five P.M.
on June fourteenth, eighteen eighty-nine
And the best friend of the office could not have gained admission once the key was turned . `` Why do I do it ? '' he would say . `` My boy , at about half-past five P.M. on June fourteenth , eighteen eighty-nine , I was alone in the office , and Herman White , who used to be placer for Schmidt and Sulzbacher , came in with a ten thousand dollar line on coffee in one of those Brooklyn shorefront warehouses . I guess all the other offices must have shut up , for Herman never gave me anything he did n't have to . He banged on the door , and I let him in , and the risk was all right and we were wide open , and I took his ten thousand ... . And about twenty minutes later , as I stood on the front deck of the Wall Street ferryboat crossing the river , the flames burst out of the roof of that warehouse , and we paid nine thousand two hundred and thirty-seven dollars for that coffee ... .