Being exclusively devoted to cannons, the American and Continental game has not the same variety possessed by ours. Moreover, they use considerably larger balls, and in consequence much heavier cues, than we do. Anything over a 15oz or 15½ oz. cue we consider too heavy a stick, but our cousins across the water will handle nothing less than a 19oz. or 20oz. implement. On a small pocketless table, and with balls not less than a 2½ in. diameter, the American game became so easy, and therefore more than a trifle monotonous, that nothing but the introduction of baulk-lines drawn all round the table saved the game there from dying a natural death so far as skill was concerned.
Now a player is only allowed to make two or three cannons when all three balls are between the cushion and the baulk line, in consequence of which a run of, say, fifty cannons is considered a wonderful feat—a run of 100 a marvellous achievement. Still, the American game is, after all, a one stroke affair, even if this stroke is played in a great variety of ways, and lacks the many beauties which the pockets on the English table permit of our introducing into our game at home.—Daily Telegraph.
There is an excellent game for the billiard table played with fifteen pyramid balls and one cue ball. The game is: Can you make 50 cannons whilst your opponent pots the red balls or vice-versa?