six o'clock
Years out of mind the adherents of the leading political parties had mingled sociably before a non-partisan bulletin board in the courthouse , much as hostile camps fraternize in the truce forerunning peace . But the old , simpler order of things had suffered more wrenches than one in this acrid congressional campaign , and the warring factions could unite only on the hibernian proposition that union was impossible . One party , therefore , made ready to gather in the accustomed place , the other in the Grand Opera House , while seceding remnants from both swelled the crowd in the street before the office of the _ Whig _ , which , with unlooked-for enterprise , had prepared to announce the returns by stereopticon . At six o'clock Shelby broke his fast with a ravenous meal at the hotel , which Bowers shared , and three-quarters of an hour later the two men shouldered through the boisterous mob in the streets to Shelby 's law office , where arrangements had been perfected to receive the returns by messenger and private wire . The _ Whig _ bulletin over the way had already massed a constituency extending to the Temple lawn , which , in default of definite news , it was edifying with views of foreign travel and cartoons bearing on the larger issues of the election . Within doors the telegraph operator was already installed at the ancient table which had graced the grand-paternal distillery , and William Irons was making good the tedium of a dreary day in the deserted office by goggling from the ticking instrument to a consignment of iced champagne just arrived from the Tuscarora House . Shelby was in rare fettle .