dull care was
laid aside and he was surrounded by genial companions,--"for
'tis meet that noble minds keep ever with their likes"--his star
was at its zenith. Then indeed, all rules were suspended; no point
of order suggested--"The man and the hour had met." His marvellous
narratives of quaint incidents and startling experiences, his
brilliant repartee, sallies of wit, banter, and badinage have rarely
been heard since the days of the Round Table or the passing of "the
Star and Garter."

Once, however, John Allen confessedly met his match in the person of
the Hon. John R. Fellows, who had been Colonel of an Arkansas
regiment in the Confederate service; later a prominent leader of
Tammany Hall, and was at the time mentioned, a Representative in
Congress from New York. He was the "Prince Rupert of Debate," and
was gifted with eloquence rarely equalled. At a banquet given
in his honor upon his retirement from Congress, a hundred or more of
his associates were guests, including, of course, the subject of
this sketch. Men high in councils of State, leaders of both parties,
and of both Houses, had gathered around the board, and good-fellowship
and mirth reached the high-water mark. By common consent Fellows and
Allen were in undisputed possession of the floor. Such passages-at-arms
no pen can describe. Even "John Chamberlain's" in its palmiest days
has never known the like.

Near the close Allen said:

"There is one thing I would like to have Colonel Fellows explain.
He was captured the first year of the war, and never exchanged,
but held as a prisoner by the Federals until the war was over.
I was taken prisoner five times, and always promptly exchanged.
I would like Colonel Fellows to explain how it was that he was kept
in a place of safety, while I was always at the front?"

When the applause which followed had subsided, Colonel Fellows
arose and said:

"I am grateful to my friend from Mississippi for giving me an
opportunity to explain that part of my military record which I
apprehend has never been sufficiently clear. It is true. I was
taken prisoner the first year of the war, and the enemy, well
knowing the danger of my being at large, persistently refused to
release me until peace was restored. Had I been promptly exchanged,
_the result of that war might have been different!_ But why it
was, that my friend from Mississippi was so repeatedly and promptly
exchanged is a question that until yesterday I