two o'clock
There were offices for the management of the company 's business in Philadelphia , Washington , and New York , to say nothing of other places . Butler was familiar with the Philadelphia sign , but did not care to go to the office there . He decided , once his mind was made up on this score , that he would go over to New York , where he was told the principal offices were . He made the simple excuse one day of business , which was common enough in his case , and journeyed to New York -- nearly five hours away as the trains ran then -- arriving at two o'clock . At the offices on lower Broadway , he asked to see the manager , whom he found to be a large , gross-featured , heavy-bodied man of fifty , gray-eyed , gray-haired , puffily outlined as to countenance , but keen and shrewd , and with short , fat-fingered hands , which drummed idly on his desk as he talked . He was dressed in a suit of dark-brown wool cloth , which struck Butler as peculiarly showy , and wore a large horseshoe diamond pin . The old man himself invariably wore conservative gray .