The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-07-05
POINTS AT CUE ENDS.
THEY SCORE AT THE TIP AND SHOW
CHARACTER AT THE BUTT.


Wssch q Man Playing Billiards. and You
VIII Learn Something About His Dispo-
sition-How to Tell the "Sharp''-signs
Which Betoken the Mean Man.
During these days of graphology, physi-
ognomy and bootology-if l may coin
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-
bly manifest themselves when cannon
ing'' or "hazarding" with the fascinating
worries. Let me see man play hundred
I'D. and | will tell you with unerring &C
curacy more about his everyday character
than the ordinary observer would know
after years of close intercourse.
A well known authority, in a treatise
on billiards, by way of warning to the
tyro, says, ''Beware of the man who car
ries the chalk in his trousers pocket and
calls the marker John, for verify he is a
sharp" With all due Difference to the writ
er of the advice, l 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
er boots and dressed with faultless taste,
he lies in wait for the unsusplclous and
confidicg learner. To all appearances he
is perfect stranger to the marker, and 1t
would not do to hint that the latter is
subsidized and "goes whacks" in the spoil.
Our gentleman sharp, you will notice, in
quires innocently the way to turn the
marking board, makes tremendous num-
Der 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-
tentionally' pots his antagonists white
and assures him, with every expression OF
sincerity, that che played for screw can
Ilon.n
At the commencement of the game he in
.sjpuatipgly suggests that the small sum
of 2s. Cd. Shall i be b stake on the game, not
for the sake of having a bet, but just TO
have little interest in the g me, "nlie
his real reason is to have both l444,al
and interest in his pocket. He never VIM,
by too many, and then he has been tex
ceedngly 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
piucks his pigeon.
From my experience should say that no
game of skill in the world brings out a
mans meanness like billiards. There is a
mean man playing. Watch hinl argued
for the combat. Probably he the game
his friend into giving hira' stranger-he
for he, never pla!y, fns 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
cue about in his endeavor to influence the
course of the balls. Great is his disap-
pointment when he fails % 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 found" in
o,.I Of1
avoid. The jolly. good natured man is the
life and soul of the room. He doesn't care
a straw whether he wins or loses. He
wants a game and means to enjoy it.
(which ball do PREFER" he says. 81
don't care. They are both round" Off he
goes, forgets to chalk his cue and then
laughs heartily when he gives miss, rare
ly asks for points, and if you beat him
will ask you to have 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
a consequence often get beaten, but you
take your defeat kindly enough from a
man like this.
The grumbler and the mean man at bill
lizards are very much akin, and you take
keen delight, in which the spectators par
tlCtpdtG, III giving AiLu d SOuuu UcdoluS
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 the
result that he gets intensely hated. He is
always being 'sold" at pool and is ''the
unluckiest man in the world" "Gets the
yellow ball, which is crooked, nine times
out of ten" and he "missed a certain divi
e
a mild and bitter His tip always comes
off on an important stroke which would
have won him the game, he "missed big
break through his ball, which, by the way,
is anything but round, jumping over an
infinitesimal piece of chalk on the CLOTH"
which the marker fails to find. "There is
not straight cue in the room," the cush-
ions are too slow or too fast, bad light,
the gas fiickers, the room is drafty. Who
can make shot with all this row? And
the marker is the worst he ever metal
ways talking to some one and not paying
attention to the game" One would won
der that he continues toplay with all these
various conditions against him. He leaves
the room in a temper every night, to the
great relief of the frequenters, solemnly
vowing that he will never play again, only
to bob up grum blingly the next night. He
can't help it, poor fellowl 1t is his nature
Watch that youth over there. He has just
been talking of a big so break he made
while on his recent holidays and playing
the marker of the hotel at Sloshcum-on-
the-Sand. "Take points?'' Not hel evil
play the best player in the room level"
He rolls up his sleeves, takes the chalk out
of his pocket and after big flourish COM
mences the game. The uninitiated are pre-
pared for something big, but are doomed
10 disappointment, as the youngster is only
an empty boaster, just learning to play,
and after being hopelessly beaten by go
says he is out of form tonight and the table