The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-29
SENATORS PLAYED POKER.
washington Post.)

washington Post)
young-old Washington club man,
a gentleman who has been on terms OF
social intimacy with the most noted
men at this capital for more than a
generation, was recalling. a few even
ings ago. some distinguished poker
fiestas, the memory OF which fingered
with him.
THE game Of draw had a strong
fascination for so brainy a man as
Roscoe COnkling," said he. land he
was as delightful poker antagonist as
ever tried to fill an in-the-middle
straight Conkling was savagely crit
icised for his hauteur, as exhibited IN
public. but in private intercourse with
his friends he seemed to shed his ar
rogance as if it had been a shell. For
this reason I've always believed ana
maintained that the domineering man
ner he exhibited in public, which often
caused him to be hopelessly misunder-
stood, was a good deal of a pose. From
the very beginning of his service in
Washington the Washington CORE
spondents paraded Conkling as a sort
of Ajax defying- the-lightning and L
am of the opinion that it suited Conk-
ling's fancy, when he perceived that it
would be quite impossible for him to
clear himself Of this reputation, to
study the part that had been thrust
upon him, and to portray it with con-
sistency and elaboration throughout
his public career.
He was powerfully fond of the game
Of draw, as I started to say, and dur
ing the last four or five years of his
senatorial career he would occasionally
drop in at John Chamberlins while
congress was in session to sit into a
game there with friends, all of them
prominent public men, who enjoyed 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 play
ers. The weU-stored mind and Gull
tured intellect of the New York senator
never shone more brightly nor more
variOusly than during these memoir
able sessions at poker with his friends
and cronies.
A Great Bunch.
"Quite often some of those among US
who were not fortunate, or unfOrtun-
ate, enough to be swirlers in the vortex
of public life would be invited to take
a hand at these poker seances; and I
for one possess no more valued recoI-
lectiOns than those that often Tecur to
my mind Of the occas ions on which I
played poker with Roscoe COnkling
sitting at the other side of the table.
General Phil Sheridan was often one
Of the players at these meetings, and
when General Sherman was living in
Washington he, too, would frequently
happen around and take q hand when
the game was in progress at. Chamber
Inns.
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 constantly hurl witty dabs
at each other. and the oral sparring be-
tween these two remarkable men was
brilliant and diverting in the extreme.
Their pOkes at each other were always
gOOd-natured and harmless. Different
IS they were in profession and temper
ament, COnkling and Sherman were
about evenly matched in wit and in
their mastery Of repartee. and both
men seemed to find pleasure in prac-
ticing on each other I'm their hours of
relaxation, especially at these card
meetings
'CcnkIing.' said General Sherman
one night to the New York senator
when the game was in progress. that
Hyperion curl Of yours may now as
sumo an added twist, the effect Of woe.
and that Herculean chest prepare to
array itself in a tunic OF penitentiaI
sackcloth-for I'm sure you got licked.
Full house. knaves atop of eights,' and
General Sherman spread his hand out
on the table.
Exchanging Bluffs.
Sherman said the New York SEN
ator, a beatific smile Pickering at the
corners of his mouth when YOU
marched to the sea at that extremely
theatrical period of your career. and
reached the sea, it would have been a
good deal better for you had you kept
right on marching, even to the point
Of complete and final submersion, thus
sparing yourself the modification of
being thrashed right out of your boots
at this stage of your life by a mere
civilian. Four deuces, and ConkIing
raked in the pot with q flourish, while
grizzled old Tecump chewed the ex-
tinct butt Of his cigar thoughtfulIy.
But it was against General Phil
Sheridan that Conkling played his
hardest. The two men were great
chums and confdants, but when they
got into a poker game together-it was,
of course, in a perfectly gOod-natured
sort Of way-give and take and no
quarter. When Sheridan was in the
game COnkling simply addressed ali of
his study and skill to the task of beat
ing out the hero of Winchester, while,
on the other hand, Little PhlP would
pay hardly any attention at all to the
other players, he was so eager to pum-
mel his friend Conkling. Very often
the rest of US would, at a sort of tacit-
ly understood signal, drop out, just for
the fun of seeing Com ing and SheTi-
dan at each others thrOats, SO to
speak.
Phil said Conkling one night when
he thought his hand was invincible,
be advised I have your interest at
heart. We ali admire your historic and
present rashness-but, Phil be advised.
Consider your natural aversion to
smoking a pipe. If you proceed with
me on this, you'll be compelled to smoke
a pipe, instead OF cigars, virtually until
your retirement. This time you are
not only twenty miles away. You are
20. 900, 90 10000 miles in the distance,
and you haven't a chance in life to
traverse the ground. Can me-
T" 'Conkling.' replied Little Phil with
those two red fighting spots on his
cheekbones burning brightly, you're a
stupendous, q colossal buffer, and I'll
see you dangling from that sour apple