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. 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.