Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1896-08-04
BELLIES AND BILLIARDS.
Fashionable Women Who Are. Expert
in Handling the Cue.

IcoPYRIGHT. 1896
AS standard amusement for
winter and summer, country resi-
dence and city club house, billiard
PLAYING has held its own for years.
1t is taste inherited from English
ancestors and is a sport at once good
for developing adroitness of mind
and suppleness Of body.
There are indeed few sports
which afford a graceful woman an
opportunity to appear so graceful,
or q clever woman OF revealing her
mental alertness, as the time
honored game Of billiards.
Women have been enthusiastic
billiard players since the reign Of
Louis Nv. but it is in the English
country house that the feminine
billiard devotee reigns supreme. The
American beauty has only in recent
years taken her cue and given her
attention to fitting up splendidly
decorated rooms wholly devoted to
her new fad for managing a ball on
table as cleverly as she does on
the golf link or tennis court
The Astors, Vanderbilts, Gerrys
and Goclets all have finely fitted
billiard rooms in their homes.
Mrs. George Gould has been
called the best woman billiard
player ii America. She studied
under Sexton and has fine tables
both in her town house and country
home in the Catskills. She has
mastered all the fancy shots and
beats her husband in a handicap
game.
Young Mrs. ]. ]. Astor, who
seems to have a particular aptitude
for every known sport, is brilliant
expert She learned to manage
balls and cue in Philadelphia and
subsequently supervised personally
the arrangement of a billiard room
in her Fifth avenue home.
Miss Gerry is an excellent shot
and does systematic daily practicing,
She prefers billiards to tennis, goli
or even bicycling.
Miss Gertrude Vanderbilt, who is
a fine horsewoman, and generally
appreciative of all outdoor sports, is
also familiar with the delights Of
spinning balls over green balze; but
she is not thought to be particular
ly enthusiastic, in spite of the fact
that the Vanderbilt billiard room is
one of the finest in the city.
Mrs. Fred Gerhard acquired her
skill as a billiard player at her
former home in Baltimore.
Mrs. Herman Oelrich owes her
clever game TO her husbands skillful
coaching.
Another fashionable woman who
excels iS the ever popular pastime
is Mrs. Nicholas Fish. Mrs. FISH
has her billiard room fitted up in
the Coolest possible fashion and fire,
quently serves tea there to the ex.
perts with whom she enjoys match,
ing her skill, or to the novices whom
she is fond Of aiding in their efforts
to rival Slosson and DAILY.
Other women who are known as
billiard players as we'll as beauties
and social leaders are: Mrs. Burke
Roche, Mrs. Cooper Hewitt, Mrs.
Frederick Brokaw, Mrs. Ogden Mills
and Mrs. Whitelaw Reid. In Paris,
where the game is popular and
thoroughly understood, Mrs. REID
was considered a PLAYER of rare
ability.
Among the younger bellies, al
though they as rule rather incline
to outdoor sports, there is goodly
contingent who are famous for theil
skill and grace at the billiard table,
Miss Amy Bend, one of the duchess
Of Marlborough's bridesmaids, is ar
excellent player; also Miss Corbir
and Miss Louise Nissan, the
daughter of the banker.
The fact that billiards is a game
requiring nimble wit, a ready re.
Spouse of muscle to brain, and sup
pleness of physique, rather than
Drawn and powers of endurance,
particularly recommends it to wom-
ankind as an exercise at once health.
full and becoming.