BILLIARDS

a well-known game, requiring great skill of hand and eye. BiUiwds may, indMd» be such said to rank first among games of physical skill in time respect to the qualities nece ary to command succe in it, and the great amount of experience needed to make an accomplished player. BilHards is said to have been a French invention. It is first nofcioed of as a fashionable amusement when recommended to bills, Louis XIV. by his physicians. It has readied its present state by succe ive improvements, which are curiously a ociated in the French annals of the by game with the succe ive revolutions in the histwy the of the countiy. The mode in which it is now playe which is tipped with leather and rubbed with chalk to make find stroke smooth. In the common game, which elicits the greatest variety of skill, two players engage. Each has a white ball, one distinguished from the other by a spot, and a red ball is common to the two players. In beginning the game, the red ball is placed on a spot near one end of the table, and equidistant from ihe comer pockets. A line is drawn acro the table at the other end, marking off a space called baulk. In this space a semicircle is described, out of which the player, in commencing, must send his ball, either striking the red or giving his opponent a 'mi ,' that is, playing without strikuig the red ball, which scores one against him. When the game has commenced, the player is at liberty to strike at either his opponent's ball or the red, and continues to play as long as he succeeds in scoring. The whole of an uninterrupted run of play is called a break. There are various modes of scoring in the common game. When a player strikes both balls with his own, it is called a cannon, and counts two; when he pockets his own ball, after striking another, it is called a losing hazard, and counts two if made off his opponent's ball, three if off the red; when he pockets his opponent's ball it counts two; when he pockets the red, three. These strokes are called winning hazards, but notwithstanding this name, it is usually considered bad play to pocket your opponent's ball, as it is then taken off the table. The others may be restored as often as pocketed. When the player fails to strike either ball, it scores one against hrm; if he goes into a pocket without striking, it scores three against him. The effect of a stroke at billiards depends on so many conditions, that both theoretical knowledge and practical skill are required to make a player proficient. The force of the stroke, the point of the ball struck with the cue, the point of contact of the player's ball with the object ball, the effect of recoil from the cushions, are all subject of calculation, and constitute a th^ry of the game on which many treatises have been written. The skill acquired by celebrated players is very great; amateurs of moderate pretensions usually consider a game of 50 or 100 points as offering sufficient scope for the exhibition of their skill, but great players will frequently make several hxmdred at a break. The rules of the game are very numerous, and as they are always to be found in the rooms where it is played, they need not be given here. After the ordinary game, the most favourite varieties in this count iT are pyramids and pool. The former is so called m>m the position in which the balls are placed at the beginning of the game. It is played with fifteen balls; and the object of the players is to try who will pocket, or 'pot,' the greatest number of baUs. Thus the pyramid-player acquires a greater skill in potting balls from every variety of position than the billiard-player, but as he is limited to this particular stroke, he has le scope for the exercise of a diversity of skilL Pool is also a game of potting, but is played somewhat differenSy. It is a favourite game with those who play for stakes, insomuch that it may be considered almost exclusively a gambling game. It embraces an indefinite number of players, each of whom is provided with a ball of a different colour from any of the others. They play in succe ion, and each tries to pot his opponent's ball. If he succeeds with one he goes on to the next; if he fails, another player takes his turn, playing first on the ball of the last player. There are two points which a pool player has to aim at: to pot as many balls as po ible, and to keep his ball in a safe position relatively to that of the following player, as the player whose ball is potted has to pay the pexialty prescribed by the game. 204