nine o'clock
The result was a stiff effect , something like the hair of the Japanese . It required about three hours to straighten the hair of one negress . The price was a dollar and a half . By half-past nine o'clock a crowd of negro men , in lodge aprons and with spears , and negro women , with sashes of ribbon over their shoulders and across the breasts , assembled about the Siner cabin . In the dusty curving street were ranged half a dozen battered vehicles , -- a hearse , a delivery wagon , some rickety buggies , and a hack . Presently the undertaker arrived with a dilapidated black hearse which he used especially for negroes . He jumped down , got out his straps and coffin stands , directed some negro men to bring in the coffin , then hurried into the cabin with his air of brisk precision .