10 o'clock
On the afternoon of March 6th , the _ Evening Telegram _ issued an extra , reporting the sailing from Coruna of four Spanish ironclads . The announcement on the London Stock Exchange was that they were going to Cuba . On the following day there was a decided fall in American Securities in London , and a weak market in Wall Street ; which degenerated into a rapidly declining one when it became rumored that Gould was selling Western Union short in large blocks , and that Vanderbilt 's brokers were similarly disposing of N.Y. Central and other stocks . At 10 o'clock that night the news came that Spain had formally declared war upon the United States . It was posted in all the hotels , and read from the stages of all the theatres . The people flocked into the streets _ en masse _ . Speeches were made , breathing defiance and demands for an immediate attack upon Spain , before tremendous crowds , in Madison and Union Squares .