New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-12-06
BOY BILLIARD
PLAYER FINDS,
HIS REAL F0P a!
Welker Cochran Averages
AZ CT i'm 1872 Match
at Hartford.
COULD BE CHAMPION,
MAURICE DAILY SAYS
RudOlphO, a Champion 90 Years
Ago, Man of Mystery in
World of CarrOms.

Welker Cochran. the boy billiardist,
gave an exhibition In the Wooster
Academy. Hartford, LAST Monday. Tues
day and Wednesday nights, playing 800
point games at 1872 balklinc against
local experts. On Tuesday night, with
no run higher than Sc, he made an
average of 1857. His grand average
for 900 points was a fraction more
than 2S. Cochran wishes to correct
the report that he was a newsboy.
81 never sold a paper" ne says. "If
had been newsboy | would neither
be ashamed of It nor deny it, The
trouble with the story is IL is not true.
Because it is being published and cir
culated IL is an annoyance"
On Thursday afternoon Cochran re-
sumed practice at Maurice Days,
where he will continue until December
22, when he will start for Manson,
Iowa, TO spend the holidays at home.
Early In January he will return.
Speaking of the boys prospects,
Maurice Daily says; "He can beat me
to what | tell him his game will i'm
ness and q disregard for second ball
play. He has all the execution a cham
piou needs, bu. does not pay proper
attention 20 getting the cue ball on the
right edge Of the second ball, the
fnesse Of position play.
Depending entirely on his execution,
he plays IN a general way TO get the
balls together and does no. seem 10
realize the value of particulars.
at is In second ball manipulation
that Hoppe has the greatest advantage
over other American players. Cassignol
rs due here on December II or 10.
When he gets here Cochran will have
chance 20 practise with an artist whose
second ball effects are nearly perfect"
Reference TO the coming of the
great French expert caused a party OF
oldtimers among billiard enthusiasts 10
conn ent on the Municipalities of ysri-
Gus players Of the past and present.
After the merits and pecularities Of
many had been recalled, a member OF
the party, said;
Gentlemen, you have forgotten or
overlooked the man I consider the most
remarkable among all the men ever In
his profession. 7 refer 10 A. =. Ru-
dolpho, a man Of mystery. From whence
he came nobody excepting himself
could tell. II he had native land he
never revealed il. The secret of his
origin and rearing went with him to the
twenty years ago. Whether his ante
cedents were Jewish or Christian.
French, German, Italian, Belgian or
Turkish. his associates could not tell.
an addition TO being first class bill
iardist, even q champion in the seven
ties, he was a man Of letters. Where
he acquired his education and the scope
Of IL were the bases of many ques-
tions never answered IL was known,
however, that he was a linguist who
spoke several LANGUAGES huently. That
his English was perfect was the testi-
mony of a principal Of a public school
in Boston. While here on a winter va
cation that teacher, being fond Of bill
iards, gravitated into Tim Flynn's room
under the old Times Building, Park
Row and Nassau Street, and there en-
countered Rudolphe, daily visitor.
"Observing that Rudolphe, speaking
with q foreign accent, was so rigidly
grammatical that the majority Of his
hearers, unused 20 so remarkable a de
gree Of expression, were amused and
laughed heartily, the teacher became
fortnight he went 90 Flynn's to study
Rudolphe.
AT the end Of that time, having
failed TO detect the strange subject in
even one grammatical error, he was
impelled TO ask why. Rudolphe replied;
4 learned English from the books and
disciplined myself to speak it as
learne it,"
Michael Foley, who was contempo-
rary with the late Dudley Kavanagh,
Americas first champion, in the late
5Os and early COS, and who now, at the
age Of eighty-tWo, resides in Detroit,
was mentioned as a bookworm. Since
retiring from professional billiards
Foley has studied law, has been ad-
mitted 20 the bar in Michigan, and has
been a judge Of minor court in that
state.
Besides being n student possessed OF
a wonderful fund of information, Foley
is an extremely conservative and DIS
passionate individual His habits at
his advanced age, according TO irwin
Huston. are to spend his mornings In
the Libraries Of Detroit and the after
moons in visiting billiard rooms; .,,,
Irwin Huston, Familiarity calico
q, Michigan, was in New York the week
tofoye last. convalescing after under
going an unusual operation in Boston.
About two months ago his sight began
N fail and he was compelled TO tenn
porarilv retire from the management
81 the billiard room Of the Huston
sweeney Company, Of which he is pres
dent. After the sight Of his left eye
was cone and his right was dimmed he
,,as sent 20 the Peter Bent Brigham
Hospital, at Boston, TO be treated by
DR.. Cushing, Of the Harvard Medical
School.