As soon as play is over, and especially in damp weather, the cloth should first be hair-brushed and then whisk-broomed, both processes being with the nap. This, on all tables properly set up, runs in the one direction, although what in America and elsewhere are called “head” and “foot” become “bottom” and “top” in England, an inversion whose effect is to make the grain run the same way in both, the English starting from the bottom. Whether table be pocket or carom, the dust is to be swept out through the two corners farthest from the “string-line,” or “balk,” as it is termed in Canada, India, England and Australia.
Beating with the hair-brush is not advisable. Cloth should not be so long neglected as to need it. The brush spreads in the pounding, and its action is as much against the nap as with it.
THE CUES.
As to both their selection and their care, players should trust to the roomkeeper and his staff. An owner of a private table ought to see that, after play, they are not only kept away from a heater, but are also stood exactly upright in their rack, to prevent warping or crooking. Under-leathers sometimes need sandpapering to overcome expansion. Neglected, they will wear away the nap of the cloth in low-ball “draw-shots,” if not make it picturesque with L-shaped rents, although the usual start of these rents is that the cloth has been minutely punctured either by a hammered cue-ball (massé) or by one made acrobatic by an unskillful, thoughtless stroke as it leaves either the cue or the cushion. For slightly roughening the surface of the upper leather, solidifying it, smoothing its edges, and generally “rounding it off” as a finishing touch, a fine rasp is of service; but it should not be used without that instruction which any competent roomkeeper will be glad to give.
It is a habit with a few to chalk both their bridge-hand and the upper half of their cues in muggy weather, thereby befouling their own cloth and that of the table. A wet rag, followed by a dry one, will remove the stickiness.
Cues are made as light as 12 ounces, but those most in demand are from 17 to 22.
Ball-pool, in calling for a somewhat different stroke from that of ordinary caroms, needs a little longer cue.
CUE-LEATHERS.
Self-adhesives, with directions accompanying every box, have made the act of leathering an easy art; but selection is still a science, and here again, until experience has taught the amateur not so much, perhaps, what he needs as what he ought to expect to get, manufacturer or roomkeeper will be the safer guide.
The same counsel will apply to