The Senate has its traditions. One of them is free speech and another is poker. A great many Senators are extraordinarily hard workers, and of course relaxation is necessary. So poker has become a tradition, sub rosa. Last week the two traditions were brought together on the floor, to the great interest of venerable Senators.
Senator Underwood of Alabama (a Kentuckian by birth), one of the abler men of his party, "sound and conservative," who is serving his final term in the Senate, having announced that he will retire next March, had been pressing for an amendment to the Senate rules such as has been favored by Vice President Dawes—an amendment which would require a vote on revenue and appropriation bills to be taken and debate to be shut off by majority petition, so that bills may not be talked to death by a vociferous minority.
Senator Robinson of Arkansas, the nominal Democratic leader, made an impassioned protest against the Underwood proposal:
"The Senator from Alabama concludes his service in the United States Senate by an attack on its efficiency. He has enjoyed the privilege of the present rules to defeat legislation. Now, when the hour of his retirement is at hand he says this body does not operate efficiently.
"The Vice President and the Senator from Alabama would substitute for free speech here a gag rule that would be more intolerable than any tyranny ever manifested in any legislative body on this earth.
" Mr. Underwood rose to remonstrate that "the game must be played according to the rules," that the best hand (i.e., the majority) should win.
Mr. Underwood: "I want to illustrate. Possibly I cannot illustrate to my friend from Arkansas because he may not know the game."
Mr. Robinson: "To what game does the Senator refer?"
Mr. Underwood: "There is a game called draw poker—
Mr. Shortridge of California: "One moment, Mr. President—
Mr. Overman of North Carolina: "The Senator will have to explain what that means."
Mr. Underwood: "I'm going to illustrate if my friends will allow me."
Mr. Shortridge: "The Supreme Court of the state, of Kentucky has decided that it is not a game of chance but merely a scientific undertaking.
" Mr. Robinson: "The Senator from Alabama may draw the fire of the Senator from California by a reference to that mysterious amusement which he calls draw poker, but I assure him that the most of us have no knowledge whatever of the subject.
" Mr. Underwood: "I was sure of that and therefore I excluded my friend from Arkansas. ... I always try to be candid with my friends, and I am not afraid to say what I believe.* I have played the game of draw poker. I regret to say I am not an expert. That has been forcibly illustrated to me. The old game of draw poker has certain manifest rules and regulations as to what is the highest hand. I believe it is called a straight flush."
Several Senatorial Voices: "A royal flush!"
Mr. Underwood: "A royal flush. But as times progressed and we reached modern developments and modern ideas, innovations have been introduced into the game. They now allow deuces to run wild. I believe that is the term.