Morning journal and courier., 1885-08-06
POKER IN WASHINGTON.
Notable Players in the Days When Money Was Plenty at the Capital.

POKER IN WASHINGTON.
 l Money Was Plenty at the Capital. l [From the Chicago Herald.]
 Talking about poker playing" observed
 an old Washingtonian, ''the game in it's pIo-
 " has practically come to an end in the Fed
 eral capital. When'I speak of poker playing
 1 mean the game indulged in by gentlemen, not professional gamblers During the WAT,
 when money was plenty, tha game f1ourished apace, but after the war, when all sorts of
 schemes yielded rich harvest and times were
 good, then were the halcyon days of draw | poker. When both branches of Congress
 were largely Republican and the Treasury l vaults were opened wide through the pay
 ment of war claims and various other mon l ey-yleldlng processes, gaming in all it's
 branches, both public and private, was con- | monly 1ndulged in. When the District of l Columbla was given a territorial government
 and Aleck Shepherd inaugurated his grand scheme ot improvements, expending some
 tWentynve million dollars, money was plen- ! ty as blackberries and almost everybody DOS l sessed ot influence got a slice, directly or in l directly. Governor Shepherd started the Washington club, with an initiation fee of five hundred dollars, magnifcently appoint ! ed mansion was purchased and then blos- somed forth in full fruition. Poker tables were kept running night and day. and mon by the cord changed hands Why. the
 s, .one thousand dollars was a mere flea Lita barilv .icient to get in with and last Gn hour.
 'sThe sturdiest poker player Tn Washing ton at that time was sGCengressma1 Eooh C. Ingersoll of Illinois, comtRon1y known as Clark Ingersoll, Bob Ingersolls brother. He played the game for all it was worth, and was usually successful in winning large sums. 1tFerhando Wood was also poker player of the first class, almost, if not quite, equal to a professional Many member of Con- gress has dropped his last dollar st F'ernan- dos table and naortgaged his future pay to the five per centers to get home with. Fer nando was the coolest headed earder I ever saw. Whatever the play, great or small, winner or loser on the hand he never i,ispehed muscle nor turned hair. Cold, calm and impenetrab1e, he played the game without S tif1ss of emotion and as 1mmobne as milestone. He rarely lost, even among the best of gentleman players, and never per mitted himself to syndpathize with the guests he made his victims. He slways gave good suppers, however, and many q splendid 'feed' has been enjoyed at his mansion on Fifteenth street, at this date occupied by John Charnberlin's restaurant.
 "Joe Chatfee of Colorado delighted in playing poker when a delegate and Senator in Congress but Joe could never play the strength of the game. He was cuffi1ng
  selling land claims, and could get away with the best of the land sharks ill such deals; but in poker playing he wss the ver1est tyro, although he Iapored under the delusion that he understood the game The consequence was the boys ate him up, dividing him out few hundred apiece at every sitting. In fact, they kept him well-nursed for that purpose, and the swag he made in outside schemes paid large percentage of tare, tret and de benture at cards. Jo5 was godsend to the boys, and enabled them to pay for many wine dinner at Welckers, tailors' b1ltss ope- Ia tickets and the like. But, bless your soul, he did not realize it.
 ssSenator Tom Robertson of South Caro- lima, man of wealth, was inordinately fond of poker, but usually sought game he was likely to beat. He never took the big chances or lost much money. When he struck game at which he was overmatched and lost, the suggestion that he could have his revenge whenever he desired yielded him little satisfaction. He preferred seeking sat- isfaction from out some other less formida- ble poker party. When he discovered suit able crowd he lost no opportunity to make them pay well for his Senatorial company. Occasionally he caught tartar, but his rule was to play in game he could boss to his hearts content.
 ''Senator Nesmith of Oregon, recently de- ceased, may be included within the category of the poker kings. It is related that he played in game of poker on one occasion at Portland, Oregon, continuously for six weeks. Ben Holiday and Rufe Ingalls, were in the game. At the commencement of the seventh week it incidentally occurred to Nesmith that he had left home for only few days sojourn at Portland, and had not provided his wife with sufficient money to last longer. Perhaps she was starving or had been forced to beg food from neighbor The thought was maddening, and the longer he dwelt upon the possible condition in which his deserted family might be placed through his infatuation for poker playing the more moody he became He could stand the har- rowing reflection no longer, and, rising from his seat, exclaimed:
 :" Gentlemen, you must excuse me. l am going straight home, possibly to find Mrs. Nesmith starved to death. I left her only twenty dollars when came away, expecting to return in a week. Here have been play ing poker for six long weeks and forgot all about her. This is cruel. I am too wretch ed to play longer and must go home at once I am few hundreds winner, it is true, but heaven grant that Mrs. Nesmith is not a cold corpse. If she is it is my fault and you are partly responsible
 Ben Holiday, who would rather play po- ker than eat, being loser in the game, be- came angry because his friend Nesn1ith in- sisted upon returning home. He at once blurted out:
 " sNesmith, I don't believe word of your internal wife story. You're ahead and want to jump the game Why don't you say so like man and not lay it on your wife. You must take us for idiots.'
 ss'Great God,' rejoined Nesmith, jump the game! jump the game! when we have been playing night and day for six long weeks, adjourning only for few hours sleep! How long do you expect man to play before he may decently jump the games Curse me if ever play with such a poker hog as you again--you never know when you have got enough, and yonr wife might die and be buried hundred times over before you would jump the game to attend her fu- neral "Away went Nesmith in towering pas sion, while Rufe Ingalls,, who knew Nesmith was sincere in the matter, came near stran- gling himself with suppressed laughter at Ben Holidays impotent rage. The six weeks game, therefore, broke up, and Ben Holiday swore that he would get even with Nesmith some day for jumping that game" " The trial of the Rockville prize-hghters was continued Tuesday at that place before Justice Henry, great crowds attending. Sec l retary Taylor of the Humane society, Hehry l McCroy and Crosley Fitton testified for the | prosecution Officer Fay testified to being thrown off the stage by Manager Geralds, l and being badly bruised. The defense pre- sented F. L. Geralds, Judge G. W. West, | Samuel Fitch, proprietor of the rink, F. k. German w. L. Talcott, w. E. Payne and | others, who did not consider it a prize fight, | ly manner W. H. Goldsmith, 8 Hartford | there was no prize. There was no blood on | the man and no anper between them He had