BILLIARDS, the generic name of a group of games; is played in the United States usually on a 5x10 table, fitted on each side and at the ends with rubber acting as cushions. Ivory balls driven by a wooden cue and varying in size from 2 5-16' inches to 2 7-16 inches are generally used. The bed of the table is slate, from 1% to ig of an inch in thickness, and covered, as is also the rubber, with green cloth. The body of the table and legs, and the rails, are made from various designs of wood.
The origin of the game of billiards is shrouded in mystery, but is known to have been played in a crude way since before the birth of Oinst. It is mentioned in Shakespeare's (Antony and Cleopatra' (1607), and it is now generally agreed that the immortal bard, in his researches for facts, had read of billiards before the birth of our Saviour. Cathire More, a sub-king of Ire land, as early as 148 A.D., speaks of billiards and billiard balls of brass. In the 'Confessions' of Saint Augustine (b. 430 A.D.) mention is made of the game of billiards. From this time imtil the end of the 14th century very little is lcnown of the game. It is mentioned in Spencer's 'Mother Hubbard Tales) (1591). About this time the French made it an indoor table-game by playing it on a square table with pockets at each corner, and one in the centre of each side, a little cone in the centre of the table called the *king* and an arch of ivory, known as the *port.* Certain scores depended on pass ing the *port° and touching the *king.* As early as 1734, as stated in Seymour's 'Court Gamester) these features of the game had dis appeared, and cues had begith to replace the ((mast* or gmacex• first used. Billiards came into fashion in the time of Louis XIV, whose physicians recommended him this kind di ex-ex cise after eating.. Some profess to believe thp game of English origin as the earliest and full est description of billiards 'is found in Cotton's 'Complete Gamester' (1674). The bed of the table was then made of oalc, sometimes marble. Slate beds were first used about 1827. The pocicets of the tables at that time, called *haz ards,* were at first made of wooden boxes, nets being employed soon afterward.
The billiard table is said to have found its way into America through the Spaniards about 1570. At this time it was played in England, France, Germany and other countries, but the size of the table and style of the game differed.
The English style of table and game was first adopted by the Americans. Six by twelve, six pocket tables and four balls (two reds and two whites) were used. Soon the tables were re duced in size from 6x12 to 9/2x11, then to about 5 feet wide by 10 feet long. Tables vary in mea.surements. All match and tournament games are now played on 5x10 tables, and are very popuLar in all leading public rooms and clubs throughout the United States, while the so called 454x9 tables are almost exclusively used in private residences and in small cities and towns.
It is only in the last 50 years that billiard tables and their paraphernalia, and billiard play ing itself, have made giant strides. Until the year 1855, when Michael Phelan, the father of billiards, first introduced the celebrated com bination cushions, made of rubber chiefly, the tools were necessarily crude and imperfect, and greatly retarded the progress of the players up to that period. Then was played the four-ball game on a 6x12, six-pocket table. Two red balls and two white balls were used. In the 'sixties the tables were reduced in size to 5Y2x11, but so fast did the professionals and amateurs im prove their games under the improved condi tion of the table and tools, and in order to avoid the seeming monotony of long runs, it was found necessary to again reduce the size of the table, from pockets to carrom, to about 5 feet wide and 10 feet long, and change the style of game from four-ball to three-ball game. This was done early in the 'seventies. Experts soon be came so proficient at this style of game as to render it necessary to place restrictions on the bed of the table by drawing lines first 8 inches, then 10, 12, 14, and finally 18 inches from the edge of the cushions the entire length and width of the table— called balk-line game. This method of restricting the professionals and lead ing amateurs in no wise does away with the beauties of the game, at the Masse, draw, fol low, and combination cushion shots are left in tact. The superb play of the piofessionals in this country and in France, where the same style of game is played, is due in a great measure to the improved construction of the beveled table, slabs, match rubber cushions, and to the ivory balls, cue, cue tips and chalk.