IN A BILLIARD ROOM.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 26, 31 January 1907, Page 7

IN A BILLIARD ROOM.

THE OLD STYLE AND THE NEW. CHARACTERS, SCENES, AND OPINIONS. To some people, billiard rooms of necessity represent baseness and turpitude, and to suggest to them that such places can be reputably conducted and made unobjectionable as to surroundings is to assert the impossible. Just as they regard cards as "the devil's book," they look upon the billiard table as his hunting ground. Equally there are those who contend that billiards can be made as innocuous game as duck-stone, and that Hho fact of some few men gambling on tho game is no sufficient reason for tabooing it. That nine hundred players in nine hundred and one find their principal pleasure in tho game per sc. A great deal of tho objection to billards aroso because tho tables were invariably kept in hotels, but nowadays the billiard room is often quite apart from the public houses, and of distinct proprietary. In late years billiards in public has become more of a young men's game; in fact, the middle-aged player of the game is nowadays looked upon just as a bald-headed footballer is — quite entitled to play the garni;, but something of an odd it}. It is not the case t*iat tho patrons of any one billiard rooM are typical of all olhors. Like flies towards liko in the modern billiard room just as in any other sphere, and the personal predilections of the proprietor are largely reflected in his patrons. An objection to the average public billiard room is that it is often owned by bookmakers, and used to decoy men to betting; but while this view is justified by fact in some cases, there are notable exceptions. The real bookmaker den is unmistakable to the practised eye; in it congregate groups of tho "never-spin" fraternity by day and night; men with hawk-featured, gimlet-oyed aspect, dorived from sharp practices, who would sooner gain sixpence by trickery than a pound by hard work. But these are jr type apart, and the person in quest of a quiet and reputable room in which to play fif fcy-up or a game of snooker may without difficulty find one in Wellington either in club, publichouse, or separate establishment. Just. now tho writer has in mind a room in the heart of the city, wherein he has spent many occasional hours studying men and playing the game by turns. Here five tables are kept going with billiards, snooker, and pm-pool-f the latter an innocent form of gambling in which nineteen out of every twenty players recognise that they sue subscribing" their sixpences for the benefit of "Johnny Eightlegs" (the table). "Mugs' pool" is the expressive name given to this game, and a man may play at it for an hour or two w*vhout losing more than a few shillings. Occasionally player whose ill luck prevents him winning a single pool will loudly proclaim his belief that .any one vho plays this game "ought to have his bumps felt," but he usually receives the sarcastic reply that everybody comes thero to make a fortune and not to be amused. After a course of many years' acquaintance mith billiard players, the writer hs come to the conclusion that the average player has no wido erudition, but thnt ps a rule he is possessed of a philosophical mind greater than that of the non-player aiid a fund of quaint •phrase 3 and objurgations that are intensely amusing to unaccustomed ears. The proprietor of the room in reference is an illustration of the point just made. Probably a Cockney of' many generations descent), he has all the lovity and cutenesa of his d»&?, and more than tho customary allowance of their rough and ready humour. If businass J3 slack he will talk two onlookers into playing a game whether t they wish to or not; but when all five tables are going, and the money is I piling up automatically, his spirits be- ; come mercurial, and he walks about the room reciting odd verses, or does a few steps of a breakdown at convenient corners. He sells no cigarettes, but at such times ho pretends that he does. "Come, on; who says cigarettes V he cries, "Camoes, Romeos, Old " Judgeos, Threeapennyos, Anythingyoulikoos ; ' In summer time he considers his patrons' comfort, and supplies them with cool drinks gratis. This scribe, unaware of tho custom, asked the price when invited to drirtk. "Priceless, sir, and rare as tavern credit" was the reply. It was a tasty drink, with a flavour of lemon, and chiefly as t a courtesy the question was asked what was in it. Immediately the proprietor struck a stage attitude and- exclaimed, "Little bits of this ; little bits of that ; little bits of lean; little bits of fat; and lumps of nothing !" Amongst tho adjuncts of the room is a piano, and at times there wandet3 into the room a derelict musician, who is reputed to have once occupied a high position in a London academy and lo possess abilities as a composer. Whatever his attainments in the way of certificates may be, there is no doubt as to his ability to play the piano. Fo) sixpence, he played from memory si me of Mendellsohn's "Songs Witho v Words," and followed them with a fine interpretation of "The Blue Danube" that made one hear the flow of the deep waters and feel his heart pulsing to the strongly marked rhythm of the piece It was an odd sight to see the aged musician dead to his surroundings and evoking the splendid chords, while from the neighbouring tables came, the rattle of the ivory balls and the ejaculations of the pleased or disappointed players, to most of whom the "Blue Danube" represented no more than tho Hutt River did, and the musician only one of many pieces of flotsam who drifted into the room at various times. And when the playing was over the musician departed with liis" monfty to a place where he had spent diver 3 other sums and many other Hours ; to a place where probably he will pass most of his remaining hours, provided the suppleness of his fingers remains with him to the end. There is grave and gay here as in other icsortsj joy and woo close and akin, even as the German proverb proclaims. But gaiety preponderates ; there is no make-believe aoout that. The habitues of thg room are chiefly young tradesmen who play their games in a spirit of comradeship, and spend their time pleasantly if not with profit. No doubt, too, the present pursuit is for many of them only a phase in their development, and when some day they come to devote their leisure and brains to the good of their fellows, instead of to the inessential problem of how best to simultaneously "hit two ones" at "mugs' pool," they may, perhaps, have a chance of achieving greater success because of the knowledge of human nature they have gained amongst the jetsam, flotsam, and trove of a billiard room.