alstl said:
William Hendricks' History of Billiards
by Hendricks, William ...
From a post I made to rec.sport.billiard almost exactly 10 years ago....
If you're squeamish, skip this.
The following post has several purposes:
To satisfy Daniel's blood lust. The following will have to suffice
until Steven Spielberg does "Rambo Meets Mackey."
To alert you to one of the best-researched surveys of cue sports
history, namely "William Hendricks' History of Billiards,"
subtitled "A Compleat Historie of Billiards Evolution With Numerous
Illustrations," published by the author in 1974.
To give European, Asian and other "foreign" RSB readers some
insight to the American approach to the sport.
To demonstrate that the US has, in fact, made great progress in
cleaning up the game, contrary to other views expressed here.
The following is from page 14 of Hendricks' "History" in the section
titled "The Eighteenth Century: Billiards for Everyman."
[billiards still expensive ...] Even when the affluent did not wish
to mingle, the less-wealthy colonists could be obstreperously
democratic when it came to billiards. A horrified British officer
describes a 1780 dispute at colonial billiards between a gentleman
and "a low fellow" at a public table.
I shall relate the way the accident happened, to shew the
ferociousness of the lower class in this country; this gentleman
was at play in the billiard-room, where there were a number of
gentlemen and several of our officers: a low fellow, who
pretends to gentility came in, and in the course of play, some
words arose, in which he first wantonly abused [the gentleman]
and afterward ... flew at him, and in an instant turned his eye
out of the socket, and while it hung upon his cheek, the fellow
was barbarous enough to endeavor to pluck it entirely out, but
was prevented.(*)
(*) From Jane Carson's "Colonial Virginians at Play," University
Press of Virginia, 1964, p. 85.
I understand that this sort of thing never happens at the U.S. Open
in Virginia Beach, even when Earl is present.
Bob Jewett
