midnight
Main Street at the Turon ! Just as bright as day at twelve o'clock at night . Crowds walking up and down , bars lighted up , theatres going on , dance-houses in full swing , billiard-tables where you could hear the balls clicking away till daylight ; miners walking down to their night shifts , others turning out after sleeping all the afternoon quite fresh and lively ; half-a-dozen troopers clanking down the street , back from escort duty . Everybody just as fresh at midnight as at breakfast time -- more so , perhaps . It was a new world . One thing 's certain ; Jim and I would never have had the chance of seeing as many different kinds of people in a hundred years if it had n't been for the gold . No wonder some of the young fellows kicked over the traces for a change -- a change from sheep , cattle , and horses , ploughing and reaping , shearing and bullock-driving ; the same old thing every day ; the same chaps to talk to about the same things .