The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-02-15
BILLIARDS IS 4.
SCIENTIFIC GAME
Fascinating Pastime Is in a
Real Revival on Two
Great Continents

Billiards-thc most scientific of all
amusement games--iS. because of re-
cent Investigations. undergoing a real
"reNival' throughout the country and
even In continental Europe. The facts
show that there is a keencr, depere
broader interest taken by all classes
in the game than ever before.
The game is not confined to billiard
halls. O to clubs. as 1t used to be.
The home-and hat leans the small
home, the unp%retentious home and
the apartments not rounded out
unless 1t has its billiard table, to which
the family adtourns after dinner and
Invariably to which the host and guests
repair for purely digestive purposes.
The real advance and the crux of
the present revival of interest and
which shows the extent to which bill
lizards Is raising the moral tone, ia
found in the playing Of the game by
ministers. by religious societies, by
Young Mems Christian associations
and its advocacy by medical societies
and physicians as the best tonic for
nerve relaxation an dtired bodies.
The word revival is used as the
best explanation of the sharp and rap
Id advance in the interest taken. II
conveys to the mind but one thought
that the game of billiards and. its
ally. pocket billiards. have not one
immoral feature: that 1t is a character
builder. a mental stimulant: indeed,
a friend maker. Without the revival
there would he adverse thought,
though not we'll founded.
Billiards an Old Game
This situation invites a reflection of
n billiards was once back in dim
centuries. And the reader may say
that he never knew the game was SO
old.
But 1t is old. 1t really never had a
beginning. Socrates, whom Plato ex-
tolled, played the game. Anacharsis,
while travelling in Greece more thar
1000 years ago. marveled at its. sci
ence as he saw the balls rolled about
a flat surface. Mary, Queen of Scots,
brought her table with her from
France and nightly took exercise with
to billiards. Charmion." an anachron-
ism that has been used by all genera
ttons since the poets time.
Billiards has a quasi-record as hav-
ing been invented by Henri de vigne,
a Frenchman. for the amusement of
Louis Nj. DeVigne was a carpenter
or cabinet maker who fashioner a ia
BILE with a bed of stone. covered with
cloth and having a hole in the center
into which the balls were driven, a
bit on the order of present day pocket
billiards.
This hardly accounts for the origin
of billiards. however. for there are 81
many evidences of even improved
forms long before Louis XI's time. Its
Introduction into the United States
dates back to the revolutionary period
when English officers played 1t in gar
rison, called English winning and
losing game of six pocket tables" of
the size of 7x14 feet,
Obscure as the Jane of billiards is,
no les $50 is the origin Of the twist
and draw" strokes. the two most i'm
portant in modern billiards. England
claims them both for John Carr, the
bath MARKER" on the ground that
some time prior to 1923 he was the
first to chalk a cue. which is not a
fact. so authorities say. France
claims them for Captain Mingaud,
which is more romance than truth.
The obscurity continues without any
definite way of finding out the facts.
America Teaches the World
However. America is the home of
modern billiards.; she has practically
taught the world. at. least the world
has yielded to the force of American
ideas. And 1t is the American way
that is bringing the game Of billiards
to a lofty and deserved position in the
affairs of society. 1t no longer can
be said that 1t is unfit for youth or
c%orruptive of it's morals. For society
would long ago have cast 1t out. But
society applauds and that means the
strength Of the game.
The revival now going on as critics
say, is doing more to balance the
thought and life Of the nation than
any n form of recreation. 1t APP
pears now to be vending its way to
undreamed Of positions.