Why play Billiards 1912

Tom In Cincy

Tom In Cincy

AKA SactownTom
Silver Member
The classic book, MODERN BILLIARDS, states that it is a
"SCIENTIFIC AMUSEMENT". The first two paragraphs of the
INTRODUCTORY in the 1912 copyright by THE
BRUNSWICK-BALKE-COLLENDER CO. expresses it very
eloquently:

"APART from its inviting to moderate and wholesome exercise,
billiards, as popularly played, is pre-eminently a mental
pastime. Nearly all its exponents of approved skill, whatever
were the drawbacks of their youth, are intellectually quick and
bright. This is due in some measure to the ready mathematical
requirements of the play as a routine, but in a much greater
degree to its taxing the eye, stimulating the fancy, and
disciplining the mind by imposing watchfulness, invention, and
analysis. Slowness is costly, and hence, as an early habit, an
eager alertness of vision, alacrity of step, and promptitude of
decision."

"Regarding billiards as a spectacle, its physical requisites to
perfection are keen sight, level head and steady hand; but they
are by no means essential to enjoyment of it as a leisure-hour
diversion en amateur. In this sense, its charm lies altogether in
participation, which is all the more agreeable and healthful
because never needing to be exhausting."
 
one thing is clear, people back then were more educated now, can you imagine using that language in marketing? nobody would read it or understand it. way to complex for our current society.

cool post thanks
 
It's the audience

I suspect this piece was written and targeted specifically to an educated audience profile. It was probably presented in newspapers and magazines subscribed to by the educated class.

I like the inclusion of a bit of French into the content. In those days, an educated individual was required to know French as well as Norman English.
 
allanpsand said:
I suspect this piece was written and targeted specifically to an educated audience profile. It was probably presented in newspapers and magazines subscribed to by the educated class.

I like the inclusion of a bit of French into the content. In those days, an educated individual was required to know French as well as Norman English.
Click to expand...

I would tend to agree intuitively. However, something called the "Flynn effect"- discovered by a scientist named James Flynn has shown that IQ scores have actually substantially increased since 1930
 
My Dad was born in 1912. I think I may be a throw back.

As I will be 60 years old this year I think, as I really almost always have thought, that older things & ways were & are better.

Modern Technology is certainly good but there is a price to be paid one way or another.

Based on that description, I think I would rather play the game being described then than the one I'm playing now. It just sounds so nice....
& even respectable.
 
Funny how Brunswick spent so much time and energy to wag the dog back then. Makes you wonder why they aren't doing the same now.
 
All those polls where people ask "is pool a SPORT or a GAME?", they forgot to put in option C:
"SCIENTIFIC AMUSEMENT".

I like that they try to sell it as "healthful" because it's non-exhausting haha...
after a month in the pool hall you will certainly be better off health-wise than if you had wasted your time
with a perilous activity that makes you sick, like tennis.
 
The early 1900s was a huge boom in self-improvement. You didn't sell a product by saying it was "Fun." You sold it by showing how the product would improve you as a person.

Vocabulary was the biggest of the big self-improvement ideas, hence the ad's somewhat flowery language.
 
Slow play

Even 100 years ago slow play was so frowned upon that they warned of its detriment to your game and had to create a new word to combat it, "promptitude". LOL
 
I got the assisted living community where I worked until I retired to put in a pool table for the residents. You should have seen those residents that played it almost every day. They all were mentally better and it put a pep in their step their health got better just about in every case. Johnnyt
 
Johnnyt said:
I got the assisted living community where I worked until I retired to put in a pool table for the residents. You should have seen those residents that played it almost every day. They all were mentally better and it put a pep in their step their health got better just about in every case. Johnnyt
Click to expand...


i know when i play everyday i'm happier overall, seriously. even if its a short session,
 
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