eleven o'clock
Their employers followed an hour or so later -- on the cable cars for the most part whiskered gentlemen with huge stomachs , reading the morning papers with great gravity ; bank cashiers and insurance clerks with flowers in their buttonholes . At the same time the school children invaded the street , filling the air with a clamor of shrill voices , stopping at the stationers ' shops , or idling a moment in the doorways of the candy stores . For over half an hour they held possession of the sidewalks , then suddenly disappeared , leaving behind one or two stragglers who hurried along with great strides of their little thin legs , very anxious and preoccupied . Towards eleven o'clock the ladies from the great avenue a block above Polk Street made their appearance , promenading the sidewalks leisurely , deliberately . They were at their morning 's marketing . They were handsome women , beautifully dressed . They knew by name their butchers and grocers and vegetable men .