The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1901-07-05
THE BILLIARD TABLE
ORIGINALLY 1T WAS A SOMEWHAT
QUEER ARRANGEMENT.

QUEER ARRANGEMENT.
1t Was Square In shape and Had
Three Pockets, All on One side-The
Primitive Game Was Played with
Two Balls, Both white.
There were days m tn. dark ages when
even the best appointed of country houses
had to do without it's billiard table. In
those melancholy times our nobility and
gentry had to employ their all too numer-
Gus leisure hours in the domestic pastime
Of shOveloOard-or shutieboard-to give it
its more correct designation. This was a
table Of varying length, the longer the
better, generally about three feet or q
trifie more in width, and the game con-
sisted in 'shutfing" fat disks of metal
along 1t, with the object of leaving them
rs near the farther edge as possible. IL
the luck or skill of the performer left his
disk overhanging the edge, he scored
three, IL between the edge and a line
three or four inches of it two, and he
marked one for a shuttle that left him
between that line and one considerably
closer to him.
The game does not sound wildly excit-
Ing, but 1t was popular enough, and great
care was expended in the construction of
the tables. 1T is remarkable" says one
DIR. Plott, quoted In Strut, 'that in the
hall at Charley the Switchboard table,
though ten yards one foot and an inch
long, is made up of about 260 pieces,
which are generally about 10 inches long,
some few only excepted, that are scarce
foot, which, being laid on longer boards
for support underneath, are so accurately
Joined and glued together that no shuttle
board whatever Is freer from rubs or
casting"
The original billiard table, according to
Strut, was square and had only three
pockets, all on one side. about the
middle of the table was placed a small
arch Of iron and in a right line at lit
tie distance from it an upright cone call
ed the king" AT certain times, he goes
on to explain with a delightful vague
ness), it was necessary for the ball to be
driven through the one and round the 9TH
er without knocking either of them down.
OF the method Of scoring he is silent.
Mississippi (which he prefers to spell
with one "p'O appears from his descrip-
ton to have been a kind of bridge baga-
telle, while the rocks of Sicily was the
picturesque name given to that form of
bagatelle where the board is studded
with pins to guard the several holes. But
these have little to do with the real game.
1t Is interesting to notice that in the
reign Of George ii billiards were under
the ban of the law. f10 being the statuta-
BILE fine for any public housekeeper con-
victed of keeping n table on his premises.
In "The Game Of Billiards, Scientifically
Explained and Practically Set Forth In a
Series of Novel aud Extraordinary Stories,
Etc."-for those were the days of lengthy
title pages-the is u certain amount of
information to he CLEANED as to the early
game. This work was published in 1889
and written by Edward Kentfeld Of
Brighton, q player of no small impor-
lance In the old days. On the strength
of Shakespeare's well known line in An
tony and Cleopatra" this ingenious writ
er assigns to the game an antiquity at
least as old as the battle of Actium t31
B. c., UNLESS" he remarks with a
charming simplicity. 1--WE are to accuse
Shakespeare of a gross anachronism."
In 1880. however, occurs the first spe-
cifc mention Of table existing in Eu-
rope. France claims the credit. The
early tables, like those for shovelboard,
had beds of wood, oak for choice. Mar
BILE was occasionally used in the halls of
the great. Slate beds made their appear
ance for the first time in 1927. So, too,
the original pockets were wooden boxes,
and the cues were innocent of leather
tips, SO that side or draw were out of
the question. The cushions were origi-
naily stuffed with flock, subsequently,
made of list or felt. The rubber cushion
arrived at the same epoch as the slate
bed.
about 30 years ago." writes Kent
field, which would bring US to the date
Of the French revolution, cit was discov-
cred that IL a cue were cut obliquely at
the point or rounded little on one side,
30 as to present broader surface to the
ball, Il might be struck below the mid
die, and this strange instrument was then
adopted for occasional strokes and OBJ
tanned the name of Jeffery,' presuma-
bly, from Its inventor. 1t was not until
some 20 years later that leathern tips
began to come into fashion, and even
then 1t took some considerable time to
discover the virtues Of chalk"
The modern game developed as slowly
as the apparatus It required. Originally
there were only two white balls, and the
sole object of the player was to pocket
his opponent while keeping himself out.
1t was in fact pool reduced to the sim
plest possible form. Twelve up was the
customary game. On the introduction Of
the red ball 1t was felt that the game
would go too fast. so the winning" game
was introduced, In which the players
struck alternately. irrespective of sue
cess. Afterward came the swimming and
following game" in which the player fol-
lowed his stroke after winning hazard.
But In both of these games the pocket
Ing Of his own ball counted against the
player, which, by the way, Is the origin
of the term losing hazard"
The ordinary game, cannons and pock-
cts, appears to have developed itself soon
after the introduction of the red ball. 1t
was originally called 'carombole." and
the red ball was known (probably
through corruption of this wordl as the
"carom ball" In America a cannon is
still called a carom. Etymologists differ
as to whether our expression is still
further corruption. Cannons and losing
hazards once established In popular IA
vor, the game soon assumed a sufficiently
modern complexion. The frontispiece in
Kentfeld's folio volume, except for the
cut Of the players clothes, might almost
represent game in progress today.-Pall
Mall Gazette.