myself, was a ball player before he ever became
known as a knight of the cue, and whose early death was so greatly
regretted by every lover of the game, both at home and abroad; Jacob
Schaefer, "the Wizard of the Cue," who, as a ball-to-ball player, ranks
at the head of the profession and who plays any and every game that can
be played upon a billiard table with a skill that is akin to genius;
George F. Slosson, the "Student," whose persistent application and
studious habits have combined to make him one of the greatest prayers of
his day and generation; Eugene Carter, "You-know-me," whose stalwart
form and ready tongue are as well known in the majority of the European
capitals as in the larger cities of our country; Thomas J. Gallagher,
"Gray Tom," who is a hard man for any of the second-class experts to
tackle; Edward McLaughlin, the little gentleman who first came into
prominence at Philadelphia; Frank Maggioli, who has grown gray in the
service of billiards, but who still retains his title of Champion of the
South; Billy Catton, "the Rock Island Wonder," George Sutton, and many
others, with the most of whom I have crossed cues either for money or in
a friendly way at some time or other.

The first expert of any note that I ever met over a billiard table was
Eugene Kimball, of Rochester, N. Y., who, in 1871, was a member of the
Forest City Club of Cleveland, Ohio, and who at that time enjoyed a wide
reputation as a billiardist as well as a ball player. Kimball, it had
been generally conceded, played a strong game of billiards for those
days, and on one occasion when the Cleveland Club visited Rockford he
and I engaged in a game that attracted considerable attention both on
the part of the members of the two teams and of other outside friends
and admirers. There were no stakes up if I remember rightly, and I am
not just certain as to how the game resulted, though, unless I am very
much mistaken, it was in Kimball's favor, but not by such a large margin
of points as to make me ashamed of myself.

It was while a member of the Athletic Club of Philadelphia that I made
my debut as a billiardist in public. I played the game a great deal in
those days and had acquired quite a reputation for skill in handling the
cue among my fellow ball-players, nearly all of whom could play the game
after some fashion, there being seemingly quite an affinity between
base-ball and billiards. James Lentz of Trenton, N. J., at that time
enj