three minutes past noon
On the other side , he faced his powerful foes and made them quake as they saw their battalions of millions roll upon his unbroken line of battle only to break and disappear . At noon National Woolens preferred was at fifty-eight , the common at twenty-nine . Giddings was beginning to hope . At three minutes past noon the tickers clicked out : `` It is reported that John Dumont is dying . '' As that last word jerked letter by letter from under the printing wheel the floor of the Stock Exchange became the rapids of a human Niagara . By messenger , by telegraph , by telephone , holders of National Woolens and other industrials , in the financial district , in all parts of the country , across the sea , poured in their selling orders upon the frenzied brokers . And all these forces of hysteria and panic , projected into that narrow , roofed-in space , made of it a chaos of contending demons .