The game of billiards

Front matter

by A' G Jackmam36W''Sorlt.

THE

GAME OF BILLIARDS,

Chapter II 29

On the Machinery of Billiards — the Table and its Appurtenances — improvements in the Cue and Cushions — the Cue, 30. The Balls, 33. The Counters, Chalk, and Artificial Bridge, 34. A Billiard Room — its proper Dimensions — on the Arrangement of the Lights, 35. The Cushions, their Importance and Scientific Requirements, 36. Faultiness of India Rubber, and other Cushions — opinion of Edward Russell Mardon thereon, 38.

Chapter III 42

The General Principles of the Game defined, with a view to their Practical Application — conditions of a Good Attitude, 43. How to make the Natural Bridge, 45. The Lady's Attitude in Playing Billiards, 46. The Cue, its Weight, &c., 49. The Cue Leather, on the Selection of, 51.

VI 11 CONTENTS.

Plate of Cue-Positions 62

The Centre, Follow, Jump, Perpendicular Force, and Force, 62. Principal Sections or Points, in which the Ball should be struck to produce Different Effects — illustrated by Plate, 67.

Chapter IV 65

Definition of Technical Phrases employed in the Game of Billiards — Hazard, Carom, Kiss, Scratch, Force, Follow, Jump, Bank, Miss, Miscue, Burst, Privilege, Taking a Hazard, Killed or Dead Ball, Playing for Safety, Hug, Jaw, Doublet or Cross, Foul Stroke or Shot, Full Ball, Quarter Ball, Half, Fine or Cut-Ball, Own or Cue-Ball, and Object-Ball, Break, Stringing for Lead, Discount, Playing Spot-Ball, Billiard Sharp (a full description of the animal). Love Gam<?, Count, &c., &c.

A Table of the Motive Powers, 76

To be used in Executing the Different Problems, which follow. Plate of Illustrations, 77.

Diagram No. 1 82

Simple Angles, produced by Playing with Different Quantities of Power.

Diagram No. H 86

On Double, or Compound Angles.

Diagram No. HI 90

On the Change of Axis, and its Effect on the Angles.

Diagram No. IV 94

On the Effect of the Different Degrees of Strength when two Bulls come in Contact.

Diagram No. V 97

The Principles of a ** Follow," and a "Force."

CONTENTS. IX

Diagram No. VI 100

Further Illustration of the " Follow'' and " Force."

Diagram No. YII 106

On Twisting Shots.

Diagram No. VIII 110

On the Effect the Side-Stroke will have on the Cue-Ball, after contact with the Cushion.

Diagram No. IX 113

Effect of the Side-Stroke and Twist continued.

Diagram No. X 117

Further Illustration of the Side-Stroke.

Diagram No. XI 119

Illustrations of the "Kiss" and Side-Stroke.

Diagram No. XII 122

Further Illustrations of the " Kiss" and Side-Stroke.

Diagram No. XIII 126

Further Illustrations of the *'Kiss" and Force.

Diagram No. XIV 129

More of the " Kiss."

Diagram No. XV 132

Forming CuiTes by a Follow and a Force.

Diagram No. XYI 135

On Managing the Balls so as to leave good Breaks.

Diagram No. XVII 138

Another Illustration of Manajxing or " Nursing" the Balls.

X CONTENTS.

Diagram No. XVIII 140

Further Illustration of Nursing or Managing the Balls.

Diagram No. XIX 144

Taking Advantage of the Chances for making Points.

Diagram No. XX 148

Some Fancy Shots in Common Use. — J. N. White's Favorite Shot, Fig. 4, same Diagram.

DuGRAM No. XXI 154

Advantages of the Perpendicular Stroke.

Diagram No. XXH 157

On Execution and Judgment.

Diagram No. XXIII 160

A Stroke from the " Billiard Cue."

Diagram No. XXIV 103

A Shot of Mr. C. Bird's.

Diagram No. XXV 166

Shovs^ing the Position of the different Spots on the Billiard Table — also the Semicircles or Playing Points for the English and French Games.

Chapter V 169

A Code to Regulate and Reduce to Uniformity the different Games of Billiards, as Played in the United States and elsewhere.

A Code to Regulate the American or Four-Ball Game 172

On Stringing for the Lead, 172. On Leading, and on Opening of the Game, 173. On Foul Strokes, 173. On Forfeitures, 177. On Cases where the Balls are in Contact, 179. On Withdrawing from, without Finishing, a Game,

CONTENTS. XI

180. On Cases in which the Marker must Replace the Balls, if called on, as Nearly as Possible in their Former Position, 181. On the Duty of Players to Each Other, and of the Marker and Spectators to the Players, 183. On the Marker's Duties in Particular, 184. Further Rules for the Foregoing Game, when Played as a Four-handed Game, 186. Further Rules for the same Game, when played by three Independent Players, 187.

A Code to Regulate the Game of Fifteen-Ball Pool 188

With Full Instructions for Every Question that can arise in its Course.

Rules for the Doublet, or French Game 191

With the Same.

Rules for the Three-Ball, or French Carom Game 194

With the Same.

Diagram XXYI .^ , 199

Illustrating the Three-Ball Carom Game.

Diagram XXYII 202

On the Same.

Diagram XXVIII 205

Further Illustrating the Same.

Rules for the Russian Game 207

With the Same.

Rules for the Spanish Game , 209

With the Same.

Rules for the English Game 210

Rules for Two-Ball Pool 215

Xll CONTENTS.

Rules for Pin Pool 220

As Played in New York.

Rules Observed in Playing Pin Pool 226

At Michael's Billiard Rooms, in San Francisco.

Rules for the Game of English Pool 232

Rules for Pool Playing at the Last Player 232

Rules for the Nearest Ball Pool 237

Instructions to the Marker 239

For Keeping the American, or Four-Ball Game.

Chapter YI 241

General Summary of Instructions. Conclusion.

Impboyements in the Billiard Table 247

With Illustrations.

The Angles Produced by the Cloth, India Rubber and Combination Cushions 249

Illustrated by Diagram.

Further Improvements — Phelan & Collender's Patents. . . . 253

Humorous Articles 259

ic Attitude is Everything" 259

With Illustrations.

Shakspe are a Billiard Player 265

THE GAME OF BILLIARDS.

Chapter I

INTRODUCTORY AND GENERAL — SOME ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF BIL- LIARDS, AND AN APPEAL TO THE WIVES AND SISTERS OF AMERICA IN ITS FAVOR.

Man does not live tliat lie may work — at least lie ought not so to live in a well-regulated condition of society. On tlie contrary, we should rather work that we may live ; and whatever system of political economy does not embrace certain hours of relaxation, and certain methods of amusement, is a false and pernicious idolatry, having Mammon for its God, and man's best energies and happiness as the victims to be sacrificed upon its unholy altar.

There are two extremes of population, in which the sanitary needs of amusement stand a chance of being overlooked or crowded down by still sterner necessities.

Where the population is so dense as we find it in the manufacturing districts of England, not a moment can be spared from the incessant demands which competition makes on toil : labor is there so redundant that it loses its proper value, and nothing but the strictest and most unremitting devotion to business can secure even the barest necessaries of life. Where wealth is monopolized in tlie hands of a few, while the millions are forever hovering on the very brink of starvation, it would be absurd to look either for a general diffusion of intelligence, or for any system of amusement superior to that afforded by the gin-palace and the dogfight.

Again, on the other hand, where the population is disproportionately small when compared with the vast resources which lie around it, in a new and undeveloped country — where wealth runs to waste on every hand for the want of labor to collect and garner it — where every man is free to become his own master and create a future for himself independent of any other help, — in such a condition of society toil rises to an unnatural importance ; we reckon time not by hours, but by dollars ; and hence it is we find, that in the earlier settlement of our country, the grim, puritanical spirit of the original immigrants not only discouraged ^'unprofitable amusements" by preaching and denunciation from the pulpit, but even went so far as to prohibit the most innocent recreations by positive and penal enactments.

How short-sighted such a policy ! what ignorance of man's real nature is betrayed in this bigoted and narrow course ! For the desire for amusement has been implanted in man, and in all other animals as well, as one of the primitive instincts, and for the most important purposes : it teaches us in childhood the use of our various faculties — it inspires us with ambition and dexterity, and helps to unfold the mind by bringing it into contact and rivalry with the minds of kindred youth. In manhood it is the best promoter of bodily health, and enables us to sustain those serious toils which, if unrelieved by some more pleasing stimulant, would soon succeed in degrading us to the level of mere human machines.

Instead, therefore, of railing against the popular desire for amusement, true wisdom would rather seek to encourage the spirit, and direct it into such channels as would best promote the objects for the accomplishment of which we were endowed with it by nature ; and true policy would suggest, that, instead of adopting the Eoman plan, where the circuses, or public games, embraced the mortal struggles of the gladiators and the deadly contests between men and wild beasts, we should return, as much as possible, to the old Egyptian system, by which the public recreations were made the vehicle of imparting all the most important scientific truths, in a form so agreeable and simple, that the very meanest intellect was capable of appreciating and recollecting their cogency. Thus the original game of cards, as taught by the builders of the pyramids, conveyed a knowledge of the whole system of practical astronomy — the " court cards," as we call them now, representing the different constellations which rule the year, and the numerals being marked in such a manner, as to indicate precisely the different periods for the overflow and subsidence of the Nile, and the various agricultural operations thereon dependent.

But cards have long since lost their character of primitive simplicity and instruction ; they have degenerated to far different service; and, tliongh still valuable, in some slight degree, for the arithmetical combinations which they illustrate, it is felt, in the first place, that their use is fraught with peril ; and, in the second, that they are destitute of that bodily exercise, without which amusement ceases to be healthful.

Chess is indeed a splendid game, and may be called the tournament of intellects ; it affords a field for the development of the very highest efforts of genius — its capacities are infinite, and, if worked out in a legitimate spirit, would form a mental discipline, not one whit inferior to the abstrusest propositions of mathematics. It is, in fact, so much of a discipline, that it almost ceases to be a game ; . it is exhaustive of the brain, and Sir Walter Scott declared, as his reason for abandoning chess (of which, like Napoleon, he had been passionately fond), that ^'the last game he played with Lockhart, his son-in-law, cost him more mental labor, and left his faculties more prostrate, than the composition of the best novel he had ever written."

Chess, therefore, though an excellent exercise for the mind, is too rigorous and concentrated to be considered an amusement; it is merely an intellectual combat, which calls for no muscular energy, or physical accomplishment ; it teaches neither quickness to the eye nor readiness to the hand; and its nature is so sedentary and intense, as to be absolutely prejudicial to health, if pursued to any great extent. But it possesses this advantage over cards — an advantage to which we wish to call particular attention — that its intrinsic intellectual excitement is so strong, as to render unnecessary the money interest, or money bets, whicTi are found, to a great extent, essential to the full enjoyment of the others.

Again, in the game of Bowling, we have great phj^sical energy displayed, while the mind is left in almost utter inactivity. A certain physical knack is to be acquired, for the purpose of impelling a ball of a certain weight, to hit an object at a certain distance, in a certain way ; but when once this difficulty is mastered, we exhaust the whole resources of the game. The physical exercise is often too severe, and there is not variety enough to afford a natural excitement — in the absence of which we are all too apt to apply ourselves to the money-interest of a bet, to make up for the deficiency which is inherent in the nature of the game.

From the preceding remarks — if we have caused our meaning to be understood — it will be seen that a game, to satisfy all the requirements and avoid all the dangers of a public amusement, should contain within itself the following indispensable prerequisites :

In the first place, it should exercise and dispcipline the faculties and resources, both of the mind and body, without exhausting or disgusting either ; and.

In the second place^ it should contain within itself sufficient mental excitement and ambition to render the extrinsic interest of a money bet superfluous to its full enjoyment.

These, as we understand the matter, are the two essential points to be consulted in the selection of a game to be adopted as a public and national amusement; and these we confidently affirm, and the experience ot the world will support our assertion, are to be found alone in their perfection in that which has worthily been styled

"the noble game of billiards."

This game is peculiarly in harmony with the mechanical genius of our people ; it combines science with g3^mnastics, teaching the eye to judge of distances, the mind to calculate forces, and the arm to execute with rapidity and skill whatever the mind and eye combine to dictate for its execution ; it expands the chest, while giving grace and elegance to the form,"^ and affords even to the illiterate mind a practical basis for the appreciation of mathematical and geometric truth. Already this game is the most popular in the thicklysettled parts of the country; and there is a growing disposition to adopt it as one of the national characteristics. Thousands of our wealthiest and most intelligent citizens no longer consider their mansions complete without a billiard-room ; and when we con-

^' According to the best opinion of anatomists, there are in the neighborhood of four hundred muscles in the human body ; and beauty of person, as well as health, will much depend upon each of these muscles being brought into action under proper circumstances, and to a suitable extent. Now, the game of Billiards calls into action each and every one of the sinews, tendons, joints and muscles of the frame, as any one who will take the trouble to watch a single game, must be satisfied for himself. In walking, striking, stretching, stooping, and leaning back, the requirements of an ordinary game place the player in almost every attitude that it is possible to conceive. To this testimony of our own senses, we could add that of the best medical authors, if we thought that such were needed to give weight to a proposition which demonstrates itself.

sider the sedentary habits into which our American ladies have lately fallen, we cannot fail to rejoice for their sakes, that their homes will henceforth be adorned with a means of recreation, which will pleasantly compel them to take the needful exercise, and, at the same time, so largely contribute to make home attractive to the sex upon whose presence their enjoyments to a great extent depend.

The origin of this delightful game, like the birthplace of Homer, is a contested point, and its antiquity, like that of many elderly spinsters, is involved in considerable doubt. By some it is supposed to have been imported from the Persians during the Consulship of the Roman Lucullus ; by others, the honor of introducing it into Europe from the Bast, is assigned to the Emperor Caligula.

But be these things as they may, we have no authentic record of its existence, until the return of the Knights Templars to Europe, on the termination of the first crusade ; so that, if known at all to the Romans, as is generally supposed, it must have perished along with many other noble arts on the overthrow of their empire ; and unless the diggers at Herculaneum and Pompeii, bring us up the charred remains of a billiard-table, the matter must forever remain a subject of uncertain speculation.

In all probability, however, the game, like that of chess, has an eastern origin; the Templars brought it back with them from the Holy Land, and it soon became the favorite amusement and means of health to which the cloistered monks of that period were permitted by their superiors to have recourse : and however much, in these latter days, it may have come to be regarded as a '^carnal amusement," we have abundant evidence that it was cradled in the monasteries, which were then the fountain heads and only sources of the Christian faith.

Having been introduced into Europe by the Knights Templars, the game of billiards shared their fate ; and when the power and wealth of that chivalric order tempted the cupidity, and prompted the jealousy of the European monarchs to their overthrow, the game disappeared along with the fortunes of its masters, nor was it again revived until the peaceful disposition of Louis XI. of France induced him to prefer its pleasant emulation to the bloody tournaments that were then the pastimes of his court.

By one of his successors, Henry HI., it was still more widely patronized ; and to that monarch it stands indebted for its appellation of ^^ The noble game." The kings of France were, at all times, its most powerful and steadfast friends.

Again we find that the unfortunate Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, complains in a letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, dated Fotheringay, and written the very evening before her death, that her ^^ Billiard table has just been taken away from her, as a preliminary step to her punishment." Doubtless, Mary having been married to the Dauphin of France, was introduced to the game during her stay in Paris.

You see, therefore, ladies, that you will run no risk of being considered ^Hoo masculine in your tastes," if yon devote yourselves to this delightful household recreation ; for a woman, and a queen, whose misfortunes are only surpassed by the lustre of her accomplishments, has here set you, many centuries ago, an example of loving it with a fervor which even the near approach of death could not efface. No doubt also, Queen Elizabeth, who was chiefly emulous and jealous of her cousin's superior beauty and accomplishments, must have been a passionate votary of the game ; and in this manner only can we explain the anachronism which Shakspeare commits when he makes Cleopatra (Act II. scene 5) exclaim to Charmian, ^^Let us to billiards!"

Beyond question, this was one of the compliments to the whims and caprices of his mistress, with which the poet was in the habit of interlarding such compositions as he wished might find favor in her eyes. On this point, see a pleasant article, entitled ^' Shakspeare a Billiard Player," which will be found in Appendix.

Indeed, we have often thought that whoever would start a good calisthenic academy, with billiard tables, and other apparatus for the physical recreation of the gentler sex, would entitle himself to be looked upon as a public benefactor. The majority of complaints, consumption included, which afflict the female world, arise almost exclusively from the want of exercise, and suitable amusements. "We are told so by the doctors, and we know it from our daily experience.

Now, the game of billiards, though a very gentle one, calls every muscle of the body into active life ; its attitudes are as diversified as the position of the balls upon the board, and yet tliere is not one of thcni tliat is not fraught with easy gracefulness and vigor. In the ordinary course of an hour s billiard playing, a person will walk from two to three miles round the table, besides exerting every sinew of his body in other and different directions ; and yet so frequent are the pauses, and so absorbing the interest, that the idea of fatigae is the very last that will enter the head.*^

The grand feature which, we trust, will eventually lead to the general adoption of billiards, as the game for home — the game to be introduced into the houses, and shared with the families of all who are wealthy enough to afford such an inexpensive luxury — is this : that it will admit of being enjoyed in common by both the male and female members of the family or circle. Neither sex can enjoy an amusement so rationally, or innocently, when alone : for they exert a happy influence on each other when in company, and more than one half of the vices and follies which affect society, result from the separation of the sexes in the pursuit of their different amusements. Those giant plague-spots of society, as at present constituted, gambling and intemperance, seldom dare to show their features in the drawing-room,

fc * Exercise to be efficacious for good even in the healthy, must be

excited, sustained, and directed by that nervous stimulant or odic force, as it is called, which gives the muscles the chief part of their strength, and contributes to the sustenance of the parts in a state of activity. In short, to obtain the full advantage of the nervous stimulus in exercise, we must be interested in what we are doing. Billiards supplies this excitement, and, therefore, it is, that the exer* cise which we take at the game is so particularly healthy.

The GrAME of Billiards. 23

wMe they often obtrude their un welcome presence into places, from which ladies are excluded.

Look, ladies, at the billiard table as a means of domesticating your husbands and brothers — as a means of making home so agreeable that they will seldom care to leave it, except on business or in your society — and say, if the general introduction of the game as a household appendage be not worth your very serious consideration.

A first-class table, furnished with all the modern improvements, would cost much less than the price of a good piano ; it would permit any number from two to ten to play on it at once with ease, and would

^ We have often heard gentlemen regret that they could not have a billiard table in their own houses, on account of a prejudice which their wives entertained, that the game was connected with gambling. No illusion could be more baseless, or more prejudicial to the best interests of families : baseless, for the game is no more a gambling one than chess — its intellectual interest suffices without the unnatural stimulus of a bet ; and the ladies might, with much more reason, object to the election of a President, because we know that large sums are constantly staked upon the success of the rival candidates. It is prejudicial, we add, because everything that makes home less agreeable to the head of a family, tends in so much to alienate him from that sphere in which his pleasures should be found. If the true domesticating influence of billiards were understood, every wife would be most anxious to provide her husband with a table ; for the mind needs amusement after the business of the day, and persons who have been sitting for eight or ten hours at the desk or in the library need exercise ; the game of billiards combines these two essentials in their most pleasing form, and what wife would not rather see her husband enjoy himself at home than find him obliged to go abroad for relaxation ?

24 The Game of Billiakps.

likewise afford amusement and a certain amount of mathematical instruction to as many as could conveniently sit round and watch the progress of the game.

In France and Germany, and in this country also to a growing extent, the ladies have for many years participated in this noble game. The greatest, the wisest, and one of the purest of modern women, the celebrated Madame de Stael, was an enthusiastic advocate of billiards, and one of the most brilliant players of her age ; even when exiled to Switzerland by order of Napoleon she overstayed the time limited for her departure from Paris, in order that she might personally superintend the removal of her billiard table. The late Duchess de Berriwas also very fond of the game, and highly skilled in its execution ; her example gave the tone to Parisian fashion, and to-day the billiard room is regarded as an indispensable adjunct to every chateau of any pretension on continental Europe.

In country houses, removed from the theatres and operas, the balls and soirees of metropolitan society, the *' noble game" would supply the place of these excitements with something healthier and purer. We should all sleep more soundly, if we made it a rule to play billiards for an hour or two each evening, before going to bed. Our wives and children would be more healthy and happy, more affectionate and fond of home ; for there is nothing which endears the family circle so intimately, as the recollection of amusements shared in common — of games in which we all took part.

At tte game of billiards, more than at any other I game or exercise within our knowledge, the observer ] of national characteristics will have an opportunity of studying those peculiarities of the individual whose [aggregate is the character of his country. Thus we 1 find that the Frenchman, whose artistic eye and mathematical genius make him the best military strategist of ^11 the European nations, is also by Tar the most Drilliant billiard player to be found in the world : his conceptions are daring, and his execution has all the finish and rapidity of one with whom it would be presumption for a less gifted player to contend : his opening is a succession of coups d^etoi^ and if we did not know that his pace was a ^^ killing one," we should feel tempted to throw down the cue in despair, and ask the marker how much we had to pay for the table ? But, alas ! his success is his destruction ; his most brilliant cowp de main only accelerates his ruin : he is intoxicated by the triumph his own genius has in part achieved, and the vivacity of his play evaporates before the game is half concluded. For single strokes of almost miraculous adroitness he puts forth all the skill he is master of; but for the patient foresight and selfrestraint which are necessary to a prudent management of the balls, he is utterly unfit. He would not forego the chance of a brilliant shot, even though he knew that it mu-st leave the balls in a position from which his adversary may make an easy run to game: he cares not to win, so long as he can make it clear that he could win, if he chose always to play as carefully as he does upon occasion: so long as he is confessed to be 2 tlie *^ most brilliant billiard player," he cares not avIio is called ^Hlie best."

The Englishman, on the other hand, in this, as in almost everything else, is the direct reverse of his late imperial and imperious ally : he looks to the result, and does not care the snap of one of his portly fingers by what means the victory has been gained, so long as it is his, de facto: he knows that his conceptions, though profound, are far from lively ; and he flatters his tardy execution by the maxim that ^^ all great bodies move slowly." He is the very essence of patience and laborious foresight in his play ; if care could win a game the Englishman would never lose. But he is so opposed to "rashness" of every kind — so averse to those progressive ideas which he in general sums up under the head of 'impracticable," that he would lose a stroke which, though difficult, is probable, rather than forfeit that reputation for prudence upon which he especially prides himself. lie " forgets to remember," as the saying is, that it was care killed the cat ; and though his game is a very strong one, and perhaps of the two more safe than the Frenchman's, still it is marred by excess of caution, and numberless counts are lost from the timidity which will not stretch forth its hand to grasp them.

Halfway between these two, and combining the peculiarities of each, stands the American billiard player. AVith much of the Frenchman's vivacity, and all his hardihood, his conceptions are bold enough to seize all the possible advantages of a stroke, and his manipulation, though less delicate than the Frenchman's, is sui perior to the Englishman's in quickness, ease and force. On the other hand, he is proverbially a man that calculates the cost of his whistle before sitting down to enjoy it : the problem of each stroke passes rapidly through his head before he strikes ; and though he does not ^'manage the balls" (as a general rule) so exactly as the plodding Englishman, he foresees the position in which they will be placed clearly enough for all practical purposes, and his judicious audacity gives him counts, which the more timid player would lose for the simple v/ant of trying.