Billiards

Practically billiards, properly so called, is a modern game. India-rubber cushions have not been fifty years in use, and at the commencement of the present century leather cue- tips and slate beds were alike unknown. Modern billiards is a scientific game, but before the introduction of slate beds, ivory balls, and cue-tips, there can have been but little science in it. As the present treatise on billiards is intended to be a practical one, we shall consider the history of billiards to commence with these inventions; and if we compare the play recently exhibited with any play recorded more than fifty years ago, we shall the better realise with what giant strides the game has recently advanced .