about
midnight
At five minutes of ten o'clock we rolled into the Dayton depot , and before the train came to a halt we were in a carriage with the lecturing committee , going at the horse 's full run toward the opera house . Without an instant in which to slacken our pulses , the chairman rushed in upon the stage , and introduced the lecturer of the evening . After in the quickest way shedding overcoat and shawl , we confronted the audience , and with our head yet swimming from the motion of the rail-train , we accosted the people -- many of whom had been waiting since seven o'clock ' -- with the words , `` Long-suffering but patient ladies and gentlemen , you are the best-natured audience I ever saw . '' When we concluded what we had to say , it was about midnight , and hence the title of this little sketch . We would have felt it more worthy of the railroad chase if it had been a sermon rather than a lecture . Why do not the Young Men 's Christian Associations of the country intersperse religious discourses with the secular , the secular demanding an admission fee , the religious without money or price ? If such associations would take as fine a hall , and pay as much for advertising , the audience to hear the sermon would be as large as the audience to hear the lecture .