72. Whoever proposes to part the balls, and his adversary agrees, the person who made the proposal loses the lead.
73. No person in the room has a right to bet more than the odds on a hazard or a game; but if he err through ignorance, he should appeal to the marker, or the table of the odds. Each person who proposes a bet should name the precise sum; and also should be extremely careful not to offer a bet when the striker has taken his aim, or is going to strike; and no bet ought to be proposed on any stroke, that may have any tendency to influence the player. If A propose a bet which is accepted by B, it must be confirmed by A, otherwise it is no bet. If any bets be laid on the hazard, and the striker should lose the game by a miss, at the stroke in question, it cannot be a hazard, the game being out by a miss. In all cases the betters are to abide by the determination of the players, and the betters have a right to demand their money when their game is over.
74. Every person ought to be very attentive, and listen for the stroke, before he opens the door of a billiard-room.
75. The striker has a right to command his adversary not to stand facing or near him, so as to annoy or molest him in his stroke.
76. Each party is to take care of his own game, and his adversary has no right to answer any questions; as, if the ball be close?—if he touch the ball? &c.
77. The marker should make those persons who do not play stand from the table, and give room for the players to pass freely round.
78. Those who play ought to be particularly careful and attentive to their strokes, when any bets are depending thereon: but even should they play carelessly, the bets must, in every case, be decided by the event.
79. No person has any right to discover to the player in what manner he may play his ball. And if it be done, and discovered by the adversary, he may prevent the striker from scoring the points he has made by the stroke. Neither, after a stroke has been played, has any one a right to detect any error the striker may have committed.
The Dutch Baron.—A few years since the gentlemen of the green cloth were put out of cue, by a hero of the hazard table imported from the continent by one of the squad, who, while he pretended to be playing the losing game, was shrewdly suspected of going snacks in all that rolls into the pocket.