ATTITUDE. The position in which the player stands while at the
billiard-table, when about to strike the ball. The acquisition of a good
attitude is a matter of first importance to the new beginner. It is
almost impossible to lay down fixed rules in this particular, as the
peculiarities of height and figure would render the rules that would be
excellent in one case, totally inapplicable in the other. Perfect ease
is the grand _desideratum_; and this is to be acquired by practice, and
a close observation of the best players.
BANK. When the player makes his own ball hit any of the cushions before
striking the object-ball.
BILLIARD-SHARP. A class of character not tolerated in respectable
saloons. As a general thing, the billiard-sharp is a retired marker, who
fancies it is no longer respectable to work for an honest living, but
that he is smart enough, and has learned tricks enough at his former
business, to enable him to win as much money as he wants from the less
experienced amateurs of the game, who figure in his vocabulary as "the
flats." He generally frequents those establishments where one or two
billiard-tables are made the stall behind which some dishonest
occupation is carried on; and here he is at home, and in his glory. He
makes himself particularly friendly with any one who will ask him to
"take a drink," and in his assumed duties he fills the offices of
lounger, runner, talker, player, sponge, shoulder-hitter, and referee.
He is also a runner, and sort of travelling blower to second-rate
manufacturers of billiard-tables. These men supply him with clothes, to
enable him to mingle in respectable society, and allow him an enormous
per centage for every billiard-table sold to a stranger through his
agency. In addition to this, it is his business to pull down the
reputation of such manufacturers as despise and scorn the means by which
he earns his dishonest livelihood. As soon as he has made "a hit" in one
saloon, he is off to another, and in this way goes the rounds of the
city until all the places which harbor him, are, in his own phrase,
"played out."
Such a man is to be avoided as one of the worst species of sharpers. He
has a thousand pretenses under which to borrow money, and will act as if
quite offended if refused. The stranger should avoid all such men, and
especially any one with whom he is not well acquainted, who should ask
him to play for any given sum, "just to give an interest to the game."
BOWERY SHOT. When the balls played with and at, are jarred together--a
pushing shot.
BREAK. The position the balls are left in after the shot.
BURST. A term chiefly used at pin-pool, when a player has exceeded the
number which is placed as the common limit to the game, and must,
therefore, either retire from the game, or take a privilege of another
life.
CAROM. (French, _Carombolage_.) To hit more than one of the balls on the
table with your own. In England this word has been corrupted to
"cannon."
COUNT. Is the reckoning of the game. Making a count, is to make a stroke
which will add some figures to the player's reckoning.
DISCOUNT. When one player is so much the superior of another, that he
allows all the counts made by his opponent to be deducted from his own
reckoning, he is said to "discount" his adversary's gains. In "double"
and "treble discounts," twice and thrice the amount of his opponent's
gains are deducted from the player's score. In no other game but
billiards are such immense odds possible. A man of close observation,
temperate habits, steady nerves, and large experience, may give almost
any odds to an inferior player, and still have a fair chance of success.
DOUBLET or CROSS. When the ball to be pocketed is first made to rebound
from the opposite cushion.
FOLLOW. When a player's ball rolls on after another ball which it has
impelled forward.
FORCE. When the player's ball retrogrades after coming in contact with
another.
FOUL STROKE or SHOT. Any stroke made in violation of the known rules of
the game.
FULL BALL, QUARTER BALL, HALF BALL, FINE or CUT BALL, OWN or CUE BALL,
and OBJECT BALL. The "object ball" is the ball aimed at; the "own or cue
ball" is the ball directed toward the "object ball;" the other terms
relate to the position in which the object ball is struck.