Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 157, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 July 1918 — Origin of Billiards in Doubt. [ARTICLE]

Origin of Billiards in Doubt.

Billiards is believed by some to have been brought from the east by the Crusaders, while others claim an English origin for it and find it allied to the game of bowls. Still othersassert that the French developed it from an ancient German game. It seems pretty certain that the first person to give form and rule to the game was an artist named Henrique Devigne, who lived in the reign of Charles IX. One writer sees in bih Hards the ancient game of paillemaille played on a table instead of on the ground, and this is indeed a very reasonable assumption.