, often would be
misunderstood. That he never cultivated an exclusiveness or built about
himself barriers of idiosyncrasy is a distinct credit to his common sense.
He's chock-full of that!

Let us see just how versatile Young Allison is. Years ago--twenty-six to be
exact--he took the dry old subject of insurance and week in and out made it
sparkle with such wit and brilliancy that every-day editorials became
literary gems which laymen read with keenest enjoyment. Insurance writing
might be said to be his vocation--a sort of daily-bread affair, well
executed, because one should not quarrel with his sustenance--with
librettos for operas, and poems and essays as an avocation. Fate must have
doomed his operas in the very beginning, for despite some delicious
productions, captivating in words and spirit, and set to slashing music,
they go unsung because a a malign Jinx pursued.

While Allison is an omnivorous reader of novels and every other form of
book, which he carries to and from his home in a favorite brown-leather
handbag of diminutive size, he never had an ambition to create novels,
though to his everlasting credit wrote two for a particular purpose which
he accomplished by injecting the right tone or "color" into tales depicting
the inner life on daily newspapers. We of the old Press Club used to grow
choleric as we would read stories about alleged newspaper men, but a serene
satisfaction fell upon us when Allison's reflections appeared. They were
"right!" And while "resting" (definition from the private dictionary of
Cornelius McAuliff) from the more or less arduous and routine and yet
interest-holding duties of newspaper-man, Allison's relaxation and
refreshment come in studies of human nature in all its mystifying aspects,
whether in war or in peace; or in the sports--prize-fighting and baseball;
or in the sciences; in politics; in the streets or in the home. Or they
come from pleasure in the creation of essays on books--novels; of lectures;
of formal and serious addresses; of tactful and witty toasts.

From my viewpoint Allison appears in public speaking to best advantage at
banquets, either when responding to some toast, or as toastmaster. On such
occasions he very quickly finds the temper of his listeners and without
haste or oratorical effect, for he never orates, and almost without
gesture, he "gets 'em" and "keeps 'em." Knowing how little he hears at
public functions his performances at the head of the tabl