MASTER GEORGE GRAY, BILLIARDIST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 266, 3 November 1908, Page 4

MASTER GEORGE GRAY, BILLIARDIST.

" K. V. W." sends the following:A bla/e of light upo» a lielil of green cloth; three spheres- -one red, two white; three balls of crystalline that idly lie upon a cloth-spread plane. A .sea of eager faces, circling in the middle lights, verging to dimness in the darkest, corners of the-room. An air of bushel expectancy pervades it all. A stillness like the pause 'lwixt lightning-Hash and thunder-dap strains pent-up feelings to bursting point. Hearts pant like 'cellos dragging an agitated pianissimo 'cross minor keys. Moments seem like centuries of acutest anguish. Hue feds upon the'point of I crying'out. The smoke from countless bowls curls dreamilv to mid-air, takingfantastic shapes. •'

The spell breaks suddenly. A vouth, -■a white-veiled, knickered stripling—steps swiftly into the glare; , t quiet, unassuming'boy of sixteen summers', bom old maybe, but seemingly aglow with the brightness oi healthy boyhood. Somebody applauds, and a murmur like unto the breaking of the surf upon a distant shore, rises perceptibly. Hearts beat freer, Hie tension slackens, and for the moment a half-sacrilegious jovousness creeps in. . .

I Hut the boy is playing! Ilandlinc his cue wilh iinalleclcd lightness, with delicacy, but with masterful precision withal, thi- boy marvel make, the bails ring out a ripping treble, the marker's slnwly-iucasiired toll punctuating the piece as the tones u j- H half-subdued bass-viol. "J is a wondrous exposition, this show of Art evolving from a mere child. Wonder nils the watchers as each daring stroke is played with apparent ease, the outcome of a perfect confidence ill the gift bestowed upon him, the placid face masking all semblance of a straining brain-rack.

(JiiK-kly tlic score mount- up. hazard mli.nvitifr hazard iu brilliant succession; a sparkling display indeed! Tin- balls move as if „n strings, (he willing niari.iincdcs of sonic niuslcr bruin. (In and on the player goes: up and up tin., swire leaps, an excited linsl following the play with breathless uniaz.enie.ni. One feels as if he were led into another world, a world where all things went right, where one's slightest, wish was grafilieil to the full, and where nulhing went wrong. The Art was not of this lowly sphere, but of .some Klysian place. . . And still |he. boy played on. •'Three hundred,"' " Kotir hundred," it was all the same. -Ten," "twenlv." "thirty," and still the losing■ hazard. pot and cannon enthralled the watchers. The bov alone appeared eool and eolleeled amidst a. ri<ing storm of excitement which | found vent in occasional s M ualls i>f hearty applause. . , . "Seventy." " cighly," ' •'ninety." and .still the youthful 'ligurc in (lie Hare of light played on with unerring skill, stimulating tile crowd to (he highest pitch of enthusiasm. The atmosphere seemed The cellos were scrcamim; a maddening tarantella. . . . '-(iaiiie!"

And the I bunder 01 applause .shook (he building, everybody shouted at everybody else, and electricity was conducted to safety, the cellos broke asunder and the excilemeiii vanished as rapidly a- it hail conic. The hoy had won!