The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1895-09-06

by manifest themselves when "cannon.
lug or "hazardingn with the fascinating
worries. Let me see man play hundred
up, and win tell you with unerring nc
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, "Bevere Of the man who car.
RIGS the chalk in his trousers pocket ana
calls the marker John, for verify he is q
sharp with all due Difference to the writ
or Of the advice, must say that my own
experience Is in direct antipodes to his
aphurism. The sharp Of today is not SO
easily spotted. You see that man playing
over at the far table, possessed of a 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 the unsuspicious and
confding learner. To all appearances he
Is perfect stranger to the marker, and it
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 mum
her of scientific misses, does not carry the
chalk in his pocket, makes shots worthy
of Roberts himself and then apologies fol
them to his unsuspecting opponent as
"beastly nukes.n Heis most profuse with
al beg your pardon, sir" when he "unin-
tentioually" pots his antagonists white
and assures him, with every expression of
sincerity, that che played for screw eau.
| non.n
At the commencement Of the game he in
sinuatingly suggests that the small sum
of IS. Cd. shall be n stake on the game, not
for the sake of having n bet, but just to
have little "nterest" in the game, while
| his real reason il to have both principal
/ and interest in his pocket. He never wins
by too many, and then he has been lex
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. lie constantly
calculates "Ilard lines, sir, "You are
having all the bad luck, and so the sharp
plucks his pigeon.
From my experience | should say thatn
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
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-
- -. {. -. Il n.
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 grumbes deep and loud when his nd.
versary brings Off ga fluke." Let us leave
him, for il is dreadfully painful to play
with him, and to see him grudgingly part
with shilling, if he be the loser, Is like
having n tooth drawn. "Whcn fOund' in
billiard room, "make n note of aud
avoid. The jolly, good natured man is the
life and soul of the room. lie doesn't care
q straw whether he wins or loses. He
wants game and means to enjoy it.
(which ball do prefcryn he says. 81
don't care. They are both round" OF he
goes, forgcts 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 iluke You play
carelassly with the generous man, and as
consequence often get beaten, but you
take your defeat kindly enough from Il
, man like this.
The grumbler and the mean man at bill
lizards are very much akin, and you take a
, keen delight, in which the spectators par
ticipate, in giving him II sound beating
lie 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. lie is
always being "sold" ut pool and is 1.-THE
unluckiest man in the world" "Gets the
yellow ball, which is crooked, nine times
out of ten, " and he "missed II certain divi
sion through one of the spectators ordering
mild and bitter" His tip always come.
off on an important stroke which would
have won him the game, he "mssed big
break through his ball, which, by the way,
is anything but round, jumping over an
infnitesmal piece of chalk on the CLOTH >
; which the marker fails to find. "There IL
mt n atrnitylt pIIa i'm tIa room, ~ tho r,Gb