Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-10-28

|
/ King Edward VII when he was vet
Prince of Wales. was related to my IA
ther by prominent Washington lawyer,
since deceased, who, during business
= visit TO London in the early seventies,
4 called ON Minister Schenck,. tTho at that
I time represented this country ut the
court of st. james and with whom he
4 had been well acquaints.. in America,
| says writer in the Gh3cago Herald.
\ Given in his own words the story runs
us follows:
| ".By the way, said Schenck, as we
were about to separate one morning,
| what are you going to do this after
noon!
Nothing of moment replied. No
programme in particular
".There is going to be poker game at
the Langham. said Schenck, and if you
care for the exercise I'd like to have you
the party
This last rather dazzled me. re-
flected that it isn't given every American
| citizen to bluff and raise and draw cards
against prince born in the purple.
would go. cared not whit for poker,
but ii would be an experience whereof to
them how papa beat the Prince of
| Wales. told Schenck I'd be there. He
seemed delighted and no doubt was, for
he was royal good fellow and liked to
put his friends in the way to be pleased.
One thing forgot. the limit. But had
couple of thousand dollars in London
and felt elegantly safe, even supercili-
| ously so.
H. ~. 10
the Langham. The others came in later.
In addition to the Prince of Wales came
also Anselm Rothschild of the bank of
borough. I'll say right here that the lady
was the best player Of the lot. With
these three Schenck and 1 sat down.
Just after l was presented to the prince
asked Schenck in whisper what limit
usually obtained at these poker festivals.
He replied, also in strong aside, that
| there was no limit.
1.-The prince never plays with lin
it, whispered Schenck. 1t would in-.
fringe his dignity as q prince
II felt q bit cold after this. My $1,000
blinking in the Bank of England vault
with its yellow neighbors didn't seem
such q wnd of money. In fact, it began
when made to face the proposition of
limitless play against Englnnd's heir ap-
parent with the whole island to draw on.
to say nothing OF the Rothschilds 1t
started the perspiration. but was in
and couldn't get out. hastily made up
my mind to stay long enough to lose 500
or SO and then grow suddenly i'll and
extricate myself. 1t was happy
thought Cold feet would pull me out if
my losses became too lowering.
.'As we sat down, however. two things
happened to disturb my dream of cold
feet us a means of escape. Schenck was
to bank the game, and the first thing the
prince said was, Give me $1,000 worth
OF chips'-$5 600. And he said it with no
more of notice or emphasis than il he
had said. Pass the pie
II began to realize that was liable to
lose my $1,000 the first hand before cold
feet could come to the rescue. To add to
my grief the heir of the Rothschilds plac-
ed book made up of signed checks by
his elbow, with blank space for him to
write in the amount This he did with
blue pencil of the editorial brand. The
Rothschild didn't buy chips. He played
in these checks. No wonder began to
sweat-to be caught between the bank
ing house of the Rothschilds and the
British empire with only $1,000! The
one ray Of encouragement In it all was
THAT the duchess-fne old lady, too
only bought $1,000 worth Of chips.
steered by that and, although grooming
inwardly, bought $1,000 worth of chips
also. Schenck smiled approvingly.
learned afterward that did right. 1t
would not have been etiquette to buy
us much as the prince was glad OF
that. would have been in pretty fix
il etiquette had taken the other shoot.
'Well, it's hardly worth while to go.
into the details OF the game. The ante
was f10, four call ten. got good enough
hands, but was scared to death. didn't
dare bet them. The prince would look
ut his cards in royal ermined way and
say, Il raise the ante f1O.'
1.-THE young Rothschild would look at
his cards aud observe. with the same in
difference to my feelings which distin-
guished the prince, III see that and so
ESQ better These blood curdling re-
marks took place before the draw. mind
you. And then they'd lean back and call
for what cards they wanted and organic
ed to bet $4,000 to e., 000-anything that
happened to pass into their reckless
minds. That's the sort Of company I'd
got into. laid down hand after hand
and stayed out all could, but for all my
lodging lost $1,000 in the first forty
five minutes simply anted 1t away.
.About the end Of the first hour got
three aces. They were all that. saved me
too. broke into plethoric jackpot with
them, which the prince and the Roths-
child Immediately raised several times.
us il for exercise. In the end won it.
1t swelled my fortune over $4,000. Aft
err that l Unanswered very cautiously
and quit at 6 p. IN. about $500 behind
the game.
"That ended my dash, as it were, into
the royal family. l never passed more
miserable afternoon in my life. Schenck
and the duchess played along with much
calrnness and phleGm. but was SO OPP
pressed by my danger and harassed BY
the reckless betting Of tie prince and the
| Rothschild that have no recollection as
to how they Jared. Schenck asked me to
other poker parties. but had previous
enga cement each time. Games without
limits against players equally unbound
ed are too ,nny for me.
i