five o'clock
Hand compositors would have to learn to set type by machinery or go down in the struggle for existence . Survival of the fittest -- that was it . The doubting printer was not there to profit by this lecture . Though it was but five o'clock , he was down on the depot platform moodily waiting for the six-fifty-eight . The next number of the _ Advance _ was set by linotype , a circumstance of which one of its columns spoke feelingly , and set , moreover , in the presence of as many curious persons as could crowd about the operator . Among these none was so fascinated as Wilbur Cowan . He hung lovingly about the machine , his fingers itching to be at its parts .