1885.

First Handicap Tournament. Starting early this year, there were many handicap tournaments during that and the next half dozen or more; but in only a half dozen of such tournaments was aught accomplished worth recording. The one in Platt’s Hall, San Francisco, January 4–6th, this year, is cited first among the exceptional six because of its having been the first at the game, the first tournamental playing of it on a 4½ × 9 table, and the only instance of a player’s single averages being the same as his general average.

Entrance fee, $250, with $250 added by the B. B. C. Co. Three games.

	Hand.	Run.	Av.	G. A.
Lon Morris ($750)	500	97	18.52	18.52
J. F. B. McCleery ($250).	300	77	7.89	9.11
Ben Saylor	350	87		10.03

Morris’s averaging 18.52 against both opponents necessarily made his general average 18.52 also.

Line Increased from 8:2 to 12.2. Central Music Hall, Chicago, January 26th.—$500 a side. Schaefer, 800—14.55—109; Slosson, 719—98.

Increased to 14:2. Philadelphia roomkeepers’ championship handicap tournament, begun March 2d. Ed McLaughlin, Wm. Rockhill, and Pincus Levy won, 6—1 apiece, and Rockhill won emblem and $100 in playing off, Levy taking second prize ($75), and McLaughlin third ($50).

There were about a dozen match-contests for the trophy. Winning it from Rockhill on May 28th, at odds of 300 to 200, McLaughlin would have made it his own had not James Palmer, on May 25, 1886, defeated him by 175 to 254 in a possible 300. Ed. Burris beat Palmer on September 23, 1886, and others later at intervals, among them McLaughlin twice (handicap 225 to 300), and finally became owner of the emblem by defeating Pincus Levy, June 2, 1887, by 200 to 126 in a possible 150. What is worth recording here is not in the play itself, but in the logic of the situation. That it was a handicap championship necessarily made McLaughlin the champion all along as the giver of the longest odds.

In December, 1890, at the Continental Hotel, the Philadelphia roomkeepers engaged in another 14:2 handicap (John Cline, Ed. Burris and Ed. McLaughlin first, second, and third on imposts of 225, 300, and 400 points), but avoided the championship contradiction.

First Public Match at 14:2. Central Music Hall, Chicago, March 25th.—$250 a side. Capt. A. C. Anson, 500—5.43—39; Frank Parker, 364—22.

Catton vs. Gallagher. Mercantile Library Hall, St. Louis, $500 a side, 8:2. C., 800—10.67—74; G., 687—78.

First Strictly Public Tournament at 14:2. Irving Hall, N. Y. City, April 20–29th.—$2,250 added by the B. B. C. Co. to entrance fees of $250 apiece and to net door-money equally divided among the five. The approximate average of tournament, which instituted no championship, was 11.

	W.	R.	Av.	G. A.
Slosson ($1,464.78)	4	148	22.73	18.18
Schaefer ($1,064.78)	3	97	18.52	15.08
Sexton ($864.78)	2	53	10.	7.97
Daly ($714.78)	1	51	8.95	7.99
J. Dion ($464.78)	0	52		7.24

A 14:2 Tournament of Four Rounds. VIGNAUX, SCHAEFER AND SLOSSON.—Central Music Hall, Chicago, twelve nights between November 16th and December 26th, both inclusive, for $2,950, given by Chicago roomkeepers, and $1,000 by the B. B. C. Co., with the net receipts added. No championship was involved. Independent games of 600 points, every player playing every other twice, constituted the first two rounds, or tournament proper, and 800–point games, every man playing every other twice, constituted the remaining rounds, which were to determine the triple tie of November 16–21st, duplicated December 21–23d.

	W.	R.	Av.	G. A.
Slosson	2	89	19.36	18.85
Vignaux	2	195	75.	25.64
Schaefer	2	152	23.08	19.47

After this tie, the three proposed to divide all, and did divide all but the $1,000 of the B. B. C. Co., which required them to play to a finish. The next round was also a tie, but in the final one Schaefer beat both, and Vignaux beat Slosson. Nothing of moment signalized the six extra games, save that Schaefer lengthened his high run to 187, that Slosson reached 159, and that Vignaux fell from a winning average of 75 to 22.22, and then to 13.11.