The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-08-17
1T WAS DECIDED BY POKER.
HOW KANSAS CAME TO BE DIS
TRICTED AS IT Is.

Deadlock over the Mattcr-COmmit-
tee Agreed to Break Ii With
Game of FreezeOut-Eugene Ware
Was Last Man in and His DiIl Was
AdOpted-"Biu" Hackney Tried to
Back out, But the senate Held Him
to 1t.
From the Kansas City Journal
Topeka, Aug. lit. A. McNeal has an
interesting story in the Mail and Breeze
to-day as to how the Senate of 1880 agreed
upon a congressional apportionment bill,
which SIN stands as the law of the state.
He says the present law was passed as
a result OF a poker game in which the
congressional apportionment committee of
the Senate, composed of well-known Kan
sans, played. 1t happened this way, ac-
cording to McNeal:
When the census of 1880 was taken it
was found that Kansas had climbed up In
the matter of population until 1t was en-
uued to seven representatives in Con-
gress instead of three. AT that time the
| three representatives from Kansas were
| Thomas Ryan, Dudly c. Haskell and John
| A. Anderson.
At the next general election four con-
gressmen were elected from the state at
| large: e. N. Morrill,, Lew Hanback, Bish-
| OPP Perkins and S. r. Peters, and upon
the legislature that met in the winter OF
1888 fell the task of dividing the state into
seven congressional districts to correspond
| with the number of congressman.
In the Senate the committee on congress
| sioual apportionment consisted of seven
! members, made up as follows: Bill Hack
! ney of Cowley, f.. II. Funston of Allen,
Eugene f Ware OF Bourbon. George Case
of Jewell, Harrison Kelley of Coffey,
| Jones of Neosho and Billy Buchan.
| Al that time The Senate was fun of men
| VINO had congressional aspirations and
there was flood of bills introduced to lie
| district the state, each bill having for its
| prime object the fixing of district thai
! would give The author O chance. The
committee wtestled with all these bills un-
! III finally all mad been dropped but two.
| one of these was known as the Blue b.l,
| which was fixed up by Dick Blue and L.
| II, Funston, each of whom wanted to go
| to Congress. The other bill was fixed up
| by certain members of the COMMITTEES. The
| Blue Dill was arranged 10 throw John A.
| Anderson of the First district; Dudly
| Haskell of the Second, and f. n. Morrill,
| cOnSressman-at-l all into one district.
| The Other bill put each Of The congress-
]
ally satisfactory TO the fellows who had
b>en elected the year before.
Three members of The committee on con-
! gressional app0ruJnment favored the Blue
BID and three favored he other bill, while
Bill Hackney wasn't in favor OF either
one. Bill had a notion of going 70 Con
gress himself and as one Of the bills let
him in the district with Peters, while the
other put him on the tail end of the dia-
tricL with Perkins he was dissatisfied and
| insisted with emphasis that he would be
-- if he would report either bill Night
| after night the committee met and dis
cUssed the bills without coming TO any
conclusion. Three were for one and three
for the other with BIN Hackney swearing
that he would support neither one.
After tbs thing had run along for a
week and the committee had gathered In
their room in the Copeland for another
session, Bill arose and as chairman of the
committee, proposed to settle the matter
} with a game of "freeZeout," the man win
ming out 10 be allowed to say which biz
should be reported back to the Senate
with the recommendation that ii be pass
ed Agreed roared Funston, in a voice
which made the window cases rattle. one
, by one the other members of the commit
tee agreed to the proposition and Gene
Ware was agreed upon as banker. There
were no chips in the room but the bank
er sent down to the Office a request FOL
seven boxes of matches. Each man was
5 given a box of matches for capital and the
} game commenced. Farmer Funston.
who had not been supposed to know any
thing about the game, surprised the 9th
ers by the way in which he showed MS
matches 10 the center of the table, and OF
the first play Taked in half of the oris1'
( nal capital of Gene Ware Hour after
2 hour the game went on with varying for
= tunes Word got down to the waiting room
that the fate of star smen and DoEttcial.
{ was hanging on the deal of the cards. anC
the room where the committee met was
soon crowded to the point of suffo' alton
| Each player was hueging his cards 10 Ei'
| bosom in order to prevent his hand benz
TIPPED off by some person standing in tE'
rear.
At o'clock in the morning all the play
j ers had been frozen out except Harrison
: Kelley, Billy Buchan and Gene Ware.
I Fortune had dealt kindly with Harrison
i Kelley. who had his wide brimmed Whit
felt hat filed with matches, while the poe
statesman from Bourbon and Billy Blu
chan had something over box of matches
each in their possession. On the next dea
and draw Gene Ware secured tray tui
| on fours; Harrison Kelley had flush
= and Buchan hadn't anything TO speak OF
1t looked as if Harrison Kelley would viii
: out but he probably hadn't reckoned oil
the fact that Buchan and Ware were boil
in favor of the same bill. No words wer
), spoken, but all the same a silent combine
: was formed between the statesman from
= Bourbon and the statesman from Wyan
dotte. Ware bet lavishly and Kelle,
would have called him up but for tn
5 fact that Buchan would come in and rails
= them both. The bets increased until tn
, matches were stacked up like cordwoo'
a on the table and Harrison Kelley had a
+ last reached the last match In his ha
It and Ware had won.
The first pale streak of the COMM
morn were appearing in the sky whe
= the report was made out by the victor
:, recommending the bill they favored bu
- they had not yet won. Hackney went I
y the advocates of the Blue bill and tol
them to make out a report recommendn
" their measure for passage and he woul
:, sign It.
= The next morning when the senate cor
- vened the members of the committee o
f. congressional appointments came to thel