midnight
He sat in the pen with a score of others until his turn came . The bartender -- who proved to be a well-known bruiser -- was called to the stand . He took the oath and told his story . The prisoner had come into his saloon after midnight , fighting drunk , and had ordered a glass of beer and tendered a dollar bill in payment . He had been given ninety-five cents ' change , and had demanded ninety-nine dollars more , and before the plaintiff could even answer had hurled the glass at him and then attacked him with a bottle of bitters , and nearly wrecked the place . Then the prisoner was sworn -- a forlorn object , haggard and unshorn , with an arm done up in a filthy bandage , a cheek and head cut , and bloody , and one eye purplish black and entirely closed . `` What have you to say for yourself ? ''