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MODERN BILLIARDS.
A COMPLETE TEXT-BOOK OF THE GAME,
CONTAINING
PLAIN AND PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS HOW TO PLAY AND ACQUIRE SKILL AT THIS SCIENTIFIC AMUSEMENT.

FULLY ILLUSTRATED

With Plates and Engravings, showing two hundred and fifty Strokes, and the best methods of executing them, as practised by the leading players of the day.

NEW EDITION—NEW CONTEXT—NEW AND COMPLETE RECORDS OF ALL IMPORTANT MATCH AND TOURNAMENT GAMES, AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL, FROM THE EARLIEST TO THE PRESENT TIME.

THE BRUNSWICK-BALKE-COLLENDER CO.,

New York: 31–33 West Thirty-second Street.

Chicago: 263–265 Wabash Av.

Cincinnati: 130–132 E. Sixth St.

St. Louis: 106 S. Fourth St.

Philadelphia: 1002 Arch St.

Boston: 86 Washington St.

San Francisco: 20th and Harrison

Toronto, Ont.: 68 King St., W.

Montreal, Que.: 67 Adelaide St., W.

Paris, Fr.: No. 19 Rue de la Pepiniere

City of Mexico: Puente del Alvarado

Copyright by

THE BRUNSWICK-BALKE-COLLENDER CO.

1908.

TROW DIRECTORY

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY

NEW YORK

CONTENTS

[INTRODUCTORY]

[HISTORICAL]

[THE BILLIARD-ROOM]

[PART I]

[PART II]

[CONDUCTING TOURNAMENTS]

[BILLIARD RECORD]

[REGULAR THREE-BALL CAROMS]

[CHAMPIONS GAME]

[BALKLINE GAME]

[CUSHION CAROMS]

[THREE-CUSHION CAROMS]

[FIFTEEN-BALL POOL]

[RULES GOVERNING PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS]

[INDEX]

INTRODUCTORY.

Apart from its inviting to moderate and wholesome exercise, billiards, as popularly played, is pre-eminently a mental pastime. Nearly all its exponents of approved skill, whatever were the drawbacks of their youth, are intellectually quick and bright. This is due in some measure to the ready mathematical requirements of the play as a routine, but in a much greater degree to its taxing the eye, stimulating the fancy, and disciplining the mind by imposing watchfulness, invention, and analysis. Slowness is costly, and hence, as an early habit, an eager alertness of vision, alacrity of step, and promptitude of decision.

Regarding billiards as a spectacle, its physical requisites to perfection are keen sight, level head and steady hand; but they are by no means essential to enjoyment of it as a leisure-hour diversion en amateur. In this sense, its charm lies altogether in participation, which is all the more agreeable and healthful because never needing to be exhausting.

Caroming methods are still changing. Execution is again growing less fantastic and more practical. Systemization is becoming more and more dominant. In consequence, certain gathering shots, depicting instructive possibilities rather than downright needs, and diagrammed as still proper to teach when the earlier edition of this book was issued, have no place in the present volume.

Play has been made harder in theory, but easier in fact. Lowering the cushion first and the table next has facilitated most strokes, and particularly those dependent upon elevating the cue. Our fathers knew piqué, but seldom massé. Drawing a ball without hopping it has been made surer. Cloths were once so much heavier in nap that ironing new ones again and again, until the iron burned them out, was the method here, as it is in certain other countries yet. Although longer than the present ones by several inches, yet still choice cues of old rarely went beyond eighteen ounces. For special needs there are cues now whose butts alone are heavier than an old-fashioned cue in its entirety. The lighter ashen sticks of the past were meant for a greater variety of shots than the experts’ carom game of to-day has use for. Styles of play as a matter of contest are also different. If the present generation know better how to count, their elders knew better when not to try and count.

There has been progress in more directions than one. A light-weight cue never before handled by its wielder played the last 1900 points of a memorable contest. Our “Record” has no other one-night match so impressive for headwork, handicraft, and hazard. In the same year, and in the same State, a mile in harness was trotted in 2:19¾, but under wholly different conditions from those which to-day govern track, equipment, transportation, and individual effort. As in the popular eye some Cresceus or Lou Dillon now completely obscures the bob-tailed, homely little bay mare at Kalamazoo, so the billiard giants of these times are apt to overlook that the credit they receive for a marvelous progress as counters may not be exclusively their own. Some share in it is possibly due to improvements that first-class mechanicians have made in billiard implements. Rubber vulcanized in layers of different densities in the one strip have made cushion-angles trustier, cloths are of closer shear and more uniformly spread, choice cue-leathers are choicer, cues have grown magical in their mere heft of hilt, and vanished is the muslin under-cloth that helped the balls to dig their graves deep into the one of green. Rarely seen, if ever now, is the serrated cushion, with a face like a saw whose dulled teeth are set inches apart, and not often is there complaint that the speed of the bed is greater than that of the return from the cushion, or else not quite so great.

HISTORICAL.

Billiards was practically without beginning. As with untold other excellences, so with that. Until merit is established, curiosity as to origin rarely begins. When merit is acknowledged, it is too late to trace origin.

“Let us to billiards, Charmion,” is one of Shakespeare’s many anachronisms. As introduced into “Antony and Cleopatra,” its significance is simply that the amusement was growing in favor at the English court in the time of Elizabeth, Shakespeare, and Mary, Queen of Scots, the last of whom had brought her table over with her from France.

The diligent student may read that Socrates played billiards, that Anacharsis saw it played during his travels in Greece, that St. Augustine saw a billiard-table in journeying to or in Africa, and that Cathire More, an Irish king of the second century A.D., bequeathed to his nephew “fifty billiard-balls of brass, with the pools and cues of the same material.” But the student must not go so far back as the originals in his search, lest he discover that all are translators’ errors. St. Augustine’s vision has proved to be nothing else.

Billiards is also of quasi-historical record as having been invented by Henri de Vigne, a Frenchman, for the amusement of Louis XI. As runs a story more explicit, though probably no trustier, De Vigne was only a carpenter, or cabinet-maker, who, at the order of Louis, fashioned “a billiard-table with a bed of stone, covered with cloth, and having a hole in the centre, into which the balls were driven.”

A more plausible recital is that the game was introduced to both France and England centuries before, when the Knights-Templars returned from their first or second crusade in the Holy Land. But why not have been introduced into Spain and Italy at the same period? Rome should have been a likely spot for this game of the monasteries of the East to reach, and yet Rome’s ample archives seem to have shed no light upon it, although we find the “Lives of the Roman Pontiffs” mentioning one Pope who was fond of billiards, it being the Italian game of a century or so ago. Any game of Eastern origin should have reached Spain, through the Moors, centuries before France or England got it via Palestine.

History is no happier in taking liberties with our own country by variously assigning the honor of introducing billiards here to the Spaniards in Florida under De Soto, to the English Cavaliers in Virginia, to the Huguenots settling in South Carolina in 1690, and to the primitive Hollanders of Manhattan Island. But why not to the earlier Spaniards in Florida under Ponce de Leon, to the English Cavaliers who settled one-half of the province of New Jersey, and to the Huguenots who founded New Rochelle, N. Y., at the same time that kindred refugees found lodgment in South Carolina? Other nationalities have both played the game and kept rooms in once pre-eminently cosmopolitan Holland, but the Dutch themselves have never-been a billiard-playing people; and the official proceedings before the schouts, scheppens and burgomasters of New Amsterdam may safely be challenged to show any allusion whatever to billiards.

Remote literature, whether official or otherwise, is lacking in evidence of the game anywhere in America until introduced into New York City by English officers in garrison in the eighteenth century. On the contrary, there is proof that, even as late as 1808/9, the only billiards on Manhattan Island was the English winning-and-losing game on six-pocket tables, presumptively from England. One was a 7 × 14 with eight legs, and having cushions stuffed with hair.

It is probably not worth disputing that, howsoever christened at first, billiards was originally an outdoor game, and that, lifted three or four feet from the ground, it was eventually taken indoors when it rained. Remotely, it may have been marbles or the immemorially ancient goff (now golf), or goff may have been remotely billiards or any one of half a dozen other outdoor jollities. Suffice that billiards to-day bears no more resemblance to what was so called a century and a half ago, before France introduced first the third ball and in 1792 the fourth, than bagatelle bears to shuffleboard or pingpong.

Obscure as that of the game itself is the origin of the “twist” and the “draw,” the two most important strokes in modern billiards. England claims them both for John Carr, the “Bath Marker,” on the ground that, at some time prior to 1823, he was the first to chalk a cue, which is not a fact; and France claims them for one Capt. Mingaud, an alleged professional billiardist, who, while imprisoned for a political offence in 1823, invented the cue-leather. As the writer recalls this Mingaudism in its entirety, as published in a book issued in Paris about 1868 and reprinted in the Billiard Cue here, it was manifestly pure romance. France may never have had a professional so named, but France did have a Capt. Roget de Lisle, who, imprisoned for a political offence about the beginning of the last century, invented the deathless “Marseillaise.” Moreover, it was about 1868 that the writer, on the authority of Prof. Wm. Lake, who was a professional billiard-player here before and after 1823, published that Camille Avout, a shoemaker, was the pioneer in turning out cue-leathers in New York City prior to 1823, in which year a few were imported from France.

Further to complicate matters, Carr is called the “father of the side-stroke” by the renowned Pierce Egan, a contemporary of Carr, in his “Annals of Sporting,” a London periodical; while later English billiard writers recount that Roomkeeper Bartley, Carr’s employer, was the inventor of the side-stroke and the draw, that in due course he showed them to his marker, and that Carr merely profited by vending, as the magical cause of both, some powdered chalk in pillboxes at two-and-sixpence a box, Italian, French and Spanish players being his easy customers.

No matter when or in what shape billiards had its beginning, it has been a favorite recreation of the good and the great for ages, and never more noticeably so than in the present one. Philosophers seek it, divines commend it, and physicians prescribe it.

Whatever its old form, its new is essentially American. Other lands have gradually yielded to the force of American ideas. Public matches were a dozen years old in this country before there was one in any other, and the American billiard tournament, never seen in England until 1874/5, and not in France until 1879, is now the accepted mode in both.

Balklining, another American idea, was unknown to the professionals and amateurs of France until 1880. It is now their standard caroming restriction, while for seven or eight years past the English have been urging a line around the table as a hindrance to the “nursery cannons” that are the most recent powerful development in their national game.

Cushion-caroms were first publicly exhibited in this country in 1867, but never in France until 1881. Three-cushion caroms, of which the Paris professionals have made a specialty during the past dozen years, constitute another game of American development, dating from 1878 in a non-public way among professionals, and going many years further back among our non-professionals.

Until the way was shown by Andrew Buist, an American, caroms were barely an incidental feature of the English game. Attention was called anew to them by the separate visits the Dions made to London more than twenty years ago. Even the prolific spot-ball play, which has likewise been surprisingly progressive, owes at least a little to this side of the Atlantic, for in advance of Buist another American—Linley Higham, the “Albany Pony”—settled in England. Spot-balling, at which he was mighty for that era on an American 6 × 12 table, called then for but four different strokes in England. Now it engages more than twice as many.

Modifications have likewise affected the representative players of France and America. For fifteen years after they first came together, the French were weak as compound cushioners, but strong as ball-to-ball drivers. It was the other way with the Americans, who had been brought up on 6 × 12 and 5½ × 11 pocket tables, while the French professors had been accustoming themselves to what was nearly a 4½ × 9 carom, whereon other cushioning than a single one, in which they were strong and the Americans weak, was an infrequent necessity. Now that the two nationalities are using the one table, there is little to choose between them in respect of cushioning and ball-to-balling. If proof were needed, there is the international championship match of January 29, 1904, with its score of 500 to 496, which is both trusty history and the latest up to date.

THE BILLIARD-ROOM.

An apartment to accommodate one table should be of the dimensions following, graduated by the size of the table, and affording space for the free exercise of the cue. Where two or more tables are placed, five feet will be sufficient to allow between them.

Architects, in their plans for modern mansions, should make suitable provision for this amusement, without which no gentleman’s establishment (more especially if a country one) can now be considered perfect. Even if the builder of a house has no taste for the game himself, he should look beforehand, and consider that such an accommodation might form an important item in the price which a succeeding tenant would be willing to pay for it. The light, if possible, should come from above, through ample skylights, so as to bring the table within a general focus, and thus prevent any shadow being thrown from the balls or cushions. The gas-light should be raised about three feet two inches from the bed of the table and supplied with horizontal burners, as by such an arrangement no shadow is cast from the pipe. The distance of the light from the floor should be about 6 feet 1 inch. For a 5 × 10 table the cross-arms of the pendant should measure from light to light 28 inches, and the long arms 56 inches. For a 4½ × 9 table, cross-arms 25 inches, and long arms 50 inches. For a 4 × 8 table, cross-arms 22 inches, and long arms 44 inches. For a 5½ × 11 table, cross-arms 31 inches, and long arms 62 inches. A useful shade has been devised which throws a soft, even light on the table, and keeps the glare from the player’s eyes. The floor, if carpeted at all, should be covered with some thick, soft material.

BILLIARD APPLIANCES—THEIR CHOICE AND CARE.

HOW TO SELECT A TABLE.

Never attempt it. Rather consult with and rely upon reputable manufacturers.

SIZE, SHAPE, AND STYLE.

In this country there are the standard size, which is 5 × 10 feet, and the popular size, which is 4½ × 9. Experts use the former, and the latter is preferred in many public rooms and clubs, as well as in most private houses, in the last of which the 4 × 8 also often finds a place.

Tables are of various styles and shapes, but mostly now without pockets, and with the broad rails at sides and ends beveled, ogee, or square. Those designed for ball-pool have six pockets usually, but sometimes only four. In addition there is the combination billiard-table, meant for both caroms and ball-pool at will.

Beds are of slate, and their tendency is toward greater thickness than was required up to a few years ago. This adds to the general stability of the table. Even for the 6 × 12, slabs now are often in three pieces, instead of four, thus insuring a smoother playing surface. Heavier slabs should have six legs instead of four, whether the table is 5 × 10 or larger. Many 4½ × 9’s have six.

Apart from its cloth and cushions, a table requires no special care beyond treating it similarly to any other piece of furniture, by keeping its framework clean and occasionally applying polish, which can be had of almost any furniture-dealer. When not in use, the table should be well covered up.

THE CLOTH.

There are various kinds and several grades. Buying the best will save money.

Almost invariably, it is the indifferent player or worse who, in or out of public rooms, finds most fault with cushions, balls, cues, leathers, or chalk. The experienced one has learned that usually, when all is not well with him at billiards, the fault is with himself or in his stroke. A less skillful performer will blame the balls when a sagging floor has thrown the table out of level, the table when a ball needs either truing or a holiday, the chalk or the leather when he is wildly throwing his whole body at the ball, and the cushion when diminished speed is really due to the influence of a protracted spell of damp weather upon cloth or ivory. One is sure to absorb moisture, and the other may.

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

CHALK.

Most on the market is good. Much is often unspeakably bad. All should be dry, and as free from grease as from grit. It now comes in various shapes—octagon, cylindrical and square. As the colored is labor-saving, few roomkeepers have use for the white. Just as few took to the colored when first brought to notice, nearly forty years ago, although it was made green in order not to show itself upon the cloth.

THE CUSHIONS.

Elasticity, accuracy and durability are their requisites. By elasticity is not meant excessive speed, for a cushion can be made so fast as utterly to baffle the good player without ultimately aiding the bad one who craves it. All other things equal, that cushion is best which is neither radical nor unexpected in its angles, and is least susceptible to ordinary atmospheric changes.

Until their covering begins to wear out in spots, cushions need no other attention than to be lightly brushed when the bed-cloth is cleansed, and every few weeks to have their bolts tightened by the merest turn or fraction. Should the bolts be overlooked too long, the cushion itself, by emitting a jingling sound, will give notice that a shrinkage in wood or metal calls for carpenter’s bit-and-brace.

The height of the top of the modern cushion-rail from the floor, if level, may be roundly expressed as thirty-four inches, and that of the cushion’s knife-like edge from the bed is one and seven-sixteenths inches. This is for the regulation American and French ball, which, at one-quarter of an inch above its centre, comes into contact with the cushion’s edge. Struck with force, a much larger ball would jump over the cushion, while a much smaller, jamming itself between table’s bed and cushion’s edge, would jump inwardly.

Cushions must be tuned to balls. Unless the former have a given height and pitch, there cannot be accurate reflection, and there may be inaccurate stroke. Height has already been discussed. Pitch is the inward slant of the cushion’s top surface as a guide to the cue in certain situations.

THE MAGIC BALLS.

With balkline the vogue, as much depends upon balls, cloth and cushions as upon the player himself.

Balls should be of well-seasoned ivory, and the only available guarantee as to that is the ability of manufacturers to carry a heavy stock.

There are players who talk of perfect balls, but a well-turned ball is the limit, and neither its truing-up nor its recoloring should ever be intrusted to other than an artisan of conceded skill and experience. Earth has never known an absolutely round sphere or a perfectly smooth plane. Under the glare of a chemical light, lens and screen will show hills and valleys in both.

Requiring much patience and much ivory, matching balls is an art in itself. The lower end of a tusk is too small for carom balls, and the upper and larger too hollow. Perhaps six balls, on an average, can be shaped out of the central section. The ball toward the smaller end is closer-grained than any of its companions, all of which, while of the one size, may differ in other respects from one another. Possibly out of twenty tusks not fifty balls will be found approximately equal, in sets of three, with respect to weight and centralized gravity. As sets, they may all differ from one another, notwithstanding that any one set is fit for ordinary use; and for an important match the whole twenty tusks are liable not to turn out three balls alike in size, weight and central gravity.

The best and dearest ivory is the rarest—the worst, of course, is cheapest. Some tusks, as they grow, acquire more moisture than others. The dentine in the millions of little cells is greater in one tusk than in another. When it comes to billiard-balls, what the animal fed upon up to from ten to twenty years of age, and also where it fed, are no inconsiderable factors, could we find them out. Some tusks partly season by sun-drying as they grow, their owners having to trot long distances for water. Other elephants rear themselves where water is abundant, but sunshine scarce. There would also seem to be more durability in the detached tusk than in balls made from it. The writer has a match-set he knows to be at least twenty-three years old, that have never been returned, and that have not had their cardboard box opened in nearly twenty years. What will happen to them if put on table? Within four hundred feet of where they rest, the set used in the Phelan-Seereiter match fell to pieces, in 1867, as soon as played with. As souvenirs they had lain idle eight years. In Paris, some years later, professors engaged in a series of games with a set from a tusk (that of a mammoth) presumably thousands of years old. Until told the players had no idea but that those balls were from a modern elephant, born and despoiled within their own lifetime.

In view of all this, is it any wonder either that manufacturers decline to guarantee ivory or that man to-day knows no more about it and its care than was known two hundred years ago?

Heat is a greater foe to balls than cold. The latter is not an abstract, positive quality or condition, being merely the absence of heat. Could excessive warmth be guarded against as to billiard-balls, there would be little reason to dread the chilly draught. At the outset, balls need to be much larger in hot climates than in cold. We in America murmur, and yet billiards, both social and spectacular, is played in countries where heat and moisture will change every new set from sphere to spheroid within a month.

Balls usually do their prettiest freaks across the grain, but sometimes do them with the grain. Those that swell under the influence of moisture will occasionally, if allowed to remain idle for months, resume their proper form automatically; but in a large majority of cases truing-up is the only cure. Balls that crack will be helped to heal, like human lips that chap, by touching them somewhat sparingly with tallow. Neither rubbing balls with oil nor storing them in sawdust saturated with it is recommended. There are countries having peculiarly evaporative traits in which oil has been proved a blessing, but in this climate tallow for cracks and sawdust without oil are about the limit of cure and prevention.

Balls should never be placed on or near a heater. Modern artificial warmth is ivory’s direst enemy. Roomkeepers meet with fewer mishaps as to balls when their places are heated by stoves. Those fresh from play, especially in hot rooms, should not be placed on metal or stone, nor even on wood near door or window. Metal and stone are no colder than the room itself, although feeling colder to the touch; but they have a wonderful capacity for stealing heat from other things and giving it away in space, to suck in more. Nor should balls be put at once into an iron safe. Their play has been work, and there can be no work without generating inside heat. The old way was to put them up on a shelf in the open room. The box might have a lid, but there would be holes in it the year round. The fire would go out slowly and early, and zero might come after midnight, but the balls would be there at 8 A.M. sharp. Nails in the floor worried the old-timers, with their self-ventilating balls, more than heat or cold.

It was their fashion, too, never to put new balls in play at once. No matter how well-seasoned ivory is in point of age, it is practically nowhere riper than in its greenest part. Consequently a ball pared in spots in returning is virtually a new ball throughout in proffering the atmosphere new access to its interior. Were new balls put upon the table every day for two or three weeks, after the chill is off the room, and merely toyed with, without ever being struck with anything like force, they would probably give better and longer service.

A private table should have two sets of balls, and public rooms not fewer than three sets to every two carom tables.

As soon as play is done, the balls should be wiped off with a moist cloth, and then dried and polished with one of wool or chamois, so fine as not to scratch.

Composition balls have advantages besides their cheapness, but the demand for them continues to be almost confined in this country to ball-pool. The prejudice against them for caroms is still, as it was thirty-six years ago, that they are not ivory. The interval has greatly improved them, however, and this year’s promise of “absolute perfection” may at least result in coming closer to it than ever before.

The match-standard American carom-ball, always of ivory, is of 2⅜ diameter, with the red no larger than the whites. Standard ones for ordinary use are, when new, either 2⅜ full or 27
16 scant.

PART I.

MANUAL.

In billiards first impressions form no inconsiderable bearing upon the future practice, and success depends, to a considerable extent, whether these impressions be good or bad, true or false. Too often one endeavoring to learn without the aid of an instructor falls into error through a misunderstanding of the first principles, or a disregard for them, in efforts to accomplish the desired ends, by means which at the moment appear the readiest, but are liable, in the majority of cases, to be at variance, and opposed to the laws governing the principle. Repetitions of this fault create a habit, and the player, finding his game does not show the satisfactory improvement he has reason to expect, seeks a remedy in an instructor who, seeing the false ideas governing his pupil’s movements, is forced to rid him of all that he has acquired, and recommence upon an entirely new basis. All know the difficulty of changing at once the ideas which have been long entertained, even though one is satisfied of their falsity; and to avoid this it is better, when possible, to start in a proper manner, secure a competent teacher, and accustom one’s self to the proper mode of play in the beginning. A teacher, to be valuable, should be able not only to show how the stroke is to be made, but to make it and tell why the effect is produced and how, to give the reasons for the different motions, and, in fact, to understand the philosophy as well as the practice of the game.

There have been published some fifty or more volumes upon the game of billiards, in English, French, and German, and despite this number the remark has often been made that one cannot learn to execute well from a book. This, to a great extent, has been the fault of the authors, who have been obscure in their meanings, have not shown the simple reasons why each particular description of stroke is made, and have indulged too much in perplexing fractions and algebraic problems, or else they have reached the opposite extreme, and give no particulars other than how to strike the ball, and what the result will be after it is so struck. It has been the desire and effort of the writer to make the following directions and diagrams so plain and comprehensible that any one, by the exercise of ordinary care, can learn to play billiards well, by following them, and the finished player may be able to learn something further by a study of these pages. But, in order that this end may be attained, the player is urged to follow the teachings implicitly, and where his own views may be in conflict with those herein expressed, he should discard them and conform strictly with those found hereafter. Every diagram and example in this volume has been carefully tested, and if the stroke is made as required, the result is inevitably as set forth; should it fail, the player will discover some divergence on his part from the instruction.

ATTITUDE.

The acquisition of a good attitude is a point of the first importance to the student of billiards, and yet, from its purely physical nature, is a subject which almost defies the control of any written rules. There are peculiarities of height and figure which render the rules that would be excellent in one case totally inapplicable in the other; thus it is impossible to define by inches the distance at which a player should stand from the table, when about to strike; for not only will the different statures of men cause a difference of position—but, even with the same player, different positions of the ball will call for corresponding changes of attitude.

Under these circumstances, the best that can be done is to give a general direction, which each student must apply for himself to his own particular case. Let him stand with his left foot slightly advanced, his left arm extended and resting on the table to form a bridge, and his body, not facing the table squarely, but forming an acute angle with the side at which he stands; let him relax all the muscles of his limbs into their usual and most natural posture—for rigidity of body is at all times awkward and ungraceful, and seriously interferes with play. The striking motion should be confined to the wrist and arm, and chiefly to the lower division of it; athletes in billiards, or those persons who throw their bodies forward after the cue, would do well to renounce the “game,” for that quality totally unfits them for the delicacy of touch and firmness of body, eye, and purpose, which are the grand essentials of success. The body should remain immovable as a rock, while the right arm swings to and fro at a sufficient distance to avoid contact with the side, when advancing. All spasmodic motion and muscular contortions should be avoided; mere bodily strength in the player will not give strength to his stroke; the quantity of motion imparted to the ball will correspond precisely with the weight of the cue multiplied by the velocity with which it is advancing at the instant of contact; and therefore the only force required from the player, even for the strongest stroke, is force enough to cause his cue to move forward at a rate of speed which, multiplied by its gravity, will give the required result. As said, this motion should emanate especially from the wrist and forearm. It is impossible to describe exactly what should be conveyed; but if the readers, when striking, will imagine that they are throwing a lasso, and give the same quick, steady force of wrist to the cue that is required in flinging the coil, they will understand exactly what is required.

It is owing to the knowledge of this secret, that men, physically weak, are frequently more than a match in billiard-strength for players who have the proportions of Hercules, and the “dead pull” of Samson when he brought down the pillars of the temple on the heads of the assembled heathen.

As for the attitude in which a lady should stand while playing billiards, no instruction is needed; perfect ease is perfect grace, and perfect ease of position is the grand DESIDERATUM for the billiard-player. As the ladies are always graceful, they will naturally observe that ease of attitude which it is only necessary to enforce upon the ruder and more awkward sex.

The male novice should avoid all stiffness and parade—all affected dignity. Let the dress and attitude be such as to afford the body a perfect mastery of its own movements. A practised eye can discriminate at the first glance, on entering a billiard-room, which is the really skillful player, and which the pretentious bungler, by merely noting the contrast which the good player’s easy grace presents to the rigid formalism of the other. Paganini, in his younger days, when he taught the violin, used to give his pupils six months time in which to practise how to hold the instrument and bow. When they understood that thoroughly, he could teach them, he said, the remainder of the art in a few weeks.

Now, without requiring so long an apprenticeship—without, in fact, requiring any at all—if the student will only allow himself to stand in his natural position, the first essential feature of the game will have been accomplished.

The left foot should be pushed slightly forward, pointing straight ahead, while the right is withdrawn, and turned outward, at whatever angle is habitual and most convenient to the player. The body should be fairly balanced, for, without this equilibrium, we can neither have grace nor ease. The left arm, when necessary, should be advanced and rested on the table—the left hand being extended, as in the cut, to form a “bridge.” (See page [36].)

SELECTION OF A CUE.

Select a cue in harmony with the physical powers, and become accustomed so much as possible to play with cues of similar weight. From fifteen to nineteen ounces are fair weights, according to the balls now used in play. A cue, if too heavy, will paralyze the nerves of the arm and render them unable to estimate correctly the amount of force employed; if too light, on the other hand, it will call for an amount of force so great as to be incompatible with a steady and deliberate aim. Without some sensation communicated to the hand through the cue, when it contacts with the ball, it would be impossible for experts to accomplish the great runs so often made.

The heavier the cue the less is the influence of the stroke on the ball felt, and it is carried beyond or falls short of the point desired. The delicate touch for nursing should be as apparent as the stronger stroke.

Finally, let the cue be straight, for any crookedness in this instrument distracts the eye, and may seriously interfere with the manual correctness.

CUE-LEATHERS.

The leather is an important feature of the cue—in fact, an all-important one to any player who deals much in the strokes which are technically described as “forcing,” “twisting,” and “following.” With an inferior leather, his play will be paralyzed by miscues. In selecting the cue-leather, choose such as possess the finest fibre, and are at the same time solid, pliable, and elastic; and see to it that they have a good, solid under-leather, as that will save the point of the cue from breaking away, and will last longer than a thin one. Before being fitted on to the cue, they should be thoroughly well beaten out on a lapstone, so as to prevent them from spreading in the course of play; but that side of them which is next the cue should be roughened with a file or sandpaper, as also the cue itself, in order that the adhesive wax may be able to take good hold. The leather should be rounded, not flat, yet each must decide for himself the exact degree of convexity which will best suit his play. When the point of the leather becomes glazed from excessive play, a little sandpaper should be used to roughen it, so that the chalk may stick.

HOW TO HOLD THE CUE.

The cue should be held lightly in the hand, and when the tip rests one-eighth of an inch from the ball the cue-hand will be found beneath but a trifle forward of the elbow. This assures near a horizontal stroke, whereas if the cue be held at the extreme end of the butt, a curved motion up and down is given it in making the stroke. The cue is to be held by the three fingers and thumb, bent about it for support. When the stroke is given, and the cue carried forward, the hand closes naturally and without effort on the part of the player, then as the cue is drawn back the hand opens and is found again as described. The hand is not closed upon the cue until the instant the ball is struck, when it is done instinctively; the strength of this grasp being governed by the quickness of the movement. The speed of the cue, rather than the weight of the body or the greatness of muscle, gives force to the ball. At the instant of aim being perfected the stroke should be made, and he who has the faculty of quickest perception and calculation will become the finest player.

AIM AND DELIVERY.

To determine the line of aim let the bridge hand be raised or lowered as may be made necessary for the delivery of the cue, care being taken to elevate the butt as little as possible, thus permitting the cue to rest nearly horizontal. In changing the height of the bridge hand do not allow the end of the thumb to rise or fall, separated from the forefinger, against which it should rest gently, but secure the proper height by raising or lowering the palm of the hand from the table, permitting the weight to come upon the heel of the hand and the ends of the fingers.

In preparing for the stroke many things must be considered; the strength to be employed, the chances for a “kiss,” the weight of the ball and cue, the probable position for the succeeding carom, and the more important matter of all, the exact spot upon the cue-ball to be hit with the cue-point.

First, resolve upon the direction of aim, then the point on the cue-ball for receiving the cue; let the eye rise to the spot of contact on the object-ball, and instantly upon being satisfied the calculations are correct make the stroke. At the moment the cue strikes the cue-ball the eye should shift to the object-ball, as with the marksman who regards the target rather than his rifle, in shooting. In moving the cue backward and forward to secure aim, let its point each time come within one-eighth of an inch of the ball, being careful, of course, not to make a foul. Some players do not permit the cue to approach nearer the ball than an inch, and at that distance a stroke false to the calculation is most certain to result. The beginner should not be discouraged by the result of a stroke which he may have reasoned to himself was perfect. Whatever the intentions may have been before making it, the course of the ball will show beyond doubt the stroke that was actually made, and the player will then understand, if that course be different than he anticipated, that the point of contact upon the cue-ball was not such as he intended; he must remember, in fact, that the laws of motion are unalterable, while human vision is easily deceived.

THE CUE-BALL.

The centre of the cue-ball being considered the point from which all calculations are made, the following words are used in the directions for making shots to express a stroke at fractional distances from this centre.

The centre, as presented to player in a horizontal stroke:

Above means above centre.

Below means below centre.

Right means right of centre.

Left means left of centre.

Massé Stroke.

The centre, as the player looks down upon the ball:

Aft means off the perpendicular centre, directly away from the object-ball looking from above, in direction of the line of aim.

Forward means forward of centre toward object-ball.

Right means right of centre from line of aim.

Diagram illustrating a stroke of the cue which imparts the four primary motions to the ball.

Left means left of centre from line of aim.

The cue-ball is that with which the play is made.

The object-ball is the first ball struck by the cue-ball.

The carom-ball is the second ball struck by the cue-ball, completing the carom.

It is first necessary to master the centre-stroke, which is accomplished by delivering the cue at the point g, the line g, e, a, being the centre diameter of the ball.

The centre stroke imparts to the ball a natural impelling force where the strength of stroke is not in excess of “ordinary” (see Plate I). This stroke should always be used unless the player has a reason for a different delivery. Any divergence from the centre produces an effect on the ball in excess of the natural, and when applied in the smallest degree the result should be fully understood.

A centre stroke, with exceeding strength, produces an effect herein explained:

A centre stroke, slow or medium, will cause the cue-ball to rotate the instant of delivery, but in excess of medium the ball will slide a distance over the cloth before rotating, that distance being governed by the strength of stroke, and when thus sliding should contact be had with an object ball, at the slightest variation from its centre, right or left, the cue-ball will perform a right angle to either side, and the object-ball, taking up the impelling force, continues the direct right line of the cue-ball.

The Follow-Stroke.

By viewing the diagram in such way as will bring the explanation under letter A into a proper reading position, the follow shot is seen. For this stroke the cue is delivered ½ above centre, imparting two forces to the ball: impelling it forward in direction of arrow a and rotating in direction of arrow b, the entire force of the blow converging to centre of motion e. With this stroke the cue-ball, after striking the object-ball full, follows directly in its path. At the instant of impact with an object-ball, the cue-ball will, if struck with great strength, apparently stand still through the resistance of opposite forces caused by contact, but the rotating power overcoming the repelling tendency of the concussion, carries it forward on its original path.

It will be noticed the line k through the cue meets the spot h on the ball which is the point of aim, and this should be the case in every description of stroke. Only a part of the surface of the leather impinges upon the ball in this stroke, and the quantity of surface is governed by the strength used, for the stronger the blow the greater the indentation of the ball in the leather. The effect of delivering the cue-ball on the object-ball right or left of full will become apparent to the student early in his practice.

The cue may be delivered still farther above the centre—a ⅝ delivery, which imparts excessive rotation, and which is as far above as the leather will hold on the ball surface. The “follow” can also be executed with the cue delivered as far as one-fourth below centre, but the latter delivery should be with a “slow” strength of stroke, that the ball may rotate naturally; if it be full upon the object-ball and with strength exceeding “medium,” the cue-ball will stop, or will perform a right angle if played a fraction off the centre, as shown in Plate IV., Balls 1 and 6.

The Draw-Stroke.

Turn the diagram so the letter B may come beneath it and the draw-shot is illustrated.

The delivery as shown is one-half below centre, with the central line k through cue meeting the point of contact, h, on ball, and imparting to it three distinct forces, that of impulsion, rotation, and retrograde, the latter causing the cue-ball to rotate in direction of the arrow b; the strength of this force is such as to counteract the natural tendency of the impulsion, prevent the forward rotation, and cause the ball thereby to slide over the cloth without the rolling motion. This stroke holds the ball (thus preventing for the instant its natural rotation) in a position corresponding with the line e to i, the moment the impelling force is communicated to the object-ball, which is at the instant of contact, the retrograde power acts with all its remaining strength, and it returns in the direction of the player. The distance between the balls must regulate the strength of the stroke, but greater distance between cue- and object-ball requires greater force, that the cue-ball may retain its retrograde tendency which prevents its being displaced by friction in sliding over the cloth, which inertia in the cue-ball acts in the direction of dotted line i to j. A delivery ½ below, with the object-ball the length of the table away, will act as a “slowed” ball only. The quick, sudden delivery movement of the cue made with the aid of the wrist is what imparts the retrograde or “draw” tendency to the ball; there should be no spasmodic motion, but a free and horizontal blow direct at the calculated spot on the surface of the cue-ball, permitting the cue to pass naturally beyond where the cue-ball has rested, as the grip of the hand upon the cue will stop the latter when the limit of its swing is reached, except where cue- and object-balls are near together; in the latter case, that a foul may be avoided, a “twist” or “English” is imparted to the cue-ball, which carries the cue naturally off the side of the cue-ball.

Do not withdraw the cue; it is an awkward habit many persons have acquired. The limit of the swing of the cue is governed by the strength of the stroke. Full instructions in regard to the cue and its delivery have already been given.

The “English” or “Twist”-Stroke.

Bringing C beneath the diagram, we have the “English” stroke, with the cue delivered at ½ right of centre, which imparts to the cue-ball a perpendicular axis. A variation to the slightest degree in twist makes a difference in the direction of the cue-ball, which can only be appreciated by those who have studied it carefully.

A player, when instructed to deliver a ⅛ cue-ball, for instance, will disregard the direction and deliver a ¼ or even a ½ ball, apparently unconscious or careless of the value of the change. When it is understood that a cue-ball may be made to carom upon a ball placed anywhere upon the bed of the table by the application of the proper degree of twist, then the player will recognize the necessity or advisability of so fixing the various degrees in his mind as to have them always ready for use. A twist secures, of course, a false angle, and is used generally when the natural angle will not accomplish the result desired, and again, often is employed to control the object-ball.

The velocity of the cue-ball in the twist-stroke is governed by the divergence from the centre at which delivery of cue is made. There is a method in employing twist which is effective, that of combining it with the division of the object- and cue-balls, giving an exact line of aim to be had in no other way. When the twist is applied to that side of the cue-ball coming in contact with the object-ball, the aim will be more positive, as the cue covers the exact line of aim through the two balls.

The effect of the twist may be marked by placing the cue-ball upon its spot, and playing the cue-ball, hit in its centre, at the left side cushion, at an angle of 45°. The ball in its rebound taking a natural angle, traverses a line corresponding to its original line of departure from the cue. Impart right-hand English and the angle grows obtuse; increase the twist and the angle widens accordingly, and it grows until the extreme angle is reached through application of excessive twist.

Players frequently are at a loss to know upon which side to apply twist to accomplish certain desired results, and but few give sufficient thought to the matter to understand the theory of the “English.” A cue-ball struck upon its right side and contacting with the left cushion at an angle of 45°, the cue-ball touching cushion at point l on ball (see p. [44]), will describe an obtuse or wide angle, which is nearer parallel to the cushion than the natural angle, for the reason that the circular spinning motion, imparted by the cue to the ball, is moving on that side of the ball contacting with cushion in an opposite direction to the impelling force (as shown in arrows b and l); hence, when it contacts with the cushion, it spins against it in a direction which acts as a blow from the ball on the cushion, and this carries it farther forward. When the reverse or left English is imparted the revolution of the ball is exactly opposite to that already shown, and its tendency is to leave the cushion toward an acute angle, the direction of the spin on the side contacting being that in which the ball is moving; so, when it meets the cushion, in place of gliding along it strikes it in such a manner as to receive a check to further onward progress and describes a line inclined toward a right angle from the point of contact.

When delivered directly upon a cushion the cue-ball should be struck upon that side toward which it is expected to roll. In compound angles the twist is so consumed after leaving the second cushion that the response from a third cushion approximates a natural angle. Many players are deluded with the idea that it is necessary to turn, jerk, or twist the arm when making an “English” stroke, and some suppose the ball should be rubbed by the cue in delivery; in reality no such thing is required. After the aim is secured, and the point for striking is determined upon, let the player make the stroke naturally and easily, and leave everything else to take care of itself. After the blow has been given, no amount of intelligence and no wonderful contortions can alter its effects. In all deliveries imparting twist up to and including “ordinary” strength of stroke, the wrist only is to be used. Every blow delivered with the cue converges to the centre of motion at e in the cue-ball (as shown in arrow c, c,), and every grain of weight in the ball is imparted through the cue to the hand; therefore with the expert the weight and density of the ball is calculated to a nicety at each delivery, whether it be at centre or at ⅝ right or left, else all strengths could not be so cleverly estimated in gathering and holding the balls for a long run.

The Massé.

Bringing the letter D beneath the illustration the massé stroke is shown.

This is the most difficult of all strokes to describe and instruct with the pen. The cue is delivered in the diagram at the ½ ball surface-point h; the cue is held slanting at an angle of 78¾ degrees, shown by dotted line d. The butt of the cue is held as near the eye as is possible, not interfering with the sight, that the eye may run down the cue covering the spot on the ball to be hit; the cue is held between the thumb and three fingers, the thumb being on that side toward the face, and when the point of the cue rests on the ball the thumb of this cue-hand should be about three inches above the horizontal line of the elbow of that arm; this will show the spot on the cue-ball which is to be struck. Permit the cue to play freely and without diverging from a straight line in its movement up and down, to and from the ball, until the aim is secured.

The bridge is formed by resting the ends of the fingers of the bridge-hand on the table with a slight pressure, the back of the hand being turned outward nearly parallel with the side of the body, with the fingers slightly spread to resist vibration from the play of the cue, with the thumb separated from the hand, with its end resting about an inch and a half from the forefinger. The spot upon the ball for delivery of the cue must be found by looking between the thumb and forefinger, immediately over the outer edge of the cue-tip. Practise this position as instructed, and when it is acquired more than half the difficulties of the stroke will be overcome. It is this correct attitude that goes far toward insuring a proper delivery of the cue-tip on the cue-ball. For deliveries in excess of “medium” the cue may be held at the butt, the same as heretofore instructed for the regular massé, with the exception that the left forearm must rest upon the hip, the forefinger hooked about the cue a foot more or less from the tip. In this way unlimited strength may be used. In the close massé the weight of the cue, guided by the wrist only, is sufficient to accomplish the stroke. The forearm is used in addition to the wrist when the balls lie farther apart, judgment, of course, being exercised in imparting the force in accordance with the distance between cue- and object-ball. When the delivery is perfect, the bite or grasp of the cue-tip on the ball will be felt in the hand by the player through a sensitive, keen vibration of the cue. The retrograde movement imparted to the cue-ball is that denoted by arrow b, and the slant given the cue, indicated by dotted line d, imparts the impelling force and the ball moves in accordance with the calculation. The cue-ball slides upon the cloth at point a, the same as explained in the draw-stroke.

Taking Aim.—The Ordinary Massé.

Slowed Ball.

Slowing the cue-ball and speeding the object-ball is one of the most important strokes in the game. If the cue-ball be delivered at the pivot centre of the object-ball, the points of impact will be at the greatest diameter of both balls and the exact centres of each ball will meet, and the cue-ball, if hit ¼ below, will stop instantly and rest. If the cue-ball be delivered a hair’s-breadth from the centre of the object-ball, the former will describe a perfect right angle from the object-ball, as illustrated in Plate IV., balls 1 and 6. The fractional divergences from centre in delivery of cue on cue-ball gives that ball a separate and distinct action.

Elevation of the Cue.

Diagram giving the degrees of elevation at which the cue should be held.

The angle line 10° represents the position of cue in making the “draw-jump” shot, the stroke “very hard” ⅝ below centre.

The angle 22½° is for the “jump stroke,” struck ¼ above the centre.

67½° is the “half-massé,” ½ aft the perpendicular or top centre, as hereafter explained under “Massés.”

78¾° is the full massé, the cue-ball being struck ½ aft the perpendicular centre, i.e., looking down from a line above the ball at 90°, at the top centre of the ball, which latter centre is directly over the centre of motion, and the centre of gravity as well.

The common angle—45°—is denoted by a heavy line whereby the player may better gauge the other lines.

The “Jump”: its Causes and Preventions.

A ball is made to “jump” by being struck hard ¼ above its centre with the cue held at an elevation of 22½°. The stroke of the cue at this elevation is resisted by the bed of the table, and the ball rebounds, leaves the table and flies through the air, the distance being regulated by the strength of stroke, which is usually “hard.” When the cue-ball reaches the object-ball or cushion, its centre is above that of the object-ball or the top surface of the cushion, causing the ball to ride over whatever it may contact with. If the force used is great the object-ball will also be made to “jump,” often causing both balls to fall to the floor. When a ball lies close under the cushion it makes necessary an elevation of the cue to about the angle for a “jump;” when this occurs the player must be very careful in making the stroke, and must sacrifice a certain quantity of strength in order to secure the carom, for should considerable force be used the ball will leave the bed of the table. When the ball lies in the open table and it is desirable to use more than “ordinary” strength, it is always better to deliver the cue ½ below centre, so as to do away with any possibility of a “jump.” The motion of the ball in being struck below centre is denoted by the arrow b, the bed of the table being j, and when contacting with the cushion at a the ball is rolling upward, and the cushion acting against it holds it down to the table.

In delivering cue on ball, it is always necessary to observe the exact fractional divergence from centre, as the slightest change may make the stroke a miss. For the fractional parts of balls, the reader is referred to the next succeeding pages.

Object-Ball.

In the object-ball all distance is measured from its central width (indicated in cut by dotted line a) to its outer edge surface, and the fractional strokes are calculated from this centre point, each divergence denoting the body resistance received by the cue-ball from the object-ball; thus with 8
8 as a full ball, ⅞ signifies ⅛ to left or right of centre as may be instructed.

The position which the object-ball may assume after being struck is unimportant, so far as that particular stroke is concerned; but in the management of the balls and the ability to leave them in a position favorable to the next play—or unfavorable to his opponent, if the player thinks it impossible to count himself—lies the strength and science of the game.

General Division of the Object-Balls.

The spots on the horizontal line through the centre diameter of the ball, are the different fractional parts at which the cue-ball may be delivered, to effect certain results. The spots are made by exact measurement, and extend from the pivot A toward either side surface. The centre A indicates a “dead full” delivery. The spots right and left of this centre show the points of impact for the cue-ball, as may be directed.

Division of the Cue and Object Balls.

The division of the cue and object balls are important elements in the game of billiards for the player to understand and master. Both should be divided at the instant of aim, and the line of aim should be through the points on the two balls at which they will come in contact. If a delivery on the object-ball of a ½ ball right be required, then the left half of the cue-ball will impinge upon the right half of the object-ball; consequently aim should be taken from and to these parts.

It is impossible to deliver a full cue-ball on a ½ or other fractional part of an object-ball; for when a full cue-ball delivery is made upon a full object-ball, the centres of both balls meet.

The dotted lines show the course the object-ball takes after being struck by the cue-ball. These directions may be considered in effecting either a carom, or in pocketing the ball in the pool games.

The line from a upon the cue-ball to a upon the object-ball indicates the direction taken by the former when delivered full upon the latter.

The corresponding letters upon the two balls denote the points of contact. Thus, the letter b on the cue-ball shows the point of fractional division of a ¾ ball, and b upon the object-ball indicates exactly where such a delivery will bring the cue-ball into contact with it; the other fractions are at c, d, e, and f.

The dotted lines beyond the object-ball are the paths over which it will travel after being struck by the cue-ball at the fractional deliveries indicated.

These balls can, of course, be still further divided into other fractions.

Fractional Divisions of the Cue-Ball.

When the reader finds, in the explanation of the following diagrams, directions to strike the cue-ball at a stated distance above or below the centre, a reference to this plate will show the exact point indicated by the fractions.

The letters b, c, d, e, denote points at which the ball may be struck, giving to it four distinct movements, impulsion, rotation, English or twist, and draw or recoil.

DIAGRAM OF STROKES.

PLATE I.
EXPLANATION OF STRENGTH OF STROKE.

Stroke 1.—A one-cushion stroke, denominated SLOW.

Stroke 2.—A two-cushion stroke, denominated MEDIUM.

Stroke 3.—A three-cushion stroke, denominated ORDINARY.

Stroke 4.—A four-cushion stroke, denominated HARD.

Stroke 5.—A five-cushion stroke, denominated VERY HARD.

The fractional parts of the table are indicated by the figures ¼, ½ or ¾, and when employed are to be understood as directing that such force shall be imparted to the cue-ball as to carry it the distance denoted, either in excess or below the space traversed by the ball when struck with either of the five degrees of strength; thus ½ in excess of slow instructs the player to use such force as shall return the ball one-half the length of the table after contacting with the cushion.

PLATE II.
CAROMS ILLUSTRATED.

Illustrating different lineal directions of the cue-ball, with strength of stroke, “Ordinary” to “Hard” (see Plate I. for strength of stroke).

Diagram 1.—Cue-ball ½ above, object-ball ¾ right; strength, “ordinary” to “hard.” The cue-ball, partaking of the “follow” quality, and having its direction changed by contact with the object-ball, rebounds slightly with the concussion, and in its efforts to regain its natural course—that of the “follow”—describes a convex curve, and effects carom in corner.

Diagram 2.—Illustrating the concave curve. Cue-ball ½ below, object ball ¾ right; strength of stroke, “ordinary” to “hard.” The retrograde tendency given the cue-ball by the “draw” overcomes the impelling power after its contact with the object-ball, and causes it to make the curve shown.

Diagram 3.—Straight line carom. Cue-ball centre, object-ball ¾ right; strength of stroke, “ordinary.” The cue-ball being struck in the centre has neither rotary motion forward nor back, but slides over the bed of the table a certain distance, when the natural condition of a moving sphere overcomes the propelling power, and it takes a rolling movement. Plate IV. fully explains this centre delivery.

PLATE III.
PLAIN CAROMS WITH DIFFERENT DEGREES OF STRENGTH.

Illustrating the control of cue-ball by application of different forces, and being struck ¼ below at each stroke, the object-ball ⅞ right.

To carom on ball 1.—Strength of stroke, MEDIUM.

To carom on ball 2.—Strength of stroke, ORDINARY.

To carom on ball 3.—Strength of stroke, HARD.

To carom on ball 4.—Strength of stroke, VERY HARD.

Constant practice is necessary to properly gauge the strength required. The force of the delivery controls the several caroms. Familiarize the eye with the angle of departure from the object to the carom-ball, noting the width of space between them. When like positions are brought about in the progress of a game, the player will recognize the similarity to those shown here, and will understand how to play.

PLATE IV.
DIAGRAM OF CAROMS SHOWING PLAYER’S CONTROL OF CUE-BALL.

This plate shows a most useful series of diagrams for general instruction in striking the cue-ball. It is made to carom upon each of the ten numbered balls, playing full each time upon the object-ball a, simply by changing the position of the cue at, below, and above the centre of the cue-ball.

To carom on ball 1.—Cue-ball ¼ below, object-ball ⅞ left; strength of stroke, “medium.” This gives the slow movement to the cue-ball and speed to the object-ball, and is used in the game to drive the object-ball for a gathering stroke.

To carom on ball 2.—Cue-ball “centre,” object-ball ⅞ left; strength of stroke “medium.” The stroke can also be played with any strength desired.

To carom on ball 3.—Cue-ball ½ above, object-ball ⅞ left; strength of stroke, “medium.”

To carom on ball 4.-Cue-ball ½ above, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “medium.”

To carom on ball 5.—Cue-ball centre, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “medium.”

To carom on ball 6.—Cue-ball ¼ below, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “medium.” By playing the cue-ball ¼ below, and full on the object-ball, the cue-ball stops and rests at the point where it comes in contact with the object-ball.

To carom on ball 7.—Cue-ball ½ below, object-ball ¾ right; stroke, “medium.”

To carom on ball 8.—Cue-ball ⅝ below, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “medium.”

To carom on ball 9.—Cue-ball ⅝ below, object-ball ⅞ left; stroke, “medium.”

To carom on ball 10.—Cue-ball ½ below, object-ball ¾ left; stroke, “medium.” The dotted lines 1 and 4 show course of object-ball from a ¾ delivery, and lines 2 and 3 the course from a ⅞ delivery, and show also how the object-ball may be thrown in position, as explained hereafter in Part II.

The player should thoroughly understand what motion each stroke imparts to the cue-ball, and what positive direction the latter gives to the object-balls.

In all draw-shots allowance should be made for the curve of the cue-ball when it leaves the object-ball, and direction thereafter should be calculated with the curve considered, its extent being governed by the strength and proximity to the centre of the object-ball—nearer the centre the less marked is the divergence from a straight line.

PLATE V.

Illustrating the various angles resulting from the application of different degrees of strength when played at the same point on the cushion.

Having explained the methods of the direct caroms, the cushion play is illustrated:

To perform the angle a to b strike the centre of the cue-ball, the line of aim being at the point a. The natural angle from the cushion through a medium stroke is that of line from a to b, b, bearing in mind that with the medium strength the angle of reflection is always equal to the angle of incidence—that is to say, the line of angle from a to b is the exact counterpart of the original direction of the cue-ball to point a.

An “ordinary” stroke will effect angle from a to c, and the “hard” stroke will produce the angle a to d.

As the strength of stroke is increased the ball necessarily imbeds itself more firmly in the cushion, and the sudden rebound, together with the resistance from the rubber through indentation, throws it off with greater velocity and produces a more acute angle.

PLATE VI.
DIVISION OF ANGLES.

Diagram 1.—The angle from c, a, to ball 2 represents the angles of incidence and reflection, and it is drawn mentally before considering the ball 1. If a ball is banked from c at the centre diamond at b on the end cushion, it will take its angle of reflection directly on ball 2. Therefore, with ball 1 placed as per diagram, with its edge surface at the line running from c to a, and the centre stroke on cue-ball on ½ right of ball 1, with strength of stroke “slow,” the cue-ball will follow same angle found in the bank and will carom on ball 2.

Regarding diagrams 2, 3, 4, and 5, follow the same directions as in diagram 1, excepting, of course, in the necessary change of impingement, owing to the difference in position toward the diamond sight b, increasing the strength of stroke to cover the lines of the diagram.

Play to be made from ball 3 to 4, 5 to 6, etc., etc.

PLATE VII.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE ENGLISH OR TWIST STROKE.

When “English” or “twist” is applied to the cue-ball in its course, it is forced from a straight line and diverges to an extent that it will pass around a ball placed in a direct line before it. The line of aim in the diagram is a ½ ball right on the object-ball, cue-ball ⅝ left and ⅝ below; stroke, “medium.” This stroke is the application of the extreme English and extreme draw, and is of such force as permits the combined motions—impelling, rotating, retrograde, and diagonal—applied to the cue-ball to act upon it. The distance from the starting-point of the greatest point of divergence of a cue-ball is, of course, governed by the strength of stroke applied.

The point e is the natural destination of the cue-ball struck at centre, upon ½ object-ball, and the difference in space between points e and f may be made by striking the ball, as shown in the diagram, for the reason that the cue-ball, diverging as it does from a straight line, takes from the point e a new direction, effecting a ½ stroke upon the object-ball and rolling, as we have said, to point f.

The dotted line d shows the direction in which the ball is forced by being struck on the side, but the ball rotating in the opposite direction to that which it is impelled, in consequence of the twist and draw imparted, aided by the resistance through friction of the nap of the cloth, serves to bring it back to the original point of aim, as shown by the curved loop-line, b, which denotes twist.

PLATE VIII.
ILLUSTRATING CUSHION TWISTS.

This diagram illustrates the three principal strokes of the cue-ball on the cushion, showing the effect of twist after contact of ball with the cushion:

If the cue-ball be struck in the centre from point shown in the diagram, upon the cushion at a, its natural course will be the line from a to b—stroke, “medium.” If ⅝ right and ⅝ below at a, it will take the extreme angle indicated by the line a to d—stroke, “medium.” If ⅝ left and ⅝ below at a, stroke, “ordinary,” it will effect the angle from a to c.

PLATE IX.
CUSHION CAROMS BY CENTRE STROKE, ENGLISH OR TWIST, FROM ONE POSITION.

This plate gives simple examples of the cushion angles shown in previous diagrams.

To carom on balls 7 or 8.—Cue-ball centre, object-ball ¼ right; stroke, “medium.” This is the natural or reflected angle.

To carom on balls 2 or 4.—Cue-ball ½ right, ⅛ above, object-ball ¼ right; stroke, “medium.”

To carom on balls 3 or 5.—Cue-ball ⅝ right, ⅛ above, object-ball ¼ right; stroke, “medium.”

To carom on balls 6 or 9.—Cue-ball ⅝ left—a reverse English—object-ball ¼ right; stroke, “medium.”

PLATE X.
COMPOUND ANGLES.

Illustrating the manner of effecting a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 cushion carom.

Ball a, a is introduced as an imaginary one from which the player may make the mental calculation of the angles necessary to secure the carom, as shown before in Plate VII.

After finding the angles place the ball 1 as in diagram, strike cue-ball (2) ½ right, ¼ below, object-ball ½ right; stroke, “ordinary.” Cue-ball cushions at a, b, c, d, and e, caroming on ball 3.

Should a ball be located at either of the points indicated as those where the cue-ball contacts with the cushion, of course a carom would be effected there as well.

PLATE XI.
THE CUSHION KISS.

Illustrating the four kiss strokes possible by making stroke on different points of the cue-ball and the object-ball ⅞ right.

To kiss to cushion at c.—Where a ball may rest: cue-ball ½ above, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “ordinary.” The cue-ball will describe the curve line from ball 1 to c. Should player desire to reach any point between c and e the ball 1 should be hit from ⅞ to ¾ right. Judgment must be exercised as to the precise fractional part and also the strength of stroke.

To kiss to b.—Cue-ball ⅛ below centre, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “ordinary.”

To kiss to d, the natural angle of reflection, cue-ball ½ below, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “ordinary.”

To a, the acute angle, cue-ball ⅝ below, object-ball ⅞ right; stroke, “hard.” The “draw” imparted to the cue-ball, together with the kiss and the extreme velocity obtained from the cushion resulting from the hard stroke, tends to rebound the cue-ball in a direct line across the table.

PLATE XII.
PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION OF THE MASSÉ STROKE.

Illustrating the most difficult stroke that may be made without the personal aid of a teacher.

Diagram 1.—Cue-ball ⅝ aft of perpendicular centre, the line of aim being direct at ball 1, the elevation of cue being at an angle of 78¾°; stroke, “medium.” This is a simple initial massé, the cue-ball resting at b. It must be practised constantly to secure proper hold on the cue-ball. The backward whirl given it by the stroke acts instantly upon its contact with the object-ball, because the impelling force is taken from the cue-ball and imparted to the object-ball. Strength of stroke must be slight, the weight of cue is almost sufficient. The fingers of the bridge-hand, in the instance shown, must rest on the rail, with the palm turned toward the cue-ball diagonally.

Diagram 2.—Cue-ball, ⅝ aft of perpendicular centre, ¼ forward toward the object-ball; stroke, ½ less than “slow;” the line of aim, along dotted line a, from edge of cue-ball just off edge of ball 1. The weight of cue, through the gentle motion of the wrist, is sufficient to effect the stroke.

Diagram 3.—The balls here are at a distance from each other. Cue-ball ⅝ left, ¼ forward perpendicular centre; object-ball, “fine;” stroke; “slow;” line of aim on dotted line a.

Diagram 4.—The distance here is further increased. Cue-ball, ⅝ right, ¼ forward perpendicular centre; stroke, “medium;” the line of aim along dotted line a, from edge to edge, on account of greater strength.

Diagram 5.—Cue-ball ½ left, ¼ forward perpendicular centre; stroke, “medium;” line of aim along line a; object-ball, “fine,” taking direction of line b, and cue-ball cushions at point c, effecting carom on ball 2.