BILLIARDS.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2602, 10 May 1877, Page 3

BILLIARDS.

This is one of the most fascinating of games. It is also one of the most scientific. Of those which are played indoors it is certainly the most healthy, as it imposes a moderate amount of physical exertion upon its votaries. Yet there are people who regard it with the greatest horror,.it being, in their eyes, associated with; every description of iniquity. In theiropinion; when a young m&n begins to handle a cue, he takes the first step towards destruction; and when lie bolts with his master's cash-box they seem to imagine that he has merely concluded his. career' in a. befitting fashion. They have plenty of cases to cite in support of their theories. Somehow or other it does appear that billiard-players as a class, are rather a loose lot. If a young man drinks, or bets, or mixes in questionable society, the chances are that he

also.plays billiards. At the same time it is but right to state that billiards do not necessarily lead to the things mentioned, although the things mentioned do seem to lead to billiards in a general way. Then many an addle-paled young man has the audacity to declare that he has been ruined through billiards; as if that statement were a partial excuse for the follies and vices of which he,has been guilty. There may be a little veracity in his allegation—probably the truth is that He has attempted to make his cue find him.the funds therewith to help pay for a\s expensive amusemements, and, in doin^^fjjH^n. a victim to' cleverer hawk's thanSroaj self—but it has the effect of casting 'discredit upon the game. So, also, has the fact that the surroundings of billiards are anything but satisfactory. A'public billiard-room is invariably a ■tifli&gi ill-ventilated place, and frequented by individuals ;of anything but a pleasant type. Stale rakes, who, having been fleeced themselves, are longing to; prey upon others, and cunning vagabouds of low orgin and low tastes find their way to it; and they rub the gilt off the more innocent beings who come in immediate contact with them. He must be a very Btrongrnatured man who can frequent a billiard-room of the worst kind and escape more or less contamination. If there is greed within him the place will bring it out, and in time he will learn to do thiDgs without hesitation which at the outset he performs with a sense of the deepest shame. He is taught by its influence to look after himself, and to care not a jot who else goes to the bad; lessons which, though very valuable from one point of view, are not likely to conduce to his permanent benefit in the highest sense. When all this can be written with truth—-when it can .be con? fidently stated' that billiards are surrounded by a mass' of vagabondage, knavery, dissipation, and other influences, which tend to men's moral deterioration, which are calculated, to place people in the greatest peril, we cannot be surprised that there are purists who hold up their hands in disgust and condemn the game altogether.

. While, however, it may be frankly admitted that the decryers of billiardß have some apparent force on their side, we are bound to strongly repudiate the theory that they are ri^ht in the main. There are not so many amusements open to the people that we can afford to throw away one which, as an amusement pure and simple, is among the best obtainable. To do so would be to give the vagabonds of the community a monopoly which they are certainly not entitled to. They have contrived to get the pastime of horse - racing pretty- much into their own hands, and have degraded a noble sport as much, perhaps, as it is,possible to degrade anything. No one is likely to dispute.them the undisturbed enjoyment of the delights derivable from pigeon, shooting. Numberless places of public resort have been handed over to them. It is time, then, that a stand should be made and that it should be shown that because the vagabonds have desecrated a certain thing by laying their tainted hands upon it, it does not necessarily follow that henceforth that thing must not be touched by persons of the better sort. There has been enough of weak denunciation. Billiards in particular are among the things which should be rescued from the clutches of rascality. There is no earthly reason why they should be surrounded by evil influences. They can be played at home as well as abroad.; they can be enjoyed in an atmosphere which does not reek with the stale

fumes of strong drinks; they can be dealt with.scientifically in places which are not tenanted by frowzy-looking and rapacious " markers " and hungry hawks. Of course, there are fools who cannot enjoy them or anything else at home, but these beings are unhappy in any place which is not morally, unclean, and are-plunged in misery when they are not plundering or being plundered, so it is not worth

while to; take much account of them

Probably they,:will go to the bad whatever is done; and all that can be hoped is that they will do so without injuring others. But those simple-minded persons who really play the game for its own sake, not in order that they may fatten them-

selves at the expense of others, like it all

the better when it is free from the vitiated

atmosphere by which it is so often accompanied. They should be considered.