Why Should Billiards Wait for Official Recognition?
(Special to The Billiard Monthly.)
The most pressing need of the people to-day is to learn how to enjoy themselves; and if the Glasgow Municipality has not yet taken on its shoulders this part of the public education—and municipalized the amusements of the people! —it has taken a step in that direction. It has placed every possible facility for sport and enjoyment in the hands or at the feet of, the rate payers by providing practically free concerts, organ recitals, art galleries, museums, golf courses, bowling greens, football grounds, cricket pitches, boating ponds, and what not. These for the citizens. For the employees of certain departments of the Corporation additional means of recreation are provided.
One does not know what guiding principle, if any, the City Fathers in their wisdom have adopted to beguile the cares of their employees and furnish a means of escape from the worries of work; but it is significant that for those two departments of the city's many activities in which the strain on the public servants is most severe, billiards has been selected as the safety-valve.
The firemen and Tramwaymen of Glasgow are fortunate in having as chiefs of their departments men who take a human interest in their mental welfare who, while not prone to wasting time searching for short cuts to reform, are always willing to apply any practical method that comes before them whereby the work under their supervision may be made more pleasant for every one concerned. And it must be equally gratifying to the chiefs of these departments to find their latest efforts on behalf of the staffs so warmly appreciated. For there is no doubt whatever that the introduction of billiard tables, under official approval, to the various tramway depots has gone a long way towards producing among the men the merry heart that goes all the day. The development of social relationship on these lines should be encouraged in our public and civic services, for it contributes more than anything else to the general good feeling.
It is about thirteen years since the first billiard table was put into the Central Fire Station for the use of the firemen, and now that Greater Glasgow has at last become an accomplished fact, all the branch or sub-stations in the city are to be supplied with tables. There is an atmosphere of adventure and romance in a game that is liable to be interrupted by the alarm bell at any moment; and one wonders what progress our leading professionals would have made in their career if they had been often called upon to drop their cue, jump into a helmet, and slide down a brass pole on to the moving engine—from Billiards to Blazes in one movement, so to speak. The amateur has all the fun and the excitement.
Billiards in the tramway depots is a new development in Glasgow. About two years ago the first table was put in for the use of the men in Dennistoun depot, and proved sufficiently successful an experiment to warrant further trials in other parts of the city. Now nearly all of the depots are fitted with a billiard room — Dennistoun, Langside, Possilpark, Maryhill, Newlands, Particle and Dalmarnock — a n d rivalry is very keen. An annual tournament was inaugurated last s e a s o n for a trophy shield presented by Burroughes & Watts, and this was won by the Langside team. Full particulars of the event were published in The Billiard Monthly at the time. The Langside men take a particular pride in their Billiard League, and, while keeping the charges for play at a nominal figure, have managed to make a considerable sum of money out of their tables, which sum has been used to increase the sick benefits in connection with a mutual aid society they run. The photograph reproduced in this number shows the billiard room at the Langside tramway depot, which is a fair specimen of the style of room the Corporation has fitted up for the use of the tramwaymen.
The rooms are built and supplied free to the men, who put in their own tables and manage their own clubs under the supervision of the chief official; and it is safe to say that without exception all the depots have found that the billiard clubs are profitable as well as pleasant and healthy undertakings.