BILLIARDS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1781, 5 November 1879, Page 2

BILLIARDS.

To the Editor of the Globe. Sib, —In perusing the " Press " of yesterday, under the heading " Magisterial," I find that Mr Kiddy, licensee of the Golden Fleece Hotel, has transformed his billiard room to bedrooms. Mr Kiddy, no doubt, will lose in a monetary point of view by doing so, but if every publican in town would follow suit, and use their billiard rooms for other and good purposes, though it might not be quite fo beneficial in a pecuniary way, they would have the satisfaction of knowing that many a poor man's son that is very dear to him, would be saved from ruin in nearly every respect of the word, because the billiard room is the first step to gamblicg and drinking. I have wifnessed boys of twelve or thirteen years of age loitering in those rooms ;. those same boys at the age of fifteen to sixteen may be seen taking their first lesson from the billiard marker gratis. A few days after you may see the same boy, and others of a like* age taking from the marker thirty or forty points out of a game of fifty up. These learners almost invariably loose. Where do they get the shilling that pays the marker? Those boys beget an ardent love for the game ; they cannot play it without, money, and they get it by hook or by crook. Three month* after you may see the same boys play for drinks, the looser paying for both table and drinks, and at this it becomes a habit that one boy out of fifty has not the moral courage to reject. As a cure to all (his, if the authorities would enact that r.o lad under twenty years of aee would be allowed into those places, it would be one of the greatest blessings that could be showered on the poor man und his sons because I belioro it would be the saving of many a young man that is led f stray by the influences above mentioned. These are boys that would otherwise turn out to beeood citizens, good husbands, and good fathers. Mr Kiddy deserves the thanks of the public. He h«s now i-hown an example, and I tru: t thut othors in the same line of business with himself will do likewise. Yours, &\, AimiiAß..