Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-04-09
A LITTLE GAME OF DRAW.
The Heroes OF the Green CIotn in
Washington-B0b Schenck. the
Champion--Losans the Refermes'

Washinxton-B0b Schenck. the
Champion--Losans the fRefermeS,
etc.
Washington Correspondence New York Sun.
In Washington, the test of statesman
ship is skill at draw-poker. The Honor
able Robert g. Schenck is unquestionaDly
the first poker player in the United States.
He has retained bis prominence IN poll
tics and kept his head above water imam
cially by the boldness with which he sees
bet, and the peculiar sphinx like way in
which he reads his hand. Being probably
the ugliest man in the world, there is no
way of determining his situation on
bluff. He has extraordinary longevity in
sitting out game, and seldom retires be-
fore 4 O'Clock in the morning when by any
| means whatever he can find any body to
keep up the vigil with him. He has long
ago extinguished all rivalry at square.
/ game in Washington, the Congress
ional Poker Club only excepted; and it
was he who compelled the President to
LIMIT THE HIGH COMMISSION To FIVE ON A
SIDE,
Which makes exactly two tables, five
persons being the proper complement to
play an interesting game at poker. The
| intention of Gen. Schenck appears to be
| to play against the Fenian, the cotton,
and the other claims of England, and
| thus win the Alabama claims intact, to
be settled for dollar for dollar. 1t is well
known that an Englshman is the poorest
National poker player in the world. The
Hon. Ed. Webster, late Consul at Brad
ford, England, bears witness to the fact
that no Briton would ever enter the game
without at least two pairs, and that he
then found no difficulty whatever in bluff
ing them off and sweeping the table, al
though without single point in his pos
session. There may have been Bluff
King Hal, but he will pale his Intellectual
fires before Bluff Buckeye Bob. Thrown
into the hands of e. Clark Ingersoll,
Fernando Wood, John Morrissey, or any
of great lights of draw poker who
assemble on x street and at Welker's,
the British five will be stripped bare, and
be reduced to borr owing money to pay
their fares home to their obtuse island of
chalk. 1t is said that this fate once be-
fell the great Schenck himself, and that
having already hypothecsted his salary
of s., 900 a year, he was obliged to bor-
row money from Clark Ingerson to leave
the city of magnificent distances. Inger-
soil, however, took him over to Europe
as the champion poker-plsyer of the
world, and the two made clean sweep
at the Tuileries, which obliged Louis Ma
poleon to go to war at later period
with an empty exchequer, so that he
-# LOST HIS THRONE.
This was not square game, however,
which so exhausted the Hon. Robert G.
Schenck. Rumor around Wizards has
it that on this occasion his host brought
over from New York professional deal
er, disguised as gentleman SO perfectly
that it was by many thought comph
ment to Mr.. Ingersoll to have him in his
house. This professional dealer, the
story goes, threw cards up his sleeve,
played the dead shuttle, and skinned
everybody, when he departed in blaze
of excitement and ruin, like a Russian
Count. This story is told in the Con-
gressional Poker Club, but is not well at
tested and is believed to owe its origin to
the fact that when Peter Gardiner ran
ROOM NO. 4,
At Wizards Hotel, somebody brought on
from Illinois-the State, by the way, from
which the Hon. Mr.. Ingersoll hails-the
celebrated Jules Lombard, brother of
made him dealer in those sacred par
lors. Jules, ...-...
"Sitting there
With rollicking
Devilmsy care,
Free and easy look and air,
dealt four aces upon one occasion to fat
Charley Hertzog, who keeps the best
liquors of any dealer in the city. Char
ley weighs nearly five hundred pounds,
snd is the latest man in Washington.
He often tells the story of that night at
room No. 4, and of the amazement with
which he first heard of
A STRAIGHT FLUSH.
1t may be promised that, except in
Washington, four aces is the highest COM
bination 10 draw poker, and carries off
everything, but here the Congressional
Poker Club, assisted by Ned Price, Gel
ebrated expounder of the constitution,
has elevated straight flush 10 the impe-
rial dignity. Charley Hertzog's story is
this:
''Mr. Eldridge, you ever blay draw
boxer vid Beder Gardiner up at No. AZ
Don you never do blay 1t, den. One
night was siddin in No. 4 wild Beder,
Mr.. Gloss of de lobby, unit some
bodies / dond know, VOC as vas.
Yivdy dollars was up, unit all bass
out but Beder unit me. l looket in mine
hand, and mine Gott vod's diss l see:
Your aces ! I say: tBeder, dond dske
no advantage you; dond you bed any
more, Beder. / Shoes dake you vivdy
dollar und led you off sheep Bud Beder
| Gardiner, mine Colt! he want do bed
| No! MOI say, Beder, 1 wouldn't CLEAN
| you out on four aces. 1t daint right.
shoost dske your yivdy dollar unit let you
| off, But, Mr.. Eldridge, Beder Gardiner
| show five little diamonds-one dam little
red sequence-snd he cries: i dake de
givdy dollar vid my straight flush And
De rest all cry out dad a straight flush
beats four aces. Vot in himmel, Mr.. Ell
bridge, is straight f1ush9 If l go to
No. any more, l be ruined "
| Z 1t was in No. 4 that the Hon. Robert
G. Schenck on two successive nights lost
a very heavy stake-some set it
| AS HIGH AS 81, 1000,
| Dut the current report says lnaG IL was
set-up job on him by some of the unfair
devotees there. he is a much better
poker player than Mr.. Ingersoll, whose
countenaLce is too apt to define the state
of his hand, aud who bluffs too bolster
ously. He is not so stupid player as
lack Chandler, the length of whose purse,
however, makes him a formidable com.
petitor. He excels Jim Nye, whose smile,
that is child-like and bland, is readily de-
ciphered by physiognemist. He is a
greater spirit in the game than either Sena-
tors Rice, Robertson or Mcdonald, and
they feel the presence of him as power
full chemical element overwhelms weaker
ones. Against his steady holiness the
reckless playing of Rufe Ingalls, soon
fights itself to pieces, and wherever he
travels the might of his proves at draw
poker calls about him-the very highest
graduates of the square game. He is said
to have won $1,000 at the Fifth avenue
Hotel since he was appointed Minister TO
Englgnd, and it is singular fact that on
the very day the British Commissioners
arrived in Washington, festive dinner
party, given at the house of Western
member of the Congressional Poker Club,
J within one block of the residence of the
Commission, adjourned in the evening to