resplendent orb , kissed their hands , called her by all kinds of endearing names . Between eight o'clock and midnight one optician in Jones ' - Fall Street made his fortune by the sale of opera-glasses . Midnight arrived , and the enthusiasm showed no signs of diminution . It spread equally among all classes of citizens -- men of science , shopkeepers , merchants , porters , chair-men , as well as `` greenhorns , '' were stirred in their innermost fibres . A national enterprise was at stake . The whole city , high and low , the quays bordering the Patapsco , the ships lying in the basins , disgorged a crowd drunk with joy , gin , and whisky .