seven o'clock in the
evening
It was most important to have some inkling as to how the Germans , the Irish , the Scandinavians , the Italians and the various people of Slavonic nationality would act when called upon to defend their new country . It was of course absolutely certain that the two great political parties -- the Republicans and the Democrats -- would work together harmoniously under the stress of a common danger . Francis Robertson , the well-known reporter of the _ New York Daily Telegraph _ -- called the Flying Fish on account of his streaming coat-tails -- had been on the go all day . He had scarcely finished dictating the shorthand notes made on his last tour of inspection , to the typewriter , when he received orders -- it was at seven o'clock in the evening -- to make another trip through the streets and to visit the headquarters of the various national and political societies . First he went to a restaurant a few doors away , and in five minutes succeeded in making way with a steak that had apparently been manufactured out of the hide of a hippopotamus . Then he jumped into a taxicab and directed the chauffeur at the corner of Twenty-ninth Street to drive as quickly as possible through the crowd down Broadway . But it was impossible for the chauffeur on account of the mob to move at more than a snail 's pace , and the cab finally came to a dead stop at Madison Square , which was packed with excited people .