time "reluctantly yielding to the earnest solicitations
of his friends," generously consented to serve a few terms in
Congress. From his first entrance into the House, he was well
known to all its members. No one needed an introduction--they all
knew John Allen.

Upon the conclusion of his first speech, which possibly referred
to the improvement of the Tombigbee River, he modestly remarked:
"Now I am through my speech for this time, Mr. Speaker, _and
will immediately retire to the cloak-room to receive the congratulations
of my friends."_

Speaker Reed, with whom he was a great favorite, never failed to
"recognize" John, and in fact by common consent he was always
entitled to the floor. This fact will shed some light upon the
following incident. During the roll-call of the House upon a motion
to adjourn at a late hour of a night session, Mr. Allen passed down
the aisle, with hat and overcoat upon his arm, and, stopping
immediately in front of the Clerk's desk, said "Mr. Speaker, ----"

"For what purpose," said Reed, "does the gentleman from Mississippi
interrupt the roll-call?"

"Mr. Speaker," continued Allen, "I rise to a parliamentary inquiry.
I want to know how General Wheeler voted on this motion." To this
"parliamentary inquiry" the Speaker after ascertaining the fact
replied that the gentleman from Alabama had voted "aye."

"Well, then, Mr. Speaker," said John, "just put me down the same
way with General Wheeler; I followed him four years, and _he never
led me into danger yet."_

Seated one day in the Senate restaurant, I observed Mr. Allen
standing at the entrance. Upon my invitation, he took a seat at
my table. "What will you have, John?" said I. With an abstracted
air, and the appearance of being extremely embarrassed by his
surroundings, he replied, "It makes mighty little difference about
me anyway," and turning to a waiter he slowly drawled out, "Bring me
some terrapin and champagne." Then, in an apologetic tone he
quietly observed, "I got used to that durin' the Wah."

After a moment's pause, he continued, "By the way, did you ever
hear the expression 'before the Wah'?" I intimated that the
expression had not wholly escaped me.

"I heard it once under rather peculiar circumstances," said John.
"Down in the outskirts of my deestrict, there is an old-time
religious sect known as the 'hard-shell' or 'iron-jacket' Baptists;
mighty good, honest people, of course, but old-fashioned in their w