h, going the length of saying the newly-wedded Chief Magistrate had
actually struck his wife and forbidden me the Executive Mansion, though
I had been there every day during the week that followed.

Mr. Cleveland believed the matter too preposterous to be given any
credence and took it rather stoically. But naturally Mrs. Cleveland was
shocked and outraged, and I made haste to stigmatize it as a lie out of
whole cloth. Yet though this was sent away by the Associated Press and
published broadcast I have occasionally seen it referred to by persons
over eager to assail a man incapable of an act of rudeness to a woman.

II

Mr. Cleveland was fond--not overfond--of cards. He liked to play the
noble game at, say, a dollar limit--even once in a while for a little
more--but not much more. And as Dr. Norvin Green was wont to observe of
Commodore Vanderbilt, "he held them exceeding close to his boo-som."

Mr. Whitney, Secretary of the Navy in his first administration, equally
rich and hospitable, had often "the road gang," as a certain group,
mainly senators, was called, to dine, with the inevitable after-dinner
soiree or seance. I was, when in Washington, invited to these parties.
At one of them I chanced to sit between the President and Senator Don
Cameron. Mr. Carlisle, at the time Speaker of the House--who handled
his cards like a child and, as we all knew, couldn't play a little--was
seated on the opposite side of the table.

After a while Mr. Cameron and I began "bluffing" the game--I recall
that the limit was five dollars--that is, raising and back-raising each
other, and whoever else happened to be in, without much or any regard to
the cards we held.

It chanced on a deal that I picked up a pat flush, Mr. Cleveland a pat
full. The Pennsylvania senator and I went to the extreme, the President
of course willing enough for us to play his hand for him. But the
Speaker of the House persistently stayed with us and could not be driven
out.

When it came to a draw Senator Cameron drew one card. Mr. Cleveland and
I stood pat. But Mr. Carlisle drew four cards. At length, after much
banter and betting, it reached a show-down and, _mirabile dictu_, the
Speaker held four kings!

"Take the money, Carlisle; take the money," exclaimed the President. "If
ever I am President again you shall be Secretary of the Treasury. But
don't you make that four-card draw too often."

He was President again, and Mr. Carlisle was Secretar