Waterbury Democrat., 1900-11-15
llTgLEASE shut the door quickly, as |
 2 the slightest draught of cold l

the slightest draught of cold
 air might make hundreds of dollars worth of my charges check and crack and become useless" This vas my salutation as ] sought the little cubby-hole ivory room" of one of the largest billiard supply houses in the country, bent on having talk with the veteran turner of ivory whose prac- ticed eye and deft touch had beep called into play to fashion all the bill Hard balls that hasesbsen used in cham pionahips in this country for nearly a score of years. It may be no eXaggera- ton to say that if this noted manipula- tor of the chisel and chuck lathe does not actually turn into sS perfect spheres man can fashicn, % per cent. of all the billiard balls you may zee in public billiard halls and on the tables of the wealthy, he at least selects the rough -sphsroids of ivory that are passed to his chief assistants to be turned under his immediate direction.
 George C. Britncr is getting oIG. It was away back ia 1s4& that he began turning ivory balls in the shop of T. t D. Ford, in Philadelphia. Almost 74 years old. he acknowledges that it takes him longer than ii used to study out sisters" from the mass of ivory in the rough. But it is really 2 pleasure to lovcr of fine mechanics to see the veteran. when Jacob Schaeffcr or Fla gene Carter, George S!osson, or some other leading light in the billiard world has give an order for . set of true billiard spheres, walk over to the lathe and run his hand over the bit of ivory revolving several hundred times Q min ute in the chuck of the lathe. He will take off Eh2ving of ivory so thin that it leaves trace like the most imPalpa ble powder on your n~nd. Yet that mas ter Work-nen sSnGe of touch, so acute and true.4 might be the means of dscid- jug . great contest for skill between two great biIli&rdiSts for $1,CCo 9 side.
 ObeyipG the injunction to close the door, l entered Mir. Britner's ivory room, and was soon gloating over hun dredx-ayc, thOusandS-of dollars worth of the beautiful product for which 50 many pachyderms in Africa and Asia have given up their lives.
 Britn-r knows ivory &s the Physician knows the human body. He says that ivory is ''5o times more cranky than an old Raaid,' and EwearS that he can make billiard ball true. Let a draught cf cold air strike it and the ball will be twisted into spheroid or checked 50 badly that it will be useless.
 This veteran has letters from all the billiard champions Of two or three dec ades. thanking him for the great care that he used in selecting the balls for champ ionShipa Perhaps no man in the dew world is more trusted by the pro fsssiGnal biIliardi&ts than "Oid Man Britner in the selection of ivory of the same density. life" action, weight, etc. for tournament set of balls. He has the intuitive faculty that must have come from over a half century of ivory carving. of selectiD. ''siSteI-'- ivory si4tcrs-that are as near alike in every respect as human proWcss can get them. Britner will eysn permit microscopic invsstiga tion to ascertain whether or not he has not taken the ivory that is nearest alike. Some times he even finds two rough blocks that came from the same tusk In those cases the making of two billiard balls almost perfectly resembling each other ia comparatively eaEy matter.
 BritneG is 8 deeP atudent Of the ivory question. Bluntly he declares that no human being will evsr invent a Gubsti- tute for ivory for billiardists, because