The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-28
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SENATE.
An Old Washington Sport Testifles
 That There's Now No Such Gambling

An Old Washington Sport Testifies | That There's Now No Such Gambling
 by Statemen as There Used to Be- | Many statesmen with gambling pro- pensities served In Congress before and just after the war" said Col Cole Mar tin in conversation with number of old-time sports at one of the down town hotels the other night "The statesman of to-day does not begin to compare with his brothers of ante-bellum days in this respect Where the old-time senator or member would put down hundred on card the latter-day law maker only bets white chip Back in | the '40's and sos, when Dave Prindle kept the leading faro bank, 1t was not an unusual thing to find quorum of the United States Senate under his roof on an afternoon or evening. And there were dozen other places liberally pat ronized by leading statesmen. diplomats and rich southerners, where the limit of the betting was the sky.
 | Dave Prindle ran one of the most genteel and elaborate gambling | establishments in the country on Penn | sylvania avenue between Four-and-a- | Half and Six streets. Every afternoon prominent statesmen used to gather | around his faro and roulet tables and | 1t was often remarked that the Senate used to adjourn about o'clock, in time | to get down to Dave's for dinner. He had a finely appointed place with every accompaniment that could be wished eveh by the most exacting. Peculiar rules governed his house, though, and ! in the 20 years that he kept bank he never failed to close up promptly at 12 o'clock midnight
 l 'Thaddeus Stevens, Senator Green of 1 Missouri, Rusk of Texas, Pierce of 1 Maryland, Bob Toombs of Georgia, Yancey of Alabama, Hannegan of In- diana Wigfall of Texas, Shield of Illi- nois, and CorwinAof Ohio were among the most frequent habitues of Prindle's | house Others included Congressman Herbert of California, Gen Joe McKib- ben of the same state, who acted as second for Broderfck In the famous Broderick. Terry duel, Jim Lane of Kansas, Henry A. Wise. of Virginia, Lawrence Keitt of South Carolina, Marshall of Kentucky, Sergeant s. Prentiss of Mississippi, Savage of Ten nesse, Whitely of Delaware and Edmons- ton of Virginia, besides dozens of others whose names have slipped my mem ory.
 "Prentiss strolled into Prindle's one day and remarked: Dave, I am lucky enough tonight to win the stars from heaven. Please don't limit me
 "There is no limit for you, MT. Pren- tiss," said Prindle.
 "Prentiss started in by making one hundred dollar bets on card. Luck was with him. and he began to increase his bets, and before closing-up time he had beaten the bank out of fifty thou sand dollars. Prentiss thought his luck would stay with him, and a few days after this winning he returned to Mis- sissippi where he ran against a snag, losing two hundred thousand dollars in half dozen plays.
 Senator Green, taken all around, however, probably went against the bank heavier than any other man in his set. He often staked as high as two hundred dollars on card and would sometimes have as many as six bets on the table at one time. Green, like most other men who gambled at cards, imag- ined that he knew when he had lucky streak on. One day he remarked to a group of senatorial friends in the cloak room of the senate that he was burning up with luck, and asked them to chip in enc thousand dollars each. He felt l certain that if he were allowed to make the play Dave Prindle would turn his deal-box upside down. A combination I t1,nr fo "a odi0j1rn- = ment of the senate; fifteen thousand dollars was put in the pool, and dozen or so senators marched down to Prin- dles. The senators walked into the bank in single file, headed by Green, all singing a verse which they had com posed on the way down, running like this, and sung to the tune of the Ar kansas Traveller:
 Hold! Prindlei I see place.
 "'Put hundred on the king, and cop
 per it on the ace
 Green started in with the fifteen thousand dollars. He won the first bet Then he began to play the ace and king according to the song, ace to lose and king to win, until the end of the deal without winning another bet. On the next deal he kept to his combina- ton, as he did on all succeeding deals and 1t is an actual fact that he did not win more than three times before his fifteen thousand dollars went into the box. The other men in the combine with Green refused to stake him far ther, but still having faith in his com bination, Green played five thousand dollars more of his own money through and then quit the game.
 Another celebrated senatorial hang out at that time was that of Joe Hall $ who kept on the avenue near Prindle's Hall came here from Virginia during