Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-09-05
CATION TAUGHT HIM.
Rock Island BiiIiardist Recalls
Career of Frank c.
Ives.
HAD TRAVELLED TOGETHER MUCH.

| May Never Be Another Like the young
Napoleon" Who Passed Away Last
Week in Mexico, a Victim of ConsumP-
| tIon-He Went Back go Years to Learn
Game of Those Days.
| There may never be another bill
lard player like Frank Ives. His
skill was attained through absolute
application TO the first principles of
| billiards. He went back 20 years and
learned the billiards of those days.
Then he learned the more modern
| style, and the result was q master of
the game. There may never be an
other like him or Schaefer."
This is the way Billy Cation sums
up the skill of Frank Z. Ives. the
young billiard master who died in
Mexico of consumption last week.
Perhaps the Rock Islander knew him
Is well as any of the experts. He
had travelled with, him for number
of years, play ed with him in countless
exhibitions and was also familiar with
the Young Napoleon's" personal
affairs. Cation talked in an interest
ing manner of the dead expert and
has many stories to relate of him.
Regarding his billiards, Cation has
this to say:
MANY claim that Schaefer deserves
all the credit for making Ives great
master of billiards. That is only true
in measure. Schaefer never showed
Ives a shot in his life, for the simple
reason that Schaefer cannot show
anyone how TO play the game. He
can make any possible shot on the
table and many that are well nigh
impossible, but he does not know how
to teach others to do the same thing.
Ives found this out before he had
been with the wizard very long.
"Schaefer was born with that gift
of playing. Nobody had to teach
him. He knew the points the first
time he picked up the cue and after
that it was simply matter of prac-
tice. Not so with Ives. 1t was years
of hard labor for him to learn the first
principles of the game. He came
into the game when the leading eX-
perts were playing balk line. Natur
ally he did not know anything about
the old game of straight rail, and
when l first saw him he could run as
many at balk line as he could at
straight rail. He had never heard tell
of the rail nurse, excepting in vague
sort of way.
Cation Gives Advice.
lives got into conversation with
me about it once, and | told him that
he would never be a great expert until
he had learned the alphabet of bill
lizards. | took him over to a billiard
table and there, inside of half hour,
had shown him how to hold the balls
along the rail for long runs. He saw
that he had missed something and
that he had started the game at the
wrong end. He practiced the rail for
long time and this improved his
game more than 100 per cent the first
time he went back to balk line
lives was satisfied that my teaching
and advice made billiard player of
him and often told me that he would
never have amounted to much had he
continued to play balk line without
first learning the simple game of
straight rail. That l believe to be
only true in n measure, for Ives was
a man of remarkable application and
determination, and what he set out TO
do he was reasonably sure to accom-
plish-
Still, / can Justly claim to be en-
titled to some of the credit for making
him a great player, as he certainly
was-one of the four great masters of
the century. He studied Schaefer
every minute of the time they were
playing together and naturally picked
up much from him. But Jake was
never able to show him much"