Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-02-03
POINTS AT CUE ENDS.
THEY SCORE At THE TIP AND SHOW
CHARACTER At THE BUTT.

Watch q Man Playing Billiards. and You
win Learn Something About His Dispo-
.tt,on-How to Tell the ''sharp'--Signs
which Betoken the Mean Man.
During these days Of graphology, physi-
opnomy and bcotology-if l may coin a
word for the science of character studying
from ones old boots-it will not be sur
prising to learn that mans many weak
nesses and good or bad qualities invaria-
Div manifest themselves when "cannon-
nr', or sshazarding" with the fascinating
worries. Let me see a man play hundred
up, and 1 will tell you with unerring ac-
curacy more about his everyday character
than the ordinary observer would know
after years of close intercourse.
A well known authority, in treatise
on billiards, by way Of warning to the
tyro. SAYS, sBeware OF the man who car
ries the chalk in his trousers pocket and
calls the marker John, for verify he is
sharp" With all due Difference to the writ
er of the advice. / must say that my own
experience is in direct antipodes to his
aphorism. The sharp Of today is not SO
easily spotted. You see that man playing
over at the far table, possessed of child
like and land manner? Well, that is the
modern billiard sharp. With patent leath-
err boots and dressed with faultless taste,
he lies in wait for tie unsusIicious and
confiding learner. To all appearances he
is perfect stranger to the marker, and it
would not do to hint that the latter is
subsidized and 'igoes whacks" in the spoil
Our gentleman sharp, you will notice, ln-
uuires innocently the way to turn the
marking board, makes tremendous num-
her of scientific misses, does not carry the
| chalk in his pocket, makes shots worthy
| of Roberts himself and then apologies for
them to his unsuspecting opponent as
| "beastly flukes" He is most profuse with
81 beg your pardon, SIR" when he "unin-
teutionally" pots his antagonists white
| and assures him, with every expression of
| sincerity, that ''he played for a screw can
non."
At the commencement of the game he in
sinuatingly suggests that the small sum
of IS. Cd. shall be stake on the game, not
for the sake of having a bet, but just to
have a little "interest" in the game, while
| his real reason is to have both principal
and interest in his pocket. He never wins
by too many. and then he has been "ex-
ceedingly lucky to win, ""the balls ran
for him" but he will give his opponent
''double or quits on the next game if he
cares to have his revenge. He constantly
calculates "Hard lines, sir" "You are
having all the bad luck, and so the sharp
plucks his pigeon. -
| From my experience should say that no
game of skill in the world brings out a
man 8 meanness like billiards. There is a
mean man playing. Watch him prepare
for the combat. Probably he has argued
| his friend into giving him half the game,
for he never plays with stranger-he
might get taken in, he says. See him care
fully chalk his cue and with what care
and anxiety he gives the preliminary miss
| in balk, his face expressive of his mental
| agony for fear the ball should stop out of
| balk. Watch him during the progress of
the game, how he walks round the table
| and views the position of the balls when
it is his stroke from every part of the Ia
| BILE, lest he should by an oversight give
his opponent an advantage. His hesita-
ton over each shot is prolonged, and when
he does make up his mind to strike his
| nervous prostration is terrible as the balls
go spinning round the table, and he knocks
one of the shades off as he fiourishes his
cue about in his endeavor to influence the
/ course of the balls. Great is his disap-
pointment when he fails to score Listen
to his grumbles deep and loud when his ad-
versary brings off "a fluke" Let us leave
him, for it is dreadfully painful to play
with him, and to see him grudgingly part
with shilling, if he be the loser, is like
having tooth drawn. "When tound'' in
| billiard room, "make note Of and
avoid. The jolly, good natured man is the
life and soul of the room. He doesn t care
straw whether he wins or loses. he
wants Il game and means to enjoy it,
(which ball do prefer" he says. 81
don't care. They are both round" OF ht
I goes, forgets to chalk his cue and then
| laughs heartily when he gives a miss, rare
ly asks for points, and if you beat hin
will ask you to have a cigar, tips the mark
er and laughs loud and long when you
make some extraordinary fluke. You play
carelessly with the generous man, and as
| consequence often get beaten, but you
take your defeat kindly enough from q
man like this.
The grumbler and the mean man at bill
lizards are very much akin, and you take 9
keen delight, in which the spectators par
ticipate, in giving him sound beating
He is to be met with in every large room
and whether the game be pool, pyramids
or billiards his grumbles are to the fore
to the annoyance Of every one. with thu
result that he gets intensely hated. He il
always being "sold'' at pool and is ''th'
unluckiest man in the world" "Gets the
yellow ball, which is crooked, nine times
out of ten," and he "missed a certain divi
sion through one of the spectators ordering
mild and bitter" His tip always comes
off on an important stroke which woulc
have won him the game, he "missed big
break through his ball, which, by the way
is anything but round. jumping over al
infinitesimal piece of chalk on the cloth,
which the marker fails to find. There II
not straight cue in the room, the cush
ions are too slow or too fast, bad light
the gas flickers, the room is drafty. Who
can make shot with all this row? AND
the marker is the worst he ever meta al
ways talking to some one and not paying
attention to the game" One would won
der that he continues to play with all these
various conditions against him. He leaves
the room in a temper every night, to thu
great relief of the frequenters, solemnly
vowing that he will never play again, only
to bob up grumblingly the next night. Ht
"A L. = - II T.