Samuel Clemens, the most famous poolplayer to ever live.

1on1pooltournys said:
Ever since I first read, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Samuel Clemens has fascinated me. Not only did he master writing in the later years of his life but too his new found love for the game of pocket billiards.[...].
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Fargo Billiards has three private rooms:

The Mosconi Room

The Fisher Room

and the Twain Room
 
woody_968 said:
Great post 1on1, I never knew he had such a passion for the game.

As to this picture, there was a thread a while back asking whats wrong with it, but I never saw the answer. Anyone know what it was?
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Can't really tell for sure from the picture, but if that is a set of billiard balls they don't really belong on a pool table.



Found some interesting quotes from Twain:

The game of billiards has destroyed my naturally sweet disposition.
- Speech, April 24, 1906



Twain and Louise Paine.


The billiard table, as a Sabbath-breaker can beat any coal-breaker in Pennsylvania and give it 30 in the game.
- Letter to Emilie Rogers, November 1906.


I wonder why a man should prefer a good billiard-table to a poor one; and why he should prefer straight cues to crooked ones; and why he should prefer round balls to chipped ones; and why he should prefer a level table to one that slants; and why he should prefer responsive cushions to the dull and unresponsive kind. I wonder at these things, because when we examine the matter we find that the essentials involved in billiards are as competently and exhaustively furnished by a bad billiard outfit as they are by the best one. One of the essentials is amusement. Very well, if there is any more amusement to be gotten out of the one outfit than out of the other, the facts are in favor of the bad outfit. The bad outfit will always furnish thirty per cent. more fun for the players and for the spectators than will the good outfit. Another essential of the game is that the outfit shall give the players full opportunity to exercise their best skill, and display it in a way to compel the admiration of the spectators. Very well, the bad outfit is nothing behind the good one in this regard. It is a difficult matter to estimate correctly the eccentricities of chipped balls and a slanting table, and make the right allowance for them and secure a count; the finest kind of skill is required to accomplish the satisfactory result. Another essential of the game is that it shall add to the interest of the game by furnishing opportunities to bet. Very well, in this regard no good outfit can claim any advantage over a bad one. I know, by experience, that a bad outfit is as valuable as the best one; that an outfit that couldn`t be sold at auction for seven dollars is just as valuable for all the essentials of the game as an outfit that is worth a thousand. ... Last winter, here in New York, I saw Hoppe and Schaefer and Sutton and the three or four other billiard champions of world-wide fame contend against each other, and certainly the art and science displayed were a wonder to see; yet I saw nothing there in the way of science and art that was more wonderful than shots which I had seen Texas Tom make on the wavy surface of that poor old wreck in the perishing saloon at Jackass Gulch forty years before.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography, Chapters from the North American Review, November 1907
 
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Look real close at that picture. I think I see a book on the self from Dr. Dave....amazing.

SPF=randyg
 
doitforthegame said:
Do you know what level he reached? Once upon a time I heard that he could run 100 balls. That would have been quite the accomplishment considering when he started playing and the age he must have been.

Bob
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Doubt it. Mark Twain died in 1910 and 14.1 continuous was not invented until 1911.
 
I posted this a while ago in another thread:

Redding, Connecticut,
Oct. 2, '08.
Dear Mrs. Patterson, -- The contents of your letter are very pleasant and very welcome, and I thank you for them, sincerely. If I can find a photograph of my "Tammany" and her kittens, I will enclose it in this. One of them likes to be crammed into a corner-pocket of the billiard table -- which he fits as snugly as does a finger in a glove and then he watches the game (and obstructs it) by the hour, and spoils many a shot by putting out his paw and changing the direction of a passing ball. Whenever a ball is in his arms, or so close to him that it cannot be played upon without risk of hurting him, the player is privileged to remove it to anyone of the 3 spots that chances to be vacant.

Ah, no, my lecturing days are over for good and all.

Sincerely yours,
S. L. Clemens
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He might be one of the funniest American Writers of all time. If I had the opportunity to have lunch with anyone in history, he'd be near the top of my list.
 
That is what is wrong with that picture -- there is a cat in the corner pocket !

I had a dog named Sam and few people knew why !
 
"Spitball" Charlie Darling does a great show impersonating Mark Twain:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2612628

It was recorded by BigTruck at Dr Cue's Artistic Cup III a few weeks ago. Starts aroung the 54 minute mark. You'll see why they call him "Spitball" at the end of the show.
 
I don't see a cat...but the doors look to be pocket doors (slide into position, not swing), the left door doesn't have an obvious knob, there's an odd artifact (lint on photo?) over his left thumb, and the slate is shifted to his left.
 
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Howdy all, been awhile since I've been on here.
When I went to Boot Camp in the late 60's they were still teaching the "Heaving of the Lead".
It had a hollowed out bottom with tallow (wax), stuffed in there.
The leadsman would stand at the rail an swing the lead so it would land well ahead of him. When it hit bottom and the line was straieght up, he would call out the marking. when he hauled it up he could look at the tallow to see what was on the bottom at that point.
checkout the website;

http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/HeavingtheLeadandMarkings.html

Always nice learnin sumtin new
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
I posted this a while ago in another thread:




He might be one of the funniest American Writers of all time. If I had the opportunity to have lunch with anyone in history, he'd be near the top of my list.
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This is an awesome artifact. Thanks for posting it!! I talked to a guy that has written about Twain a few days ago. He is going to send me all kinds of interesting stuff and knows that I'm mostly interested in his billiard accounts. I'll keep you guys informed if anything knew turns up.
 
Louise Paine, the daughter of his official biographer, and Mark Twain at his home.
 

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The following passage is from Mark Twain's Autobiography, Chapters from the North American Review, November 1907

"I wonder why a man should prefer a good billiard-table to a poor one; and why he should prefer straight cues to crooked ones; and why he should prefer round balls to chipped ones; and why he should prefer a level table to one that slants; and why he should prefer responsive cushions to the dull and unresponsive kind.

I wonder at these things, because when we examine the matter we find that the essentials involved in billiards are as competently and exhaustively furnished by a bad billiard outfit as they are by the best one. One of the essentials is amusement.

Very well, if there is any more amusement to be gotten out of the one outfit than out of the other, the facts are in favor of the bad outfit. The bad outfit will always furnish thirty per cent. more fun for the players and for the spectators than will the good outfit.

Another essential of the game is that the outfit shall give the players full opportunity to exercise their best skill, and display it in a way to compel the admiration of the spectators. Very well, the bad outfit is nothing behind the good one in this regard.

It is a difficult matter to estimate correctly the eccentricities of chipped balls and a slanting table, and make the right allowance for them and secure a count; the finest kind of skill is required to accomplish the satisfactory result. Another essential of the game is that it shall add to the interest of the game by furnishing opportunities to bet. Very well, in this regard no good outfit can claim any advantage over a bad one.

I know, by experience, that a bad outfit is as valuable as the best one; that an outfit that couldn`t be sold at auction for seven dollars is just as valuable for all the essentials of the game as an outfit that is worth a thousand. ...

Last winter, here in New York, I saw Hoppe and Schaefer and Sutton and the three or four other billiard champions of world-wide fame contend against each other, and certainly the art and science displayed were a wonder to see; yet I saw nothing there in the way of science and art that was more wonderful than shots which I had seen Texas Tom make on the wavy surface of that poor old wreck in the perishing saloon at Jackass Gulch forty years before."
 
The game of billiards has destroyed my naturally sweet disposition. Once, when I was an underpaid reporter in Virginia City, whenever I wished to play billiards I went out to look for an easy mark. One day a stranger came to town and opened a billiard parlor. I looked him over casually. When he proposed a game, I answered, "All right."

"Just knock the balls around a little so that I can get your gait," he said; and when I had done so, he remarked: "I will be perfectly fair with you. I'll play you left-handed." I felt hurt, for he was cross-eyed, freckled, and had red hair, and I determined to teach him a lesson. He won first shot, ran out, took my half-dollar, and all I got was the opportunity to chalk my cue.

"If you can play like that with your left hand," I said, "I'd like to see you play with your right."

"I can’t," he said. "I’m left-handed."

-Mark Twain "Billiards" speech, 1906
 
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