The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1894-03-09
POINTS AT CUE ENDS.
THEY SCORE AT THE TIP AND SHOW
CHARACTER AT THE BUTT.

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 a
word for the science of character studying
from ones old boots-it will not be sur
prising to learn that a 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
up, and l 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 treatise
on billiards, by way of warning 10 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
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 50
easily spotted. You see that man plsy ing
over at the far ia BILE, possessed of a child
like and land manner? Well, that in the
modern billiard sharp. With patent l=ath-
er boots add dressed with faultless TASTE
he lies in wait for the unsuspicious and
confidinG learner. To all appearances he
is Il perfect stranger to the marker, and 1t
would net 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 fiukes." He is most profuse with
81 beg your pardon, SIR" when he "un
tentionally" pots his antagonists win
and assures him, with every expression of
sincerity, that che played for a screw can
non."
At the commencement of the game he in
sinuatingly suggests that the small sum
of 2s 3D. shall be stake on the game, not
for the sake of having bet, but just to
have 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 tex
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
mans meanness like billiards. There is a
mean man playing. Watch him prepare
for the combat. Probably he has argued
] l., g., srA l. ho1 tbn
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 hesito-
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 flourishes 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 huke." 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
billiard room, "make note of" and
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 II 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 a 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 huke. You play
carelessly with the generous man, and as
a consequences often get beaten, but you
take your defeat kindly enough from q
man like this.
The grumLler and the mean man at bill
lizards are very much akin, and you take q
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 the
result that he gets intensely hated. He is
always being "sold" at pool and is "the
unluckiest mn 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 would
have won him the game, he "missed big
break through his ball, which, by the way,
is anything hut round, jumping over an
infinitesimal piece of chalk on the cloth, u
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 flickers, the room is drafty. Who
can make shot with all this row? And
lhe marker is the worst he ever metal
rays 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. eleaves
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 grumblingly the next night. He
rant help it, poor fellow 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 UTake nOintspn Not hel HWill