The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-21
POKER PLAYING BY SOCIETY,"

New Ork journal. POKER playing IN
Washington society amounts to fine
art.
The devotees of the game are to be
! enumerated in overpowering numbers
among those who occupy the seats of
the mighty"
That congressman should indulge in
vast amount of poker playing is not
matter of establishment, either in or
out of Washington but that the fash
ionable women of the city should be
given over to poker playing with in
many cases indefinite limits for the
jack pots, is a matter TO make the
thoughtful pause and do considerable
thinking
Time was, of course, when our grand
mothers and their grandmothers before
them played all night. handling the
cards by the light of suffering dips.
1t would seem that the whirligig of
time had brought this craze back again
and firmly implanted in the present
day and generation of Washington
fashonables a fondness for cards quite
equal to that possessed by those old
danes of a past generation. The paste
board kings, queens and jacks have
evidently not been relegated to the
limbo of periwigs, powdered hair and
moth patches.
a few years ago, when a fashionable
woman, at whose house army and navy
officers found a favorite gathering place
for playing poker, completely inpover-
ished a young fellow. member OF the
Metropolitan club. The club rose at
the audacity of the proceeding, and,
after compelling the woman to refund
the young fellows fortune, gave her
until shutdown to quit Washington for
ever. It caused no end of sensation
at the time, but soon blew over, and
people have almost forgotten it now.
Nevertheless, the woman at whose
house the playing was done has never
dared to resume residence here.
Until last wintr certain of the officers
families stationed at the arsenal had
one of the fashionable poker clubs meet
regularly at their quarters. Play ran
high, and so did the talk concerning
the amounts of money that changed
hands, and the late, or rather early,
hours at which the poker parties broke
UP.
This gossip floated to the command
ants ears and when he learned that
4 a. m. was the time when the. mem
bers of the club left the arsenal and
returned to their homes in the city. ne
issued an order that after that date
poker playing would be Indefinitely sus
pended in those officers quarters, and
that visitors, however fashionable,
must leave the arsenal gates prior to
q. m.
The most famous rendezvous of the po-
]ser clubs of the fashionable women of
this city for some years past has been at
Deer Park. Nd, where a large Washing
ton contingent has always gathered. Mat
ters finally reached crisis, and poker
playing among the fash.anbles at Deer
Park received a black eye because of GER
tain. high-handed proceedings for sav-
eral nights trimmings. The hotel proprie-
tor then made a rule that for the remain
der of the season no more delustve games
of poker were to be allowed at Deer Park.
One of the ladies who was especially well
known was further told alat she mus
pack bag and baggage and remove else
where and not return.
Narragansett has also been a favorite
retreat for the fashionable women who
play fine game of poker. One of'these
Washington women, a widow, - accredtt-
ed with having. during the course of sew
eral little games the past summer. cleared
sufficient to pay ner board Dill Tor the en-
tire season q the Pier.
One of the devotees CT poker gave last
season a luncheon that has since become
famous. She IS the wife Of a naval Of
ficer and issued invitations for a poker
party and luncheon. The invitations read
From II a. m to p m All the de-
buuantes of the season were invited, but
whether or not there was COLLISION among
sons buds" were decidedly to the fore
The story runs That the hostess made the
cost of her luncheon and 40 ceuts 70 boot
wllile several of her guests departed
homeward after 5 O'Clock with well-lined
pocke.b5oks.
On the same block lives the leader of
all the fashionable poker clubs in Wash
irgton. Her house has for years been
the gathering place CT The players and IN
terest!nG stories are afl0at concerning
fierce games which have been played
there.
On one occasion several men at the Net
ropolitan club concocted Scare" for
this lady. They gravely informed her
that since the passage of the law prOhib-
iting poker playing in Washington her
house had been Swallowed by private de-
tectives. with a view to raiding it and
having the whole affair up in the police
court. The result was magical For a
week or ten days thereafter the house
! was as dark and silent as the grave, while
| the poker players who had been wort 10
| gather there in social mood fairly held