Excerpt from Amateur Billiard Championship of America (Class A): Souvenir of the First Tournament Given Under the Auspices of the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States; Held in the Knickerbocker Athletic Club of New York, February 13th, 1899 A History of Amateur billiards must of necessity be merely a sketch to bring it within the scope of a few pages of this Souvenir. The writer would therefore first apologize for any omissions or inaccuracies of statement that may be detected by the reader; because much that is given here is purely from personal recollection of facts that cannot now be easily verified. The first game of billiards that the writer ever played was upon a table six feet wide and twelve feet long, with six pockets, four balls, and a fast cushion. This was the customary outfit up to 1865; although soon after that date the size of the table was reduced to five and one-half by eleven feet and later to five by ten feet (the size used to-day in matches). The pockets were however retained for some time. Carom tables were introduced later. The carom shots were counted in those days, as well as the balls pocketed, according to the color of the balls. A carom on the two red balls counted three; one on a red and white ball counted two; a red ball in pocket counted three; and a white in pocket two. The usual game for amateurs was 34 points, and any one who could "run the game out" was a very skillful player. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.