The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-11-05
ON THE POOL TABLE
The Sharp Makes Some Difficult Shots.
and Smiles.
1T IS AN ANCIENT PASTlME
After a Few Delicate Movements
He Rests on His Cue and Gives
Dissertation on the ins
and Outs of Billiards.

Missoula Nov. 1.-THE Pool Sharp
was lettering around the s!x-pocket ia
BILE at the club. making some seeming
ly impossible shots and waiting for
victim to appear. Seated near him,
admiring the ease with which he Jug
gled the worries. were three or four
loungers who were resting comforta-
bly, after their Sunday dinners and
iazily hoping that some tenderfoot
would appear and give the Sharp
run for his money. But nobody showed
up and. after he had put down all the
balls and then scattered them over the
table for another try. the Sharp made
a difficult combination shot which sent
two balls into the pockets and then
smiled as he heard the expressions OF
surprise from his audience.
do you know" said he. ''that this is
a very ancient game? Centuries ago,
billiards and pool were the same game
and were all PLAYED on tables which
had six pockets or some substitutes for
pockets. Later. the two side pockets
were discarded and only four used.
Then all of them were abandoned and
what we call the billiard table was
adopted. Then came in the distinction
between pool and billiards. l have
been studying this question a little and
l find that all of the great men since
Nobody knows exactly when bill
lizards was invented. but when Shakes
peare makes Cleopatra say, let us TO
billiards. CHAIRMAN 1t is probably one
of his anachronisms. A picture of Bill
lizards in 1910 shows a rude table with
out pockets. but in their place two
small croquet hoops. There are two
balls and each player holds a short
curved stick, or 1t may be a fiapper
made of leather with which he APP
parently slaps the ball instead of
punching It, Cue is from the French
queue. which means a tail or handle
and this implement Of 1910 looks like
an animals tail. Billiards is from the
French, billie. a ball. and carom, or
carrom. is from the French carambole,
meaning the same thing, or some say
IL is a corruption of qultre boules,
meaning four balls. The English call
a carom a cannon. All these terms
show the game to be OF French origin.
at is only within the last half of
the present century that billiards has
become what might be called a science,
owing to the increase of skill made
possible by the Improvement i'm cush-
ions and cue tips. 1t is an expensive
game. Ivory. of which the balls are
made, grows constantly scarcer, and
the costly cloths soon wear out.
would not advise any youth to learn
allowance Of pocket money. and good
deal of spare time. To play well needs
a long apprenticeship and few players
ever get beyond a certain point of skill
Take a hundred players and there may
be one or two experts. The others
might fairly be handicapped into about
three classes"
The Sharp then banked a ball for
corner pocket into which II rolled
without hitting a side. He leaned upon
his cue IS II there were nothing hard
enough for him. Seeing that his hear
ers were interested in his dissertation,
he continued: after the small French
tables without pockets had been intro
duced, which was about 1868, the
French carom game became popular
and since then the three ball game has
reigned supreme. In those days, there
were no tables owned privately, and
there were very few clubs, but every
large hotel had a billiard room and
there were many public rooms. These
frequent changes in the form of the
table were expensive and the new
game was difficult. so one old six-pock-
ct table. at least. was left in every
room. When the players became too
proud to play the old game, fifteen
ball pool was introduced. and being
found of great profit to the house.
was encouraged.
- SObu htdl VI human nature is 10
be seen around pool table. To the
disinterested spectator the sport would
seem to come mostly from pounding
heavily with .he cues on the floor and
shouting 'haw. hawr at a scratch
This. however. is no part of the game.
In the regular 15-ball game. the balls,
variously colored and striped. owere
numbered from l TO Is. and counted
on the score as fast as they were holed,
according to their individual value. To
this. gradually succeeded pyramid
pool with the Is balls all red and un-
numbered, a plurality pocketed to win.
The plaids and stripes on the old balls
confused the eye of the player
The English game OF pool Is played.
or would be II 1t ever were played at
all in this country.-with only two
balls, the red being spotted near the
upper rail. 1t is too slow for Ameri-
cans, and is primarily a betting game,
while as rule no betting on billiards
is sanctioned in this country. In French
pool one OF the Is numbered balls is
placed against each button, or sight.
emitting the lower rail, and beginning
close TO top corner pocket Each
player must play for II and continue
10 play on the one-ball until somebody
holes II, and then they aim for the
two-ball. or IL the two has been scra tch-
ed in, for the threeball. and so on. In
spanish pln-pOol, nNe pins numbered
from 1 10 are grouped in the middle
OF the table on spots specially placed
for them. There are two white cue
balls and one red object ball There
is a complication OF drawing a number,
which is held secretly and added to
the value OF the pins knocked down.
The game is to make exactly 81, and
the player Is out who gets more than
81. A natural wins and ends. This
is when the four outside pins are
knocked over. leaving the center pin
standing alone.
I'm Germany. the students are fond
OF variation Of pin pool But in Ger
many all billiard games are counted
haolnuyardz That e the, ~. - =