The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1884-10-16
HENRY CLAY'S HORSE.
Fhe Nag the Greatest Statesman Won
at q Gamc Of Poker

a Washington letter in the Houston
F0St says:"1 rccollcct Henry Claws turn
out very we'll" said an old-timor; "he
had one of tho old style Concord buo-
glcs, wlta top that suggested q
Mother Hubbard bonnet. Ii was cyi
dentiy secondhand affair that Mr..
Clay had picked up in Il trade, and
nowadays would do very we'll for a
woman to haul vegetables around town
IN. The cushions were stuffed with
moss and were so we'll worn YOU could
see the moss, sticking out ut the sides.
III bet Henry Clay didn't know what
lap-robc was. and, as for u whip, ho
didn't have any. He used to slash his
old sorrel stallion with tho ends of the
roins so loud you could hear it block
OIL. The steps to the buggy wcrc gono
and MIR. Clay used to jump over the
wheels. When ho wanted to get in he
put one foot over the hub and swung
tho other around over the wheel and
dashboard. The wheels were so hirh
he had to let the top down to get out.
They had axlc-grcasc in those days,
but MIR. Clay had evidently never found
it out He always drove his horse at
canter, you could hear the front
wheels of his buggy squcaking as many
notes as there are on II piccolo.
"Ah, well do / remember that sorrcl
stallion, continued the old-timcr.
"Henry Clay won him one night at
poker in John Hancocli's saloon, which
IS still running on the avenue, from
Col. Jim Bright, who lived at Falls
Church, Va. Bright used to como over
every week and play with Clay, and ho
generally went back to Falls Church
with pockctful of money. But that
was Clay's lucky night. He got away
with 81, 200 of Bright's money, his
watch, saddle and bride, ovcrcoat,
saddle bags, ! new suit of clothes that
were in tho saddle-bags, three finger
rings and breastpin, brace of pistols
ana bowie knife, and n pair of
"Oh, you needn't laugh" said the
old-timer with great animation; "that's
the way they played poker in them days.
a man went tho whole hog or nothing.
Henry Clay bet himself clean down to
his undershirt, and he offered to pull
that of, but the other fellow didn't
wear an undershirt TO put up against
it, Well, sir, it's so, any how, and tho
very table he played tho game on is
now in tho front room, upstairs, in
Hancock's saloon. 1t is an old pinc
table about three feet square, with q
hole in the middle to drop tho percent
age through for threcs, fulls, hushcs,
and jack-pots. Well, sir about that
old stallion. He was well known
around Washington for several years.
do always nickercd when Clay came
near him. Clay carried pocketful of
shclled corn, and he gavo tho horse a
handful every time he got into tho
buggy. Tho boys knew tho stallion
well, and they used to give him pieces
OF bread cake. nuts, or anything of tho
sort He'd cat watermelon and meat.
and I've seen him eat wads of paper rs
though he was trying to make the BOYS
laugh. Well, sir, Clay had Il niegor
named Sam. One day he loaned tho
stallion to Sam to drive to Alexandria.
Sam got drunk before he left town, and
he started out on 4 gallop. He didn't
stop till he got to Mount Vernon,
twenty miles of. There he turned
around and gallopcd all the way back
Tho old stallion dropped dead at tho
cdgo of South Washington. There
were over one hundred boys at the
funeral. In revenge Clay sold the
nigncr to q Louisiana sugar-plantur,
with q proviso in the bill of sale that
the planter should hitch Sam in shafts
and work him in The canc-mill. Fact.
sir!"