Fellows, who may yet be remember'd by some stray relics
of that period and spot. If you will allow me, I will first give a
description of the Colonel himself. He was tall, of military bearing,
aged about 78, I should think, hair white as snow, clean-shaved on
the face, dress'd very neatly, a tail-coat of blue cloth with metal
buttons, buff vest, pantaloons of drab color, and his neck, breast and
wrists showing the whitest of linen. Under all circumstances, fine
manners; a good but not profuse talker, his wits still fully about
him, balanced and live and undimm'd as ever. He kept pretty fair
health, though so old. For employment--for he was poor--he had a post
as constable of some of the upper courts. I used to think him very
picturesque on the fringe of a crowd holding a tall staff, with his
erect form, and his superb, bare, thick-hair'd, closely-cropt white
head. The judges and young lawyers, with whom he was ever a favorite,
and the subject of respect, used to call him Aristides. It was the
general opinion among them that if manly rectitude and the instincts
of absolute justice remain'd vital anywhere about New York City Hall,
or Tammany, they were to be found in Col. Fellows. He liked young men,
and enjoy'd to leisurely talk with them over a social glass of toddy,
after his day's work, (he on these occasions never drank but one
glass,) and it was at reiterated meetings of this kind in old
Tammany's back parlor of those days, that he told me much about Thomas
Paine.
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