midnight
Dan put Walt Whitman into his hands and afterwards regretted it , for Allen developed an attack of acute Whitmania that tried Dan 's patience severely . Dan had passed through Whitman at college and emerged safely on the other side . He begged Allen not to call him `` camerado '' or lift so often the perpendicular hand . He suggested to him that while it might be fine and patriotic to declaim `` When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom 'd , '' from the steps of the monument at midnight , the police might take another view of the performance . He began to see , however , that beneath much that was whimsical and sentimental the young fellow was sincerely interested in the trend of things in what , during this Whitman period , he called `` these states . '' Sometimes Allen 's remarks on current events struck Harwood by their wisdom : the boy was wholesomely provocative and stimulating . He began to feel that he understood him , and in his own homelessness Allen became a resource .