midnight
But of all stale , flat , and unprofitable stories , this releasing of prisoners from Moyamensing was the worst . It seemed to Bronson that they were always releasing prisoners ; he wondered how they possibly left themselves enough to make a county prison worth while . And the city editor for some reason always chose him to go down and see them come out . As they were released at midnight , and never did anything of moment when they were released but to immediately cross over to the nearest saloon with all their disreputable friends who had gathered to meet them , it was trying to one whose regard for the truth was at first unshaken , and whose imagination at the last became exhausted . So , when Bronson heard he had to release another prisoner in pathetic descriptive prose , he lost heart and patience , and rebelled . `` Andy , '' he said , sadly and impressively , `` if I have written that story once , I have written it twenty times . I have described Moyamensing with the moonlight falling on its walls ; I have described it with the walls shining in the rain ; I have described it covered with the pure white snow that falls on the just as well as on the criminal ; and I have made the bloodhounds in the jail-yard howl dismally -- and there are no bloodhounds , as you very well know ; and I have made released convicts declare their intention to lead a better and a purer life , when they only said , ` If youse put anything in the paper about me , I 'll lay for you ; ' and I have made them fall on the necks of their weeping wives , when they only asked , ` Did you bring me some tobacco ?