Probably no game—indoor or outdoor—depends more upon the quality of the implements and accessories that are employed in its pursuit than billiards. Herbert Spencer, in describing billiards as a game in which two men knock three balls about a table with sticks, was right. Only it is necessary that the "sticks," the balls, and the table should be of the right kind, and that the men should know something of the intricate and almost limitless possibilities that the game—elementary as it may appear to a casual observer—yields to its votaries.
The stems of the best billiard cues are made from the most closely-grained wood of the taller ash tree, which, in its turn, belongs to the olive family. In the selection of the wood that is most suitable for the making of reliable cues the manufacturers who specialize in that department have to bring to bear a knowledge and an intuition that are the outcome of many years of experience. Good billiard players know how enormously a break is affected by the nature of the cue that is used in making it, and those—whether professionals or advanced amateurs—who play much would not dream of entering upon a serious contest without having available two cues made according to the best-known formulae, and as nearly as possible identical in dimensions, weight, substance, balance, and finish.
"There are cues and cues," billiard players are sometimes heard to say. We may go further and suggest that there are cues and things that, although named "cues," are not really cues at all. In public billiard rooms, so-called cues are frequently to be found which possess every vice that can be attached to the implement. Unbutted, or, worse still, unskilfully butted, they are devoid of balance, and can never be delicately or successfully utilized. Unequal in density and soft or springy towards the taper end, they assist in deflecting a hard-struck ball exactly when the utmost accuracy is required. Fashioned according to no scientific rule, but merely to a given series of weights, they may feel in the hand like anything from a bamboo cane to a broom handle.
The billiard player who desires to reap pleasure from his game and to attain to a certain degree of proficiency should hie him at the outset to a reputable firm of billiard table makers, who, if specially consulted on the subject, will take pleasure in fitting him with a cue, or pair of cues, exactly appropriate to his build, style of play, and temperament.
The right cue having once been purchased, the utmost care should be taken of it. If its owner have a billiard table of his own, no better place for the cue, when not in use, can be found, than the surface of the table itself, underneath the cover. Otherwise the best plan is to keep it suspended in a case. The one thing that should not be done with it is to leave it leaning against a wall.
Self-respecting cues resent this treatment very much, and have a way of showing their resentment which is not to their owner's advantage when he is playing.
Perhaps a word or two may be said as to the way in which, according to the consensus of opinion of all the most distinguished and successful players, the cue should be handled. The three golden rules are: (1) hold lightly; (2) swing horizontally; (3) work straightly. To which may be added the advice to bring the cue well back, and then, without a stop, to send it well forward, with an easy, flowing action. Under these conditions the cue, if properly aligned, will drive the ball in the precise direction in which it points. The reason why so many players fail to score from a given shot, or even miss the object ball, is that, in consequence of imparting a deflected motion to the cue, a different part of the ball is struck from that which is intended.