The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-01 00:00:00

BMW ds in America.

Last Friday evening Pierre Carme gave a second exhi-
bition of billiards at his rooms on Broadway and Twenty-
second-street, the first having been given two weeks pre-.
viously. The attendance was very large, numbering not
less than four hundred of the leading amateur and profes-
sional players of the city, and the entertainment one of tire
finest ever vouchsafed the lovers of artistic billiards. It
had been expected that Michael Phelan and John McDe-
vitt would likewise exhibit their surpassing skill in hand-
ling the cue ; but the former had to leave town in the
afternoon, and McDevitt, though present early in the even-
ing, did not play. Hence the labours and honours of the
exhibition fell to Carme himself and young JohnW. Mont-
gomery, of the Eclectic Billiard Room, Third Avenue.
The entertainment opened with a game between Carme
and Montgomery, which the former won in about forty
minutes. Such playing as that done by Carme during these
forty minutes was never seen before, and probably will
never be seen again. In six innings, and while Montgo-
mery scored nine points only, Came made nearly seven
hundred, averaging 106 points to the inning. His best
"runs" were 133 and 434. This playing was done on 5
second-size carom table, it is true ; but the performance
will lose nothing of its merit, especially in the minds of
experts, when it is known that the incomparably service-
able pushing shot was ignored altogether, and also that
the balls were never " crotched"—i.e., wedged in a corner
of a table. In the course of his run of 434, which is the
largest ever made in public by strictly legitimate or un-
questionably skilful means, the player had to make about
a dozen masse shots.
At the conclusion of the game, Carme transferred his
field of operations to a full-sized carom table, upon which
he executed a variety of his fancy strokes, such as jumping
the cue-ball over another ball and causing it to returnan"
effect a carom without the aid of the cushion ; making
carom by sending the cue-ball around a hat; caroming by
jumping into, upon, and over the hat ; caroming upon *
ball held between the fingers of an assistant and some
three or four feet above the table ; caroming upon balls
placed on top of champagne bottles without breaking the
latter; playing from one table, and by first sending his
ball through two hoops crossed, and then through a cir"
ens balloon, effecting a carom by causing the cue-ball to
take four cushions upon an adjoining table, &c. His con"
eluding stroke was far the most intricate and marvellous
of all ; and if it had been necessary to convince the audience
that Carme is a thorough master of his art, and has more
of billiards at his finger-ends than any other expert in the
States, if not in the world, the proof was ample in the con"
which closed this portion of the entertainment. Placing
nine flag-bearing bottles at as many different points of the
table, he propels one after the other with the utmost
rapidity six balls around the table with such nicety of force
and direction as to commingle them in a specified corner
and within a marked radius of nine inches. While this
stroke is being developed the six balls are in motion, souls
of them taking five, some six, and one seven cushioned
and though they pass, repass, go between, around, an
dangerously near the bottles, it Is seldom that one is struc",
and none have yet been broken. From the fact of the
bottles being dressed off with petite American flags, and
balls used being of the national colours, Carme has home;
rously designated this six-movement stroke "The Re"'
White, and Blue, or Yankee Doodle Shot."
These fantastic strokes having been gone through with,
the second-sized table was again brought into requisition:
and Messrs. Carme and Montgomery played the conclud-
ing game, 150 points up, push-shot loaned. Carme won .t
easily, Montgomery making but 41 points.— Wilkes'
York Spirit of the Times.