The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-23
ENJOYED PLAYING POKER.
THE PASTIME OF CONKLING. SHEER
MAN AND SHERIDAN.

MAN AND SHERIDAN.
How They Would Meet at Chamber
Inns When Congress Was in Ses-
sion to Find Relaxation From
the Cares OF Public Life in Card
PIaying-Quick Flashes OF Wit
and GOOd-Natured Gliding When
ever They Crossed Cnrds-How
Sheridan Opened Pot on n Foul
Hand and HumOrOusIy Begged the
Others Not to Expose Him.
From the Washington Star.
Roscoe Conkling was as fond as the
next man of little game of draw, said
an elderly Washington clubman, who for
a generation has been on terms of social
intimacy with famous men at the capital.
land he was as chal ming poker antag-
onist as ever tried to fill an in-the-middle
straight or bobbed TO flush. Conklns
was unquestonably a man of great nat
ural hauteur, yet l have always believed
and maintained that the somewhat a1ror
SAINT and domineering manner that he
exhibited in public, and that often caused
him to be so thoroughly misunder stood,
was more or less of a pose. The news
paper writer's set him down and paraded
him as an Ajax from the very beginning
of his service here and it suited Conk-
lng's fancy when he perceived that 1t
would be quite impossible for MIN to
clear himself of this reputation, to study
the part that he had preforce to accept,
aud to portray it with consistence and
elaboration throughout his public career.
But in social life, in daily Intercourse
with men that he knew and liked, Conk-
ling was prince, and as gracious, Gen-
erous and accomplished a prince, too. as
ever gained the affectionate esteem and
admiration of his friends
He liked, l say, to play poker, and
curing the last four or five years of his
senatorial life he would drop in at John
Chamberlin's occasionally while Congress
was in session, to sit into a game there
with friends, all of them prominent public
men, who liked the mental stimulus and
excitement of drawing cards, and who
were always more than willing to engage
in a game in which Conkling was one of
the players-for the cultured intellect
and well-stored mind of the New York
senator never shone more brightly nor
more variously than during these memo
rabe sessions at cards with his friends
Quite often those among us who were
not fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to
be swirlers in the vortex of public life
would be invited to take a hand at these
delightful poker seauCes; and l. for one,
possess no more valued recollections han
those that often recur to my mind of the
dozen or so occasions on which I played
draw poker with Roscoe Conkling sitting
opposite to me.
General Phil Sheridan was often one
of the players at these meetings, and
when General Sherman was living in
Washington, he, TOO, would occasionally
happen around when the game at Cham
berlin's was in progress and take a hand.
With Conkling and Sherman in the game,
the talk at the poker table was a good
deal more interesting to some of us than
the game itself, for both men would con-
stantly exchange witty dabs at each
other, and the oral sDarring between
these two remarkable men was brilliant
and entertaining in the extreme. Their
pokes at each other were always per-
fectly good-natured and harmless. Diff
ferent as they were in profession and
temperament, Conkling and Sherman
were about evenly matched in wit, and
their mastery of repartee, and both men
seemed to find huge pleasure in prac-
tic!ng on each other in their hours of 1e-
taxation, especially at these card meet
ings.
"Conkhng" said Sherman one night to
the New York senator, when the game
was in progress. that Hyperion curl of
yours may now assume an added twist
the effect of woe, and that Hercules
,1De To In, g.,
of penitential sackcloth--for I've got you
licked. Full house, jacks up on Fights
and Sherman spread his hand out on the
table.
:" Sherman said Conkling, a beatific
smile Pickering at the corners of his
mouth, when you marched to the sea at
that exceedingly theatrical period of your
career, and reached the sea, had it not
been better for you had you kept right
on marching, even to the point of com
plete and final submersion, thus to nave
spared yourself the modification of being
thrashed right out of your boots at this
epoch of your history by mere civilian?
Four sevens,' and Conkling raked in the
pot with flourish, grizzled Old Tecump'
chewing the butt Of his cigar Thought
fully.
But Conkling played his hardest
against General Sheridan. The two men
were great chums and confidants, but
when they got into a poker game to-
Cether it was, of course, in good-natured
sort Of way. give and take, and no quarter.
When Sheridan was in the game Conkling
simply devoted all of his study and skin
to the task of beating the hero of Win
chester, and, on the other hand, Little
Phil would pay hardly any attention al
all to the other players, he was so eager
to roast his friend Conkling. Very often
the rest of us would, at a sort of iacitly
understood signal, drop out, even when We
had good, playing hands. just for the
fun of. seeing Conkling and Sheridan at
each others threats.
" Phil said Conkling one night when
he thought his hand was invincibIe he
advised, l have your interest at heart.
We all admire your historical and present
rashness, but, Phil, be advised. Consider
your natural aversion to pipe: if Won
proceed with me on this, you'l be com
PEELED to smoke a pipe practically until