Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1895 — Romance of the Billiard Ball. [ARTICLE]

Romance of the Billiard Ball.

Interesting as is the natural history of the billiard ball, its romance is no less attractive. A product of the most intelligent of animals, grown in the wilds of a tropical forest, taken by the wily devices of savage men, transported many hundreds of miles on the shoulders of hapless slaves, the object for which battle and murder are done, carried round the globe by sail and steam, manufactured into proper shape by the labor of skilled mechanics, the means by which professional players gain their livelihood, by which amateurs pass a social hour in the billiard hall, on the private table, often at some period of its career in the pawn shop, finally, when its usefulness as a billiard ball is ended, to be cut up into toys, there are few articles of ordinary use, even in the midst of our extraordinary civilization, that can show a more varied history.