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THE HISTORY OF TIE GAM.
<br />' Few other games, iC any, have enjoyed the long lasting appeal of billiards. In one Corm or another, billiards can be uaced back w at Icast
<br />the founeenth cenuuy with countless kings, counts and commoners hooked on the simplicity and elegance of the gams. It's beets said that
<br />Marie Antoinette and Louis X VI played pool in their parlor as their people came to arrest them, although she apparenly never suggested
<br />to anyone to "la than Play Poo!!" Shakespeare makes mention of the game in one of his plays, az did several writers of the seventeenth
<br />and ughtccnth censures And, in this country. presidents since rho dawn of the republic have professed a passion for the game from
<br />Washington and Jefferson up to the present administration. But how did this simple game get its start and how did it take shape,
<br />To start with, the game probably began az an offshoot of lawn bowling in England. When lawn bowlers became tired of in[emtpaons duo
<br />to rho dreary rain ever present is England, they apparently moved the game indoors, setting up wickes through which the balls wen hiL
<br />To do this, they useda hpvyclubh7cestickcalledamace. In time, it waz sisal ontoatabieandpoc3a;tswemcutinto thesides to substiwte
<br />for the wickets. When it was prried by the king's emissaries to the continent, it was given, az was everything chic and new in those days,
<br />a French tidy Thus the French word "billiard," meaning"bent stick," came to apply to the game, and the pectiliar curved cue sacks of the
<br />king's court became popular throughout the sport
<br />The most noted monarrtt of those times was Loris XIV, "Ttte Sun King," who, among other things, bttikFrana into a world power and
<br />moved the French court to his newly built palace at Versailles Among his most lasting, but oveflooked accomplishments was his
<br />I" popularization of playing pool To build up his failing health, his doctor prescribed the game, recently strived from England, az a way of
<br />tcgular'lYexetcisingaftermeals. Soprofidentwasthekingathisnewfoundfancy,tltathespreadthegamefarandwide,issuingchalienges
<br />toanymanalivewhocotildbeathim.Apparattly,theonlymcmberofhiscourtwhocould,orperhapsdaredbeathimwasalowlynobleman
<br />named Camillart. So impressed was the king at his mastery of the game, that he elevated him.to be a minister of the crown, thus forever
<br />ending the notion made popular by more that one mother that you can never amount w anything playing pool!
<br />i =om this start, the game quickly caaght on, spreading around the world. The Spanish brought the game to the New World, dte French
<br />I _ .tk it to Africa and the Sourh Scar, and the British brought it into Tadia and the Far East As it sprrad and grew in poptUarity, the game
<br />took on diffaau forms. The most dramatic change occ~ed in 1807 with the introdncaoa of the leather tipped cue. By acddent, mote
<br />thandcsign, this simple innovationrevoladottizedplay. In 1825,Jar~Cazr,an employee inBanley'sBillrantRoominUPP« ~LEngtand
<br />discovered that by using a leather tipped are and some t4talk on the end, he could tense the tae baB m curve, back up a stop dead in its
<br />uaclcs. Tn his day, the innovation wascalled"side," Today, iris canmonlytefertzd to as"Fltglish." Carrtnadeasmall fortunepromoting
<br />hie new discovery and selling his owe special "twisting chalk," until others discos~xed that the new tip was are real carne of all this.
<br />d~crip game was writtat b a contem
<br />In 1829. the fast lion of the y porary of Cam's, Fdwitr Kea[field, one of the first true champions of the
<br />game. Thebookwazcalled,gtatesimply,THEGAME OFBILLIARDS-SCIFN'fIFICALLYERI'LADVED AND PRACTICALLY
<br />SET FORTH IN A SER]ES OF NOVEL AND ERTRAORDINARY BUT EQUALLY PRACTICAL STROKES, and catttainal,
<br />~ among other things. an equally tong winded desaiptioa of the game's "health giving gt:aliacs."
<br />Aro stud this tune, marb le began to replarc wood tables, but it was discoven;d that ntazble has a teadrncy to sweat in hot weather, whereafter
<br />I; shvewasfotmdtobeasuitablesubsatuce.Theaactdevetopmentwasputdngsmoothclothovertheslatetoiasaretheballsvrouldnmbetter.
<br />And then, in 1865. Michael Phelan, the first American to win a billiards championship, piatteered the ttse of Vtflcanized tubber in the
<br />rmshions to zzplacc the idea of wood heavily padded with felt. He also reduced the heightaf the rails and teplaoed the diamonds along the
<br />top. Together, this allowed players, for dte fuss time, to make a rail shot without having to hold the cue saaight up and down to get over
<br />4 the rails and rho bumps along their top edges
<br />AndthatbroughtthegamointoitsptcsentfomLTherulcschangedconsidenbly,asbilliardssplitintotwofacfions:poc!cetbilliards,such
<br />azthepopulareightandttineballandstrsightpoo[,allplayedbyputtingballsinto.thepockets:andcarombilliardcsuchasThnxCltshion
<br />' and its predecessor Four Cashion, in which the objeot is to strita several cushiotu and several balls, sooting points aaordingly. Names
<br />were added to the annals of the sport such az Willie Hoppe, Ralph Greenleaf; W illic Mosconi and Irving Crane romantic images sprang
<br />up about baCkTOOm hernics• halls were packed for exhibitions of all kinds; and warnings were issued to unsuspecting small towns dart the
<br />-? ' -zvai of Use
<br />game meant "trouble my friends, tight herein Rives City, with a capita! T and that rhymes widt P and that stands for Pool!"
<br />. Uuough it all, Use hype, the halos and the hcllfue damnation, the sport has remained an elegant and enchanting pastime, with endless
<br />possibilities and combinations that continue to captivate young and old, rich and poor, and men and women az much today as it did nearly
<br />~- f 500 years ago.
<br />Billiard Congress of America 17a Page 48 ~~„a 5??a0 (319) 35l-2112
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