The herald., 1895-12-01
A SCIENTIFIC
GAME OF BILLIARDS
lI9Il9I99T1IGT@G9I9T1I9 9I91INIgI1I9I1I11IG

| Vde game of billiards is purely and
simply a matter OF physics. 1t is, in the
last equation, nothing moro nor less
| than problem in mathe m atice. That
man who can most accurately calculate
! forces, angles, distances. will win IN the
game, because those are the basic fun
damental principles of billiards and moth
| ing else can change them.
| Tristram knew this-Tristrain Woods,
one of the wisest of the young men in
Camelot. He rather suspected it on his
first visit to the billiard room, whore four
groups OF we'll dressed fellows were
punching the ivories about as many
tables and abusin- their luck. 1t was
absurd.
! His suspicious were strengthened in
second visit, and on subsequent investi-
| cations he became roote1 and grounded
in unalterable conviction. And after that
he pursued his investigations-never,
however, touching cue-till the whole
scheme was as clear as day.
The angle OF DETECTION will always be
| equal to the angle of Incidence, and the
/ attraction of gravity cannot more safely
be depended upon. Given cue of GER
tain weight. the exercise of fixed force
| in the hand and arm and the ball of a
certain specific gravity and position will;
always travel precisely the same distance.
Struck against the cushion at certain
angle and rolling fair, 1t will always re.
bound at an equal angle. When travel.
ing with certain momentum and strik-
ing another pall of given resistance and
at certain facet, it will always carom
in the same manner. Nothing easier.
! Tristram, as he progressed in his
studies of applied physics, went to a
| great theater anh saw two aspirants for
the championship struggle through all
evening, and did not wonder when the
victor was declared the winner Of for
! tune. There was more money in it
than in anything else in whi CHI Tristram
could engage. And these fellows who
bad occupied the attention of great audi
encs for three hours didn't know the
( simplest mathematical equation. What
cinch for an educated man
So Tristram went away and took
course in geometry. After he had mas-
tered that till its principles trlpped off
his understanding as the dew from the
rack of a duck, he advanced one step
farther, for he felt that deeper principles
! were hidden in the jupgles of trigonom-
etry. He was surprised to lind how much
of practical billiard value there was in
the science. And he chuckled as be
thought OF the advantage he would have
| over the uneducateh players OF all lands.
And while he was going he went on,
| and took up Calculus. When he had
| mastered that till the teacher protested
! with bushes that there was no more fur
him to learn he felt prepared for his
conndest of fortune and the world.
IL ii xsckn IN 70
diedth part lof an inch; angles to the
fraction of DETECTION; concentric forces
to the millioneth division of an onnce of
| force. Nothing was unknown to him.
Nothing was empirical. He had the
established principles of creation at the
tips of his fingers.
And then he could wait no longer. He
planned q great tournament, where he
should win diamonds from all comfrs,
and leap magnificent into the sport ns
arena. Heswent up to the hall where the
greatest CT billiard experts usually con-