The record-union., 1895-07-06
A GAME AT THE LANGHAM.
A Rothschild, the Prince and q Fright
ened American In 1t.

/
ened American In 1t.
"Great injustice has been done to a
good man in all that pok ker- playing gos-
| sip about Minister Schenck back in the
| '70s." 1t was one of Washington's 'front.'
rank lawyers who said this. Then he
continued in spirit Of reminiscence: II
| recollect, however. a taste of high life
which Schenck gave me while Minister,
which pivoted on poker. [ was in Lon
don on business Of transatlantic sort.
l had known Schenck in America, and,
of course, called on him. He was then
American Minister at st. James.
by the way said Schenck, as we
were about to separate one morning.
what are you going to do this after
noon?'
"'Nothing of moment [ replied. No
programme in particular
There's going to be poker game at
the Langham,' said Schenck, and If you
care for the exercise, I'd like to have you
in. The Prince of Wales will be ono OF
the party
This last rather dazzled me. re-
nected that 1t isn't given to every Ameri-
can citizen to bluff and raise and draw
cards aginst Prince born in the purple.
L would go. / cared not whit for poker,
but 1t would be an experience whereof to
tell the babies when they grew up. Tell
them how papa beat the Prince of Wales
l told Schenck I'd be there. He seemed
delighted, and no doubt was, for he was
royal good fellow, and liked to put his
friends in the way to be pleased. One
thing l torgot-the limit. / had neg
lected to ask Schenck the limit. But [
had couple of thousand dollars in Lon
don and L felt elegantly, even supercili-
ously safe.
Three o'clock came and / repaired to
the Langham. In addition to the Prince
OF Wales, came also Anselm Rothschild.
OF the bank of that name, and the Duchess
of Marlborough. Phi say right here the
lady was the best player of the LOT. With
these three Schenck and l sat down. lust
after l was presented to the Prince, |
asked Schenck, In q whisper, what limit
usually obtained at these poker festivals.
He replied also in a strong aside that
there was no limit.
The Prince never plays with
limit whispered Schenck, 1T would in
fringe his dignity as Prince
II felt a bit cold after this. My $1,000
blinking in the Bank of England vault
with It's yellow neighbors didn't seem
such wad of money. In fact, it began
to diminish and appear paltry and mean.
when made to face the proposition OF
hmitless play against England's heir ap-
parent, with the whole island to draw
on, to say nothing of the Rothschilds.
1t started the perspiration but | was
IN and couldn't get out. l hastily
made up my mind TO stay long enough
TO lose Sl00 or so, and then suddenly
grow i'll and extricate myself. 1t was
a happy thought. Cold feet would pull
me OUT if my losses became too tower
ing.
LAS we sat down, however. two things
happened TO disturb my dream of cold
feet as means of escape. Schenck was
to bank the game, and the first thing the
Prince said was:
$1,000. And he said it with no more of
notice or emphasis than if he had said
Pass the pie
81 began to realize that / was liable to
lose my $1,000 the first hand, before cold
feet could come to the rescue. To add to
my grief the heir of the Rothschilds
placed book made up of signed checks
by his elbow, with a blank place for him
to write in the amount. This he did
with blue pencil Of the editorial brand.
The Rothschilds didn't buy chips. He
played in these checks. No wonder I
began to sweat, to be caught between the
banking-hOuse of the Rothschilds and
the British Empire with only 81, 900. The
one ray of encouragement in it all was
that the Duchess-hne old lady, too
only bought 81, 900 worth of chips. /
obcClOd bnoGs dHl
inwardly, bought $1,000 worth of chips
also. Schenck smiled approvingly. [
learned afterward that | did right. 1t
would not have been etiquette to buy as
much as the Prince. I was glad Of that
would have been in a fix if etiquette
had taken the other shoot.
"Well, it's hardly worth while to 90
into the details of the game. The ante
was 9l0-four call ten. got good enough
hands, but was scared TO death. / didn't
dare bet them. The Prince would look at
his cards in a royal, ermined way, and
say:
81 raise the ante el00.'
"The young Rothschild would look at
his cards and observe, with the same in
difference to my feelings which distin-
guished the Prince:
'I'll see that and 60 ESQ better These
blood-ourdling remarks took place before
the draw mind you. And then they'd
lean back aud call for what cards they
wanted, and organize to bet $4,000 to
93, 900, anything that happened TO pass
into their reckless minds. That's the
sort of company Pd got into. l laid
down hand after hand, and stayed out all
l could, but for all my lodging L lost
81, 200 in the first forty-five minutes;
simply anted it away.
"About the end of the first hour / got
three aces. They were all that saved me,
too. / broke into a plethoric Jackpot
with them. which the Prince and the
RothschiId Immediately raised several
times as if for exercise. In the end |
won it. 1t swelled my fortune over Sl0,-
600. After that l maneuyered very eau
tiously and quit at P. NJ. about $500 be-
hind the game.
That ended my dash, as it were, into
the royal family. l never passed more
miserable afternoon in my life. Schenck
and the Duchess played along with much
calmness and phlegn, but l was so op-
pressed with my danger and harassed by |
the reckless betting Of the Prince and
the ROthschild that / have no recollection |
as to how they Jared. Schenck asked me
10 other poker parties, but [ had pre-
vious engagement each time. Games
without limits, against players equally
unbounded, are too many for me."-
Washington Star.