The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-12-31
WILLIE HOPPE A WONDER.
Tllirteen-Year-oId hoy Is Likely to
Become a Champion


Become a Champion.
Not more than thirteen years of age,
and yet an expert billiard player of sew
en- years standing, little Willie Hoppe,
formerly of Cornwall-on-th e-Hudson, and
now OF New York. promises to lead the
world.
On an average of ten hours a day the
youthful wielder of the cue practices the
| most difficult shots. No sooner is one
match game entered upon than another
| is planned. Aggressive, enthusiastic, am
! bilious, he walks up to the green cloth
against the foremost adversaries of the
world perfectly calm, self-possessed, and
slzillful. Lately he played a match game
for six days, two contests day. with
| Louis Barutel, the famous French bill
| liardiSt who came over to America to
enter the international championship
games for the leadership of the world.
| Other matches are scheduled in various
| parts of America, and then Master Hoppe
| he will appear in series with foreign
| adverSares. This is a feat that no
! billiardist of the world ever attempted at
SO youthful an age. In fact, it mas been
asserted upon authority that Willie"
Hoppe stands today at the age OF thir-
teen where men like Student Slosson
and veteran" Schaefer stood at the
age of thirty.
age boy-that is all. There is nothing
| of what George AIDE would call an am
| plification of the coco;" nothing that is
| not perfectly normal, genuine, and sin
cere. He has the steel gray eye of the
| hunter and the long fingers of the artist.
He is silent, thoughtful, and modest and
! takes applause after wonderfully diff
| ficult shot or a long run at the. three
| ban game with no evidence of vain
! glory. He is the normal lad in every
respect, save an intult1ve perceptlon OF
| billiards, and in that he is genius.
| Nothing equal to young Hopes WORK
| at his age has ever appeared, said the
| veteran billiardist. Maurice DAILY. If he
i continues to improve for the next twenty
simply be invincible. He is not by any
! means a world beater yet which is nat
ural enough. but If ever there was
born billiardist it is Willie Hoppe.
"He has an instant grasp of posslbilt-
ties and can general the game so that
he can see many shots ahead-an adept
at gathering More than that, he IS
not all self-sufficient, which is a saving
easy to believe after a time that 1t is
impossible to learn any more OF the
game. We who are veterans know that
the combinations are Infinite, and tnat
one never ceases to learn.
Il notice that when young Hoppe plays
with an expert, home talent or forelgn
he puts his whole mind not only upon his
work but that of his adversary, and soon
quite unconsciously aSsfmllates the best
qualities of his opponent. This Is a
mark of the superior talent.
| appear in public he had the advantage
of the constant tuition and advice of his
friend and professional adversary Jacob
Schaefer. Eerybody knows that 1T was
of inestimable benefit to the Michigan
lad that whereas the two, while travel
ing through the country giving eXh4b1
tions, played 200 or 200 points daily in
composition. Young Ives s. Went vent TO ~q his
contact with such a master and reeled
off 5000 or 5000 points in addition alone,
working while the veteran slept.
'It is no wonder that when he had
| learned all that Schaefer could teacn
! him he then exerted his own genius for
strategem and finally conquered his
mentor. Yet Ives was a remarkable gen
Jus in every way. proficient in anything
| that he understood.
Il should count it a most fortunate
thing if Willie Hoppe could, like the
| late Champion Ives, be placed under the
constant tutelage of some such master
as Jacob Schaefer. instead of trying to
work out his own salvation. A musician
first learns all that other musicians can
teach him, then he starts cut on his
own pathway, developing his own fac
uIties [ should like to see the lads
talents made the most of. not only for
! his own sake, but for the sake of the
same itself, for such phenomenal genus
awakens enthusiasm among thousands
who have never before saw enough in bill
! lizards to interest them.
! 1t would look like a catalogue of anna
/ teGf and PROFESSIONAL bIlIldTuS W Hd1iO
half of the men who have fallen before
the little champion within the last few
years. 1t is unfortunate that he Is bar
| red from championship tournaments such
| as the international meet, which now
| calls experts from all over the world =
| barred because he cannot quite reach
! across the table with one foot remaining
on the floor. In match games. however.
| where the rule is not so strict, young
Hoppe shows himself at his best, max
ing higher scores than in practice.
" hen only six years of age Willie"
| Home gave his first exhibition game in
New York. Pool was his forte for many
| years but later he abandoned it for bill
| iiaYds In eighteen-inch balk line Hope
| biggest run in a match game is IT'S, with
! an average of &C 2-3 In straight rail
| billiards he plays 100 or no count. The
weight of his favorite cue is twenty-five
ouI:ces.
Young Hoppe comes of a billiard family.
| His mother is an expert player, and his
! brothers and sisters. while by no means
as skillful as he, are well yerSed in the
game. A billiard table occupies prom
inent place in the Hoppe home, in West
Thirty-nfnth street, this city, and there
the coming wizard practices the long
draws and remarkable follow shots
that amaze spectators.
Parker A. .Byers calls Hoppe 1.-The COM
ing world beater." F. Byron Stark dubs
him ''the young, Napoleon, while Slos-
sons enthusiasm for the lads work leads
him to say that IF there is anything
more wonderful in billiards I have not
seen or heard of it.
With such a beginning, provided that
the lad have every legitimate opportunity
to improve himself. that he retain his
fund of hardy health, and, more than
all. his intense love for the science of the
game, it will not be many years before
he will be giving handicap odds to the
foremost billiard experts of the world.