AT THE BILLIARD MATCH.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1584, 30 October 1912, Page 6

AT THE BILLIARD MATCH.

SNAPSHOT OF THE BOOM. Click-click. "Forty-two—sixty-four 1" Click-click. "Forty-four—sixty-four!" Click "Hard luck!" muttered a soft guttural voice. "Missed by a whisker!" whispered another. "Left 'om safe!" said a third. The scone was a nocturne, calm and hushful; No one savo the marker spoke with a full voice-vind that was part of the machinery of tho game. On the fifth floor in tho heart of tho quiet city, remote from the clang of the cars, a. bright green-clothed table, centred in the brilliant glow of six red-fihaded' electric lights. Tho rest of tho room was in semidarkness.

Beyond tho focus of the lights rows of chairs, stopped one above tho other, filled with all sorts and conditions of men, from a Minister of tho Crown to those who spend a fifth of (heir lives round such tablce, watching with concentration each shot made. Tlio plovers in their shirt slcovcs, walked round tho soft rod pile carpet, which framed tho billiard tablo, 000 lin action, quick to think, playing "safety" or smashing them up with some mysterious figure in geometry, for the balls to perform—if they would. Occasionally a difficult shot, successfully made, would elicit a round of subdued applause, and then silence broken only by the marker's monotone calling tho score of both players after each shot.

"Foul!" A. soft-toned, voice speaks from tho gloom. One player in reaching for a far shot has touched a near ball. He resumes his seat, and his opponent plays. Click-click! Click-click! And so tlio crystalato cup is lost and won.