ten o'clock
These newcomers are not so easy to classify as their predecessors . They are the crowd from the street , -- the thief with his girl pal , eager to spend the plunder of their last successful exploit ; the big corporation 's entertainer , out to show a party of country customers the sights of a great city ; the visitor from afar , lonely and seeking excitement ; the man about town , the respectable woman who with a trusted male confidant seeks shady and clandestine amusement ; college students with unspoiled appetites off for a lark ; women of the district still new enough to the life of vice to find pleasure in its excitements ; periodical drinkers out for a night of it ; clerks , cashiers , bookkeepers , schoolboys and roués . And here and there , weaving in and out through this heterogeneous mob lurks the pander seeking for his prey -- the ignorant young girl , trembling on the verge of her first step into the depths , the little lost sister of tomorrow . By ten o'clock the merry making in the Cafe Sinister had attained the vociferousness of a riot . As the swift-footed waiters passed more and more liquor about , the voices of the speakers rose higher and higher . At last the orchestra itself could scarcely be heard . The singers , half maudlin themselves , and knowing they could not be heard above the universal din , abandoned harmony and resorted to shouts and suggestive gyrations .