Billiards is to be congratulated, and the "Billiard Times" is also to be congratulated, for the game has found a new adherent, and the paper a new subscriber in the person of Mr. Algernon Ashton. In this column last month we commented on the fact that Billiards appears seldom, if at all, as a favourite recreation in "Who's Who." Mr. Ashton writes to say that he has lately taken up the game, and that in the new edition Billiards will be given as one of his pastimes. He states that a "hundred up" with his wife is played every night. The famous "corrector of the press" announced his retirement some year or two ago, but on the day we received our communication a letter was also written to the "Times" on another subject. We, at any rate, shall be pleased if this marks his return to Press correction, and hope that we may be favoured with further letters should circumstances demand. The letter is reproduced herewith.
10, Holmdale Road,
West Hampstead,
London, N.W.,
October 13th, 1911.
To the Editor of THE BILLIARD TIMES.
DEAR SIR, In the current number of your very fascinating journal you rightly express surprise that billiards, though admittedly one of the most popular games, is hardly ever mentioned among the various forms of recreation in that annual biographical dictionary, entitled "Who's Who." However, I am pleased to be able to inform you that in the coming 1912 edition of "Who's Who" it will state that "Billiards" is one of my own recreations. Curiously enough, it is only since the beginning of this year that I became interested in billiards, but am now so passionately devoted to this most delightful of games that my chief pleasure is to attend a match between two great players, which I now often do. I have a billiard table in my own home, and scarcely a day passes without my wife and I having "a hundred up." Unfortunately, I am as yet only a very poor player, but I may possibly improve a little as time goes on.
I am, dear Sir,
Yours very truly,
(Signed) ALGERNON ASHTON.
It is remarkable how, during the last few years Billiards has risen in public estimation. It is only a few years ago that the game was looked at askance by what was then termed" the respectable class. The principal reproach was its association with the "public-house," but the broader mind of the twentieth century has now accepted it as a pastime in which the most punctilious can engage, and recognises that it is a perfectly harmless game, with no objectionable feature. How difficult it is to-day to put one's self into the position of the squeamish person of 20 years ago, who considered Billiards to be only practised by scapegoats and rogues, and shunned by all respectable citizens. The revulsion of feeling has been due to a number of causes, but it is sufficient for us to know that it is complete.
The establishment of Temperance Billiard Halls has probably had a great deal to do with it. A number of these saloons have been opened in the London suburbs, and are largely patronised. This is all for the good of the-game, as it brings a healthy recreation to those who would not seek it elsewhere. But of course a game played at a public-house can be, and mostly is, as harmless as any other.
No doubt many remarkable billiard tables have been built, but one of the most extraordinary was one with a solid bed built for the owner of a London mansion. There were no legs, the table being built on a solid base of concrete, faced with marble, recessed to give room for the feet of the players, and also to permit the fixing of runners from the pockets which were used on this particular table. In general, architects are bestowing considerable attention to the decoration and fitting of billiard rooms, and to the design of tables to harmonise therewith. It is probably due to their efforts in this direction that oak and other fine woods are now commonly employed in the manufacture of billiard tables, and that the old bulbous legs which were so general have given place to supports of more artistic design, in many cases based on features taken from the historic styles in furniture. It is said that the modern man spends more on his billiard room and his bath room than on any other apartments in his house, and the introduction of art in the billiard room is therefore both necessary and desirable.
The old billiard room had little to boast of beyond solidity, the modern one can claim to be graceful in addition. One of the first examples in the artistic designing of billiard tables was the one specially made for the late Mr. Mellin., of infants' food fame, which is said to have cost £900, and was a very handsome specimen of artistic work.