Ancient Game

If you go out of Washington by the northwest, you will pass the Chevy Chase Country Club. There is a links. It was somewhere near the eleventh or twelfth hole--accounts vary--somewhere near one of these holes, on a pleasant June day, that a foursome was in progress. Part of it was on the fair green and part of it was in the foul. The part on the fair green consisted of Senators Joseph T. Robinson and Andrieus A. Jones. The part in the foul was Senators Thomas J. Walsh and John B. Kendrick. These latter had lost, or had failed to discover, their balls.

At this moment, coming up from the rear, was a threesome. In the van was Dr. James F. Mitchell, famed Washington surgeon. With him were Edward T. Clifford, onetime Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and the latter's son. Dr. Mitchell called "Lost ball? . . . Have you lost your ball? If so, we can go through!"

About this time, the junior Senator from Wyoming discovered his ball. Whereupon he, with Senators Jones and Robinson, holed out and allowed the threesome to go through, while they assisted the famed oil investigator in his search for his ball.

Then as the threesome was driving off from the next tee, the four Senators approached. What came next, no one cares to say except the participants--and they did not issue public statements.

It appears, according to one side, that Senator Robinson remarked that the threesome had been "insolent" all the way around.

It appears, according to the other side, that Dr. Mitchell asserted that golf was a "gentleman's game."

It appears, according to the first side, that Mr. Robinson retorted: "Go on and play before I hit you!"

It appears, according to the party of the second part, that Dr. Mitchell stuck his face well under Senator Robinson's nose and countered: "You are going to hit me, are you? You wouldn't hit anybody!"

And It appears, further, that Dr. Mitchell was wrong--in this last assertion at least--for the Democratic Leader in the Senate sent the eminent surgeon to the dust with a blow in the face.

Thereupon everybody intervened. The Board of Governors of Chevy Chase passed a resolution authorizing an investigation of the scandal.