four o'clock in the morning
They would have scornfully regarded him as no better than a City clerk , the class above all others scorned by those who use tools . `` Got a collar on -- had no breakfast . '' The City clerk , playing the Masher on thirty shillings a week , goes without food to appear the gentleman . Alere , the artist , drank with the men who used hammer , and file , or set up type -- a godless set , ye gods , how godless , these setters up of type at four o'clock in the morning ; oysters and stout at 4 a.m. ; special taverns they must have open for them -- open before Aurora gleams in the east -- Oh ! Fleet Street , Fleet Street , what a place it is ! By no possible means could Alere work himself into a dress-coat . Could he have followed the celebrated advice -- `` You put on a dress-coat and go into society '' -- he would soon have become a name , a fame , a taker of big fees , a maker of ten thousand yearly .