The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-01-25
GEN. SHERMAN'S BIG POKER
GAME.
About I,0OO, 900 Was I'm = Pot Played
for on the March to the Sea.

The last time Gen. Sherman attended
commencement at West Point Was In
June, 1889. The mem bers OF the gradu-
ating class reosived their diplomas from
his hand that year and he also delivered
tiful summer evening that followed the
old general sat on the wide verAnds OF
the hotel and told stories.
~ heard OF some pretty big games Of
poker In the early days out West" he
said, "and maybe saw one or two. But
the biggest one / ever saw or heard of
ives duIing the war. 1t would have made
that heard made that night. 1t Was just
after the march to the sea, when We were
up In North Carolina. / took 1t into my
head that night that l would make a
quiet round Of the outposts myself and
see how things were coming on. In
some bushes in tbs woods, we'll within
our lines, saw q light cleaning and a
mum Der Of forms clustered around IL all
evidently very intent On something.
came quietly up toward them without at
traoting any attention. They were all
too much absor bed to notice the cracking
VI tWtRb VI iuc Va AoaVo1 ubaSH
my feet. At last l was near enough to
distinguish voices and make out what
was said. And the first words l heard
were:
!" I'm see you 5000. 900 and l 60 you
s250, 600 better
breath away. And they were privates,
too Il WIS easy enough to make that
out. They had blanket spread out on
the ground and were all squatted On 1t or
beyond Its edges, some bending eagerly
forward peering over the shoulders OF
those who were In front Of them. A
couple Of candle ends stuck In bottles
afforded the illumination. And by this
dim light saw corded up stacks and
stacks If bills, reg ular bundles and bales
Of them. 1t was like looking into
United States Treasury vault. The sight
made me blink with wonder.
" I'm raise you 5000
"lhat was the next thing l heard. 1t
was said as nonohalantly as though 1t
were a question OF tive cent chips.
A nd the players did not look like Croes-
uses, either. You have heard about Shsr-
mans bummers. Well, these were Sher-
mans bummers and they looked 1t. or
course that game then was Just little
bit irregular, but l could net bear to
break II up. l got interested 10 1t. felt
as though l would like to see the limit
reached, here somebody called, ana. Just
for curiosity know who 1t was who rhked
in the million or so dollars that probably
would be In the pot when that interest.
ing event occurred. l did not have to
wait long. l have forgotten just the
amount that changed hands, but 1t was
somewhere up around a million. The
winner tcok up an armiul OF bills ami
swept them over In n heap by his side.
"tNUw, I'll tell you what IN do,
Eiil,' he sAid. Il put up the hull mil
lion again . plug of tobacco and play ye
three straight games Of euohrs-best two
Iut of three and leave the So vsns and
ei9bts in the deck,
"Well, gentlemen" continued the
g, neral, with his dry little laugh. 'it Is
: need to tell you that had begun to
get little light on the situation before
this LIDS Al proposition was made. ! re-
iaemb sred that we had just raided
town where we had come upon a ton or
so OF reb MONEY, anu that this boys had
had the fancy to cart away several hun
drsd weight OF It. They had lots Of fun
with that III oney. and am indsbted 20
It for having had the pleasure of looking
on at probably the biggest poker game
ever played In the United States. / did
not break up the little tes party. Poor
fehowsi Lord knows they had bsen
through enough hard timss to entitle
them to little fun"