Excerpt from Scientific Billiards: Garnier's Practice Shots, With Hints to Amateurs
The American game, as it was played a quarter of a century ago, seemed, at the time, to be scarcely susceptible of much improvement in its general principles. Old players can well remember the six-by - twelve tables with six pockets and four balls, the running the spot-ball, the combination-shots of pockets and carroms, etc., when a run of a hundred points was considered marvelous. As professional players became more skillful, the game was made more and more difficult. First, running the spot was barred; then the tables were made with but four pockets; then tables were made without pockets and the push-shot was barred; experts soon became able to make Immense runs in a corner of the table, and nursing the balls in the corner was restricted; later the standard table was reduced in size to five by ten feet, and three balls were used instead of four; the so-called rail-play then came into vogue, and players began to make runs of hundreds; and finally, in the last grand tournament held in this city, playing on the rail was restricted. Amateurs, how ever, seldom possess the dexterity and nerve to make long runs on the rail; and the rules adopted by a committee of experts in 187 3, which are given 111 an Appen dix, are sufficiently rigid for ordinary players.
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