The sun., 1905-09-06
$1,000 LIMIT POKER AT SEA.
KAISER WILHELM III. IN WITH
STORIES or 4 GREAT GAME.
rnerr We're Rich Men Aplenty Aboard
and Rumo or Had II That 900 900
changed Ownership -Widener. Vest
in-bouse, Frick and Heinze Aboard.


The superb Kaiser wilhelm H. OF the
North German Lloyd fleet brought In yes
terday from Premen, Southampton and
Cberbourg not only the largest number OF
saloon voyagers ever carried In single
liner. but the tallcst yarn Of poker playing
ever indulged in on shiphoard. not except
ing the phenomenal games that tradition
tell. about on tho Mississippi in the days
before the war.
Never have so many rich men home
ward bound assembled in the smoking room
Of sea express. But the great game was
no, Ilyed in the smoking room, where
,hc IN, tude might look on and count
the winnings and losses and note the
,.1vcrs. ne OF the participants would
t,n ANYTHING about it or even ao-
knowledge that there had been any game
ct ~ But it was the gossip Of the ship
sll the way across, and 1t IL said that more
than O.CcO changed hands
II was thousand dollar limit at first but
finally. the rlmors had it, the players were
letting copper mines. railroads. steam
shits and seats in the Stock Exchange.
In the nervous enthusiasm Of the sport
enc cf the Players, 80 the incandescent
gossip went. had offered to buy the three
million dollar Kaiser Wilhelm ii. and put
her up against anything Of equivalent
value that any other enthusiast wanted to
wager.
But the real facts in the case are that
nothing but money and checks ives used.
The white chips, used merely in anteing
represented $iOO, the red 500 and the blues
5000 Investigation revealed that there
was no ground for the story that one young
man had gone into the game before he was
aware CT the nature Of the stakes and had
impressively asked for 500 worth OF
chips. His chest expansion was reduced
.several feet when he received single
white one.
The players were five men Of great wealth
and every one of them merely gave bland
smile when asked IL he had sat in with the
ether fellows and said that really it was
@ game he did not understand. He had
apparently read the Heather Chinee."
1t was not altogether a dry game, al
though most Of the players indulged very
lightly in highballs and fizz. An ambition
TO win more and desire to recoup kept
Hgong day and night. and the last session
=, did not end until the liner was within sight
Of Fire Island Capt. Hogemann said
there might have been playing for high
stakes aboard the Kaiser, but that he per-
sonally knew nothing Of it. He was sure
that the line stlll owned the ship.
Among the passengers were Henry c..
Frick, George Westinghouse. P. A. b. Wild
ener, F. A. HeinHe and Gen. Nelson A.
Miles who has been looking at the military
things in Europe and comes back much
impressed with tho effectiveness Of the
g, German army: Charles h. Fimt, the ship
builder, Heinrich Conried OF the Metro
politan Opera, formsr- President Ramsey
Of the Wabash Railroad, Randolph Gug-
genheimer Philippe Bunau- -Varilla, who
comes to defend his lock-level plans for the
Panama Canal Patrick F.. Murphy, Peter
Doeger Jr.. John j. Gilroy, Morris Baer.
William D. Disston, Samuel H. Cramp.
Hugo Elias, Ernest j. Knabe, Walter Pol
lack E.. V. W. Rossiter, John B. Mclean.
Meyer Jonasson. Baron de Morogues.
Samuel Bowen, Lady William Beresford.
formerly Duchess OF Marlborough; Charles
]. Schieren, former Mayor Of Brooklyn;
Stephen B. Elkins Jr., William Astor Chan
ler Major and Mrs. Harrison X. Bird. Oak
leigh Thorne, Mr.. and Mrs. George p. Tango
man, J. d. Newbod and Talbot j. Taylor.
Mr.. Guggenheimer said he had come
back to work for the reelection OF Mayor
Mcclellan. Bunau-Varilla said that he
advocated the construction Of high-level
lock canal because it was the chea pest.
quickest and simplest, and could be 1trans-
formed into sea level canal without in
terfcrng in the least with International
navigation" Ex-Mayor Schieren said that
he had been since June in the interior OF
Germany, where no American newspaper
peretrates. and that he had nothing to
say e1cut the rumor of his candidacy for
Mayor on fusion ticket.