Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-05-24
Statesmen at whist.

l suppose the greatest whist quartet in
Washington for many years was that
made up of Garfield, Frye, Randall and
Alec Stephens The House Committee
on Rules, Of which they We're members,
met at Long Branch in the summer of 1873.
They began playing there, Frye and Steph
ems against Garfield and Randall. Stephens
played a wonderful game. Bolstered up
with pillows in his chair, he would sit by
the hour without becoming weagied. At
ter the first two or three turns he had an
unfailing power Of telling where the cards
were held He hated to have poor part
ner, for it disturbed his calculations, but
with Frye he was always content and Sc
rene Frye is strong, impulsive player
When winning, his face beams like a
child's, but once behind it becomes a serious
affair Then he is uneasy and restless until
few lucky deals put him ahead again.
Stephens and Frye were in excellent
contrast, for the former never apparently
took the slightest interest, save as his eyes
lighted up occasionally at a remarkably
strong suit. Garfield never concealed any
thing His plays were always open. Only
once did he ever try leading from q
"sneak" The look that met him from
Stephens was such that it was never known
to happen again. Randall, in whist, as
everywhere else, is cold and calculating
He does not play a scientific game, but Il
well-suStained one, and is safe partner
You can see that the four are pretty well
balanced But Frye and Stephens won.
FRYE was fortunate and Stephens skillful.
Day after day they kept ahead Afterward
when the four returned to Washington,
the games were kept up. Twice a week
regularly the others would go down to
Stephens old-fashioned paTlOr at the Ma
tional Hotel, and there play exactly up 10
midnight. OF course, they had varying
fortune, but in the long run the first win
nerS came out ahead The morning after
ward the members would always ask them,
if they appeared at the Capitol, how the
games of the night before resulted.
Every winter up to the time Garfield was
nominated for the Presidency the four kept
at it, but then it was broken of, with the
intention of resumiug after he was once
fairly seated in the White House. But he
was shot so soon that the plan came to
nothing. Stephens wanted to keep on and
to fill Gartield's place Harry Smith, the
journal clerk of the House, was taken.
Very soon afterwards Stephens was elected
Governor of Georgia and went away, never
to come back With his departure the
series dropped, he and Frye still ahead.
Last winter several Senators, including
Messrs. Hoar, Frye, Sherman, Morrill,,
Warner, Miller, Aldrich and others,
made up a club and played often,
but it is not continued. Sher-
man is one of the best players in the
Senate. Ben Harrison is reputed to be, but
| never heard of his playing. Senator Bay
ard likes to take hand but he has not the
book knowledge that some of his brother
Senators boast Of But the critical scien-
fists on this subject are not So numerous as
they were in the Senate a few years ago,
when half the members We're noted hands.
No man ever loved the game more than
old Judge Thurman. With his old red
bandana on the table to dry his face with.
he was alternately in the highest state Of
exultaton and despair At times Madam
Thurman would find it necessary to take
seat by his side with herquiet ' Don't grow
excited, Allen to keep her husband i'll
his chair.-[Washington Correspondence
Troy Times