he said that it
reminded him of a Metamora table-cloth _the second week of court._

The dear old tavern has fallen a victim to the remorseless tooth
of time, but, in the palmy days of Metamora, when it was the
county-seat, and the Spring and Fall terms of court were as regular
in their coming as the seasons themselves, the old tavern was in
its glory, and for all "transients" and "regulars" it was the chief
objective point. For a decade or more its walls gave shelter to
Judge Treat, Judge Davis, Mr. Lincoln, General Gridley, Judge
Purple, and more than once to General Shields and Stephen A. Douglas.
At a later date it was upon like occasion the stopping place of
Colonel Ingersoll, John Burns, Judge Shaw, James S. Ewing, Robert E.
Williams, Judge Richmond, and other well-known members of the bar.

One of my earliest acquaintances in Metamora, and one not soon
to be forgotten, was Doctor John--familiarly called "Doc," except upon
state occasions. As I write, the vision of the Doctor arises before
me out of the mists of the shadowy past. His personal appearance was
indeed remarkable. Standing six feet six in his number elevens,
without an ounce of superfluous flesh, a neck somewhat elongated
and set off to great advantage by an immense "Adam's apple," which
appeared to be constantly on duty, head large and features a trifle
exaggerated, and with iron gray locks hanging gracefully over
his slightly stooped shoulders, the Doctor would have given pause to
the McGregor, even with foot upon his native heather. He first
saw the light of day in the "Panhandle" of the Old Dominion; the
part thereof afterwards detached for the formation of the new State.
How this all came about was to the Doctor as inexplicable as the
riddle of the Sphinx; but he scouted the thought that he had
ever ceased to be a son of "the real old Virginny." He claimed to
be a descendant of one of "the first families," and there lingered
about him in very truth much of the chivalric bearing of the old
cavalier stock. No man living could possibly have invited a
gentleman "to partake of some spirits" or "to participate in a
glass of beer," in a loftier manner than did the Doctor. Not
himself a member of the visible church, nor even an occasional
attendant upon its service, the heart of the Doctor nevertheless,
like that of the renowned Cave Burton, responded feelingly to every
earnest supplication "for the preservation of the kindly fruits of
the earth