The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT The Many-Sided Mr. Culbertson By William E. Bohn Now that Ely Culbertson is dead. I have a feeling that my relation to him should have been closer and more rewarding. I must hasten...
...The Second World War was coming to an end...
...In time, the UN was established without a military force...
...But he was not talking to his guests as an anti-Communist...
...I am devoted to bridge, but I play a game which is more venturesome and amusing than scientific...
...His looks, his manners, his varied and mysterious connections—everything about him fitted him to serve as the hero of a mystery...
...Culbertson called us into a circle in one of the larger rooms...
...I must hasten to explain that my connection with the great authority on contract bridge had nothing to do with any card game...
...With perfect ease and a good deal of charm, he gradually opened up the matter which he had on his mind...
...Engineering had been his original profession...
...After a time, in response to some sort of psychic tug...
...Suddenly he was there...
...In the course of time, I grew restless and began to wander from room to room...
...I turned around and there was a beautiful brunette in an evening gown...
...The books turned out to be concerned with engineering and international affairs rather than with card games...
...Bottles of Scotch, Bourbon, rye and soda were at the visitor's disposal...
...I continued to read his bridge column, but had no occasion to visit him or keep myself informed as to what he was doing and thinking...
...As my fellow guests checked in, I realized that our host had called together a group of economists and historians...
...I hope that some writer with sufficient interest and talent will some day put this man in a novel or play...
...From the start, I was of the opinion that this project, brilliantly though it had been developed and presented, would never be adopted...
...Most of the academic experts agreed with me...
...In carpet slippers, comfortable slacks and luxurious-looking blue velvet smoking-jacket...
...He had been born in Eastern Europe of an American father and a Cossack mother...
...1 am sure that the great card-shark never would have invited me to his apartment to discuss his one-over-one system of bidding...
...Soon we were deep in conversation—which she conducted effortlessly in the way of a society queen rather than a professional secretary...
...Comfortable chairs and an abundance of books and magazines suggested pleasant ways of passing one's time...
...Now that he is gone, it seems to me that I made a mistake...
...Later, I studied printed expositions of it and attended meetings at which it was discussed...
...He had worked out a quota plan for a United Nations military force which would be able to maintain the peace of the world...
...He had spent his childhood in Russia, had often visited the country, and was, consequently, never taken in by the Communists...
...When Mr...
...And now that people were furiously thinking about world organization, he proposed to approach that subject in the same way...
...It was too mechanical for this disordered world...
...Preliminary plans for the United Nations were on the griddle...
...He was, we began to perceive, much more than a bridge expert...
...Culbertson appeared, his entrance, too, was mysterious and soundless...
...For a considerable time, the author's reputation brought the scheme into a good deal of prominence...
...He had taken up bridge experting because he figured—and correctly—that that was the best way to make plenty of money in a hurry...
...Once I was present when one of the card wizard's assistants came in to ask a question about his daily bridge column, but my business with him was of another sort...
...The first time I was invited to his living quarters—as I remember it, they were on East 58th Street—a secretive elevator man took me up some six or eight floors and let me into an apartment which was luxuriously furnished but entirely untenanted...
...Presently Mr...
...Culbertson's secretaries...
...Culbertson's contribution to the discussion was forgotten...
...My invitation had hinted that the party was to be devoted to international affairs...
...The carpets were so deep that my footsteps were muffled...
...I listened with interest to his presentation of the plan...
...he presented the perfect picture of a gentleman of leisure set to have a good time with his friends...
...There was not a sound...
...Culbertson expounded his ideas...
...But we all respected the patience and cleverness with which its author continued to present it...
...I poured myself a drink and made myself at home...
...He had succeeded at bridge by applying to it the principles of mathematics which he had learned as an engineer...
...She addressed me by name and told me that she was one of Mr...
...I allowed an interesting and important man to slip away from me without getting from him what he could have given...
...This card player was making a bid for attention in the great game where the fate of the world was at stake...
...Several times, I sat on the platform as member of a discussion panel as Mr...
...There were good men there from most of our New York institutions of learning—all of them obviously curious about what was up...
Vol. 39 • January 1956 • No. 3
