Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1899-12-06

gets ratified will never arrive at the
championship class. With this good
quality goes the firm eye and the rigid
hand.
We will suppose that you two young
chaps are about to bank for position.
Now the four ball is little old fash
toned. 1t puts too many balls on the
table, so I'll dwell on the up-todate
three-ball game When you try for
lead have a cue that fits your hand
and isn't too heavy. | use one that
weighs 1872 ounces. I'm not a big
man. Ives used a 20-pound cue. He
wasn't bigger than | am, but he was
built like steel. Select a cue that
doesn't tire you. One that you won't
have to rest on the ground while you
are waiting your shot.
Keep 1t chalked. not only the tip,
but the wood part for nearly a foot
back of the leather. Don't look an
noyed because your friends sitting
about watch your chalk efforts and
make rude remarks Go right ahead.
When you get chance at a table
alone practice banking. 1t shows you
the value of force. Keep at 1t for hours
until you can drive the ball from in
front of you to the cushion far away
and back again until the ball rests
within an inch of the cushion under
your elbow. A good banker may de-
pend on the first shot and start in on
a good string, while the young fellow
who didn't practice bank shots is like
ly to lose the game.
When you are satisfied with max
ing long shots try from side to side
of the table.
1t is simple enough, this counting,
so it looks, but sometimes it isn't. All
you've got to do is to hit one ball with
a cue and make it strike another one
afterwards. Every one knows the
cushions or rails are of rubber, and
with the elasticity of the ivory balls
the height of life IN inanimate things
is reached. The cushions seem full of
life and the balls appear bewitched.
You think there are only four cor
ners to a billiard table. You are mis-
taken; there are four thousand. AS a
beginner you will think there is only
one place to hit the ball with your cue.
/ suppose, really, there are hundreds
ON top, on the sizes and underneath.
Each punch in a different spot means
a difference in results. Then, too, the
ball hit does different things, accord
ing to where it is struck by the cue
ball, which is whiz-ing to the right or
left, as the case may be when it en-
counters the ball Il is sent after.
The wooden bridge, which is always
in the way under the table, and which
young players use. is a clumsy thing
at best. Good PLAYERS never use one.
1t is operated, as ;ou may know, as
rest for the cue. T. is absolutely rigid,
and SO is bad thing. Never use one.
Learn to play with both hands, and
make your disengaged hand bridge.
1t will be sensitive. where the wooden
one is not. Another thing you must
learn is to never have your cue tip
further than ten inches from the hand
on which the cue rests nor less than
four inches off. II is clumsy and bad
billiards. l always corral the balls at
one or the other end of the table. BY
so doing / avoid the lengthy rail, as
the side cushion is called. My system
has been to keep the three balls, If
possible, between the string or the
string or the spot and the lower end
of the table, thus reducing the size of
the table from 5x10 feet to 21ax3 feet.
The reason is obvious-the working
space is cut in two Striking the ball
with the cue on the right or left side
instead of the centre diverts its course
when 1t hits the cushion, as well as
when it hits ball. This is called Eng
fish; why not Irish or Prussian,
do not know.
Hitting the ball underneath makes
it promptly come back to you after it
has hit the ball it was aimed at. Strik-
ing the ball from overhead with the
cue on one side makes the sphere per-
form little circulatory motions and go
around the corners. The follow shot,
consisting of striking the cue ball on
top, makes it run after the ball it hits
instead of coming back to you like the
draw shot.