8 P.M.
But what are you going to do when going to bed is the most fascinating diversion available after supper ? I 've noticed that as fast as a small town man discovers something else to do in the evening , his light bill goes up and up . When crokinole was introduced into Homeburg twenty odd years ago , the kerosene wagon had to make an extra mid-week trip . When the magazines came down from thirty-five cents to ten and you could get three of them and a set of books for one dollar down and a dollar a month until death did you part , they had to put an operator in the telephone exchange after 8 P.M. because of the general sleeplessness . When the automobile came , and when two moving picture theaters , a Chautauqua , and a Lyceum course opened fire in one year , and the business men fitted up a club with an ancient pool table in it , Homeburg got chummy with all the evening hours , and kicked so hard about the electric lights going off at midnight that the company had to run them an hour longer . And I suppose if any invader ever puts in an all-night restaurant where you can have lobster and a soubrette on the table at the same time , a certain proportion of us will get as foolish as you are and will forget how to go to bed at all by artificial light . We 've changed that much from the past generation .